When Pierpaolo Piccioli landed in Paris to begin working as Balenciaga’s new inventive director final June, he went straight from the airport to the Balenciaga archive close to Bourget, to which he would dedicate a complete of three days, keen to examine clothes that he had solely ever seen in photographs.
He would spend the following month working at Balenciaga headquarters, overlapping with the tenure of Demna, who would stage his remaining couture present on July 9 earlier than taking the inventive lead of sister home Gucci in Italy.
“So we had been sharing all of the groups, all of the areas, and that was attention-grabbing, too,” he stated. “To have two inventive administrators sharing the identical home for one month, you study the concept of respect, of tolerance, of sharing, which I feel is necessary for all times, not just for trend.”
These gestures say a lot about Piccioli, a considerate, pushed and deeply humanist designer who was eager to know extra about those that lead the home earlier than them, to honor their contributions — and to get to the crux of how he would put his personal stamp on Balenciaga.
From his deep dive into the archive, the Italian designer shortly distilled the essence of the Paris home, its legacy of disruption and the “tradition of couture” cast by founder Cristóbal Balenciaga.
Pierpaolo Piccioli
Kuba Dabrowski/WWD
He was enthralled to find how the legendary couturier translated very extreme and austere strains into mild and supple clothes, meticulously choosing the proper materials and placing air between them and the wearer.
“I understood that every one his work was based mostly on the concept of the physique, ranging from the physique, generally going very removed from the physique, however all the time with the physique on the middle of his work,” Piccioli associated throughout an interview at Balenciaga’s workplaces on the Rue de Sèvres, the place his debut present is scheduled for Saturday night time. “So I wish to apply that methodology to my means of engaged on Balenciaga, placing humanity on the middle of the analysis of trend, and making it related for immediately.
“I wish to get into actuality by means of silhouette and materials. I didn’t wish to be nostalgic. For me, it was necessary to be related for immediately, silhouettes that could possibly be attention-grabbing immediately, but additionally wearable immediately… To make the strange very extraordinary.”
Even earlier than he landed in Paris — his appointment was revealed final Could — Piccioli had traveled to the founder’s birthplace and visited the Museo Cristóbal Balenciaga in Getaria, Spain.
There he was flabbergasted to find video footage of a girl carrying a darkish Balenciaga sack costume on the streets of Paris within the ’50s, encountering curiosity and visual scorn.
Piccioli noticed solely innovation and liberation.
“Seeing the response of individuals made me perceive how related, how disruptive and the way form his work was, liberating ladies from the burden” of their garments, he stated, noting that Dior’s unique New Look weighed roughly 9 kilos, versus about one or two for the sack costume.
Particulars of the upcoming Balenciaga spring 2026 assortment.
Kuba Dabrowski/WWD
For the interview, Piccioli was wearing black layers, his outfit sparked by a white and crimson pair of Triple S sneakers, measurement 42, which he bought when Balenciaga first launched them in 2017. The hefty sneakers had been emblematic of the model’s renown inside streetwear circles, prized for its oversize outerwear, slogan knits and distressed denims.
Balenciaga has flirted with a wide range of trend instructions underneath its earlier inventive administrators, which even have included Josephus Thimister, Alexander Wang and Nicolas Ghesquière, who leaned into an experimental and at occasions futuristic strategy that catapulted the home again into trend’s massive leagues.
Earlier than parting methods with Valentino in March 2024, Piccioli had spent most of his profession on the Roman home and sharing the inventive director function collectively with Maria Grazia Chiuri from 2008 till 2016, when he took the lead. He began in trend with a 10-year stint at Fendi, additionally working there alongside Chiuri.
Piccioli has been teasing his new imaginative and prescient for Balenciaga in a marketing campaign that options his tattooed forearms writing with a brush and a pot of ink; a 1967 wedding ceremony ensemble by the founding Spanish designer that was additionally the primary image Piccioli ever uploaded on his private Instagram web page, and Roni Horn portraits of Isabelle Huppert circa 2005-2006, with out make-up or crimson carpet apparel.
“In her humanity, not as superstar,” Piccioli clarified.
There’s additionally a black-and-white picture of Lucio Fontana about to slice a canvas. “That act was very significant, as a result of he was creating a brand new world, a brand new chance, and it was radical, however very spontaneous and instinctive,” the designer stated.
As a foil to the almost sci-fi sleekness of the marriage ensemble with its Darth Vader-esque hat, Piccioli additionally showcases the founder’s well-known rose costume, memorable for its face-framing doughnut of scrunched cloth.
“In that rigidity lies the essence of Cristóbal, maximalism versus minimalism — each as deliberate and spontaneous gestures.”
In a wide-ranging dialog with WWD, the designer elaborated on his archive trawl, his preliminary intentions and his ambitions for Balenciaga:
WWD: Ought to we be shocked to seek out out you want Balenciaga sneakers?
Pierpaolo Piccioli: I really like what has been performed right here. It’s not respectful, and never good for the home to disclaim what has been performed earlier than. I really feel {that a} work in continuity and transformation makes the home richer, exhibiting new sides, new elements, new angles, new factors of view.
WWD: Please inform us extra of of your impressions after visiting the archive.
P.P.: As a designer, everyone knows the work of Cristóbal Balenciaga from afar — the volumes, the proportions. However once you see them up shut, you actually perceive how many individuals have been impressed by Cristóbal. These shapes had been coming from from a really architectural perspective.
