Balenciaga Is Returning to Haute Couture

Paris Fashion Week Men’s 2020 may have just ended, but that hasn’t stopped Demna Gvasalia from delivering some headlining news: Balenciaga is set to return to haute couture.

Gvasalia, who is the house’s current artistic director, shared the big news via an IG Story. The last time Balenciaga made a haute couture collection was in 1968 when the label’s founder, Cristóbal Balenciaga, closed down his atelier. Four years later he passed away. When Balenciaga was relaunched in 1986 its focus was on luxury ready-to-wear. Now with Gvasalia-helming the house since 2015, he is set to make his couture debut for the Fall 2020 season.

In an exclusive interview with Vogue, the designer spoke about the importance of couture to the house of Balenciaga, saying that, “Haute couture is the very foundation of this house, so it is my creative and visionary duty to bring couture back. For me, couture is an unexplored mode of creative freedom and a platform for innovation. It not only offers another spectrum of possibilities in dressmaking.” He continued, “it also brings the modern vision of Balenciaga back to its sources of origin.”

Demna Gvasalia’s first couture debut for Balenciaga will take place in July during Haute Couture Week, so stay tuned. In fall 2019, Gvasalia stepped down from his role as head designer at Vetements.

In related fashion news, Jean Paul Gaultier announced his retirement from fashion.