Balenciaga: Who is the creator of the controversial destroyed sneakers that cost US$1,850

Ripped, dirty, but for sale for $1,850.

The luxury brand Balenciaga released a worn version of his sneakers parisian topwhich he christened as the Full Destroyed or Completely Destroyed.

According to the company’s portal, the shoe is a limited edition and comes in black and white. The model is also engraved with the coveted company name.

The new creation, however, was critical on social networks and caused the creation of many memes.

But who is hiding behind the new shoe?

A refugee designer

They bear the signature of designer Demna Gvasalia, artistic director of Balenciaga since 2015.

Gvasalia was born in Georgia in 1981 when the country was under Soviet rule. But in 1993, when he was 12, he became a refugee, as his family left the country due to a civil war.

He then returned to Georgia to study international economics at Tbilisi State University in the country’s capital.

After graduating, she attended the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Belgium, where she obtained her master’s degree in fashion design in 2006.

She now lives with her husband, the French musician and composer Loick Gomez, and her two dogs in a town near Zurich, Switzerland. He is fluent in six languages.

The refugee experience has shaped its personality and is reflected in its collections. During the last Paris Fashion Week, held in March this year, Gvasalia paid tribute to refugees.

As the models walked, he recited a poem in Ukrainian, which he confessed It was difficult on a personal level.

The crisis in Ukraine, according to the Georgian, has revived an old trauma.

“I became a refugee forever“, he said in a statement released before the parade.

“Forever, because it’s something that stays with us. The fear, the despair, the realization that no one loves us,” he added.

From illustrious stranger to fashion star

When appointed by luxury conglomerate Kering, owner of Balenciaga and other brands such as Saint Laurent and Gucci, Gvasalia was an unknown.

His foray into the industry was as the founder of Vetements, the anarchic streetwear brand he launched with his brother Guram in 2014.

But with his subversive style and his activism, the Georgian has already established himself as a star in the select universe of famous stylists.

She also made Balenciaga the brand of fastest growing in the luxury market.

In 2019, its revenue exceeded $1 billion and it was considered one of the top three companies in The Lyst Index, a quarterly ranking of the most popular fashion brands and products.

To do this, Gvasalia surrounds itself with a loyal audience: millennials, who represent 65% of Balenciaga customers.

“I think this decade was probably the most chaotic time in fashion,” Gvasalia said of the changes in the industry in an interview with Britain’s Financial Times newspaper in 2019.

“It’s been pretty scary. But times have changed. How we communicate with our customers today is a whole different story,” he added.

Talk to a younger generation

And, at least for now, Gvasalia seems to know how to communicate with her audience.

No wonder he describes himself as “an Instagram voyeurThe designer is known for creating “eye-catching” visual content that proliferates online.

“The younger generation is very informed and very politicized. And I think it’s time for activism and people to rise up,” he told the Financial Times in the same interview.

This is what happened with their hybrid shoe, the Triple S, which combines three different shoe soles and is Balenciaga’s best seller.

According to Katy Lubin, vice president of communications at Lyst, Gvasalia is “the great master of fashion memes” and says he’s seeing “a huge uptick in pageviews for Balenciaga’s more experimental pieces as they go viral.”

Despite this, Gvasalia told the British newspaper that he doesn’t care so much about tastes, but rather listens to his “intuition”.

“At the end of the day, I try to communicate through clothes. I don’t tweet or thank God or do anything like that. I make clothes. For me, likes on Instagram are as irrelevant as to manufacture a product and then to do research.” people like?

It now remains to be seen whether Gvasalia’s intuition is sharp: will the “destroyed” sneaker be a bestseller?

If we get carried away with their latest releases, most likely yes.

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