WWD: How did you begin after gathering all these impressions?
P.P.: For me, researching materials was essential, and notably the silk gazar utilized by Cristóbal, who developed a double-yarn model which allowed a extra inflexible construction however with none additional weight, so this allowed him to create his architectural silhouettes.
I made a decision to create materials with this concept in thoughts, however not solely silk gazar. This assortment is by no means an homage to Cristóbal. It’s my perspective, however I wished to work on materials with the identical form of strategy, with a rigidity between lightness and construction. So I created cotton gazar and wool gazar that could possibly be extra related for every day put on and life immediately.
It took time to reach on the easy idea of the construction and the lightness, the silhouette and the air.
WWD: And what was your essential takeaway out of your exploration of the founder’s birthplace?
P.P.: I really feel that Cristóbal was, like me, each instinctive and rational on the similar time. So as soon as I discovered the strategy that may be good for me and near Cristóbal’s, you then should let your intuition information you. I wish to incorporate my very own sensibility and ship in my very own means. I additionally noticed, in fact, the work of Nicolas (Ghesquière) and Demna, in fact.
WWD: And your impressions seeing the unique garments up shut?
P.P.: The colours had been generally virtually violent. I felt from Cristóbal a deliberate gesture and intentionality of selecting one cloth, one shade, one form. And that’s my means of shaping a group, additionally colours and cloth in a single gesture solely. I really feel that some shapes should be in a single shade, in a single cloth. That’s the intuition.
WWD: So ought to we anticipate a colourful debut?
P.P.: Sure, there’s shade and there’ll some prints. I discovered some scarves that had been very attention-grabbing as a result of there was simply an intention of shade, like a human brush stroke of shade on a white floor. And there are prints that appear like completely different materials, like tweed, however are literally printed on gazar or taffeta.
WWD: Have been you given any particular directives or steering from administration?
P.P.: In no way. I felt tremendous free to observe my intuition and my imaginative and prescient about Balenciaga, and I felt belief from Gianfranco (Gianangeli), my CEO, and from all of the crew, too.
I consider that now greater than ever, the function of a inventive director can solely totally flourish when it’s met with real belief and significant assist from the CEO. That alignment is what permits creativity to maneuver past concepts and really turn into impression.
On this firm, I’ve been lucky to seek out precisely that in Gianfranco. His assist and confidence haven’t solely strengthened my work, but additionally given me the sense of being understood and valued in what I carry. I’m deeply conscious of this, and sincerely grateful.
WWD: You stated once you joined that you’d honor all of the designers that got here earlier than you. How?
P.P.: They’re a part of the method. There are items like, say the T-shirt, one of many symbols of Demna, that I did with a really mild jersey with a form that may appear like the very well-known wedding ceremony costume.
Demna introduced Cristóbal into the streetwear form of actuality. For me, this home is, in fact, based mostly on the concept of couture. So I wish to use this concept of couture as tradition to strategy items that could possibly be wearable, like a T-shirt, or a pair of denims.
It’s not about elevating — I hate this phrase — but it surely comes from development, research and analysis. Typically when you consider couture, you suppose solely about magnificence and never actuality and coolness. I feel coolness has one thing to do with actuality.
WWD: What do you hope to perform with this primary present?
P.P.: I made a decision to point out solely ladies’s as a result of I felt that I needed to redefine a brand new aesthetic for this home. Our job — and I repeat this to myself daily — is about witnessing our occasions by means of trend and thru an thought of magnificence. My goal is to outline and to ship my imaginative and prescient of magnificence, however associated to our occasions and to this home, so conserving the codes of the home, like disruption, creativity, including most likely humanity and couture as tradition, however making an attempt to do a reconciliation with the whole lot that’s been performed earlier than.
WWD: Why did you determine to have your first present at Balenciaga headquarters?
P.P.: As a result of it’s an area that’s heat. I wished the intimacy of a salon de couture, however with out the type of a salon de couture.
I just like the additionally the concept that Demna did his retrospective exhibition right here. So in a means, I’m beginning the place simply left.
WWD: It’s not the simplest second for enterprise and luxurious, and amid many inventive modifications. Does it have an effect on you?
P.P.: Truly, I don’t really feel this. We are able to ship a special thought of trend. On this recreation of musical chairs, we are literally individuals, and every of us reacts in his or her means. I’m one of many chairs, however I’m an individual. I simply do my very own factor, and I don’t really feel the strain of being a part of this recreation.
I nonetheless really feel this job as a chance to specific my concepts and my values by means of my creativity.
WWD: Beneath Demna, the home turned identified for black, outsized, and a streetwear sensibility. Ought to we anticipate any of that, or a few of that, to proceed?
P.P.: Demna has been disruptive, like Nicolas has been disruptive, and Cristóbal has been disruptive. Disruptiveness is a part of the DNA of this home, and I like this persevering with this concept of disruptiveness.
You will note a silhouette that’s completely different from what from what you see now, however in continuity with the work of the individuals who have been earlier than.
WWD: What are your ambitions for the home, creatively and culturally?
P.P.: To me Balenciaga is, and should keep, probably the most related home by way of creativity. To me it’s probably the most inventive, probably the most disruptive, probably the most trend. These previous years, we’ve been speaking rather a lot about enterprise. However when speaking about trend, creativity must be the main drive and probably the most related drive.
