Review of Balenciaga Fall 2020 Ad Campaign by Demna Gvasalia with Cardi B, Eliza Douglas, Mei Kawajiri & Zhuo Chen
Balenciaga has released an evocative new campaign which draws a deep sense of strangeness out of the chaos of everyday.
The campaign channels that feeling of creative quarantine desperation we have all come to know, the need to get dressed up in the most outlandish lewk possible specifically for the sake of going nowhere. Other than one meticulously-disorganized studio photograph of Cardi B, all of the images have a distinctly amateur flair; they are either taken by the models themselves or the models’ friends and housemates. These stars pose in their surreal quarantine zones, Balenciaga’s mix of formal and avant-garde clashing against the quotidian chaos of domestic life.
The resulting