Recession-Chic. Balenciaga Pre-Fall 2025

For Balenciaga‘s pre-fall 2025 collection, Demna isn’t only the creative director – but also the photographer. The newly-released lookbook is basically a roll of unretouched, fitting photos, taken with an iPhone. Not that Balenciaga didn’t have a budget for Juergen Teller or Mark Borthwick, but this is a signal: recession is here, and it’s hitting the fashion industry. Far-fetched destination shows also don’t feel right at this very moment.

This savvy mode appeared to be the right medium for Demna. This collection is the essence of his Balenciaga, stripped from flashy moments or big statements. The only gloss you can find is in the merch-like t-shirts depicting the brand’s ambassadors, from Isabelle Huppert to Nicole Kidman. Just brilliant and truly witty. I also loved the straightforwardness of the collaboration with Scholl: the spike-heeled sandal mule is both fashion-forward and orthopedic. The collection was primarily about Demna’s love for dystopian deconstruction: take the jersey underpants sliced open to be worn as micro-skirts and swathed mega-scarves made from cut-up coats and trenches. These looks – and the cocoon-ish, Cristobal-ish echo behind them – are very recession-chic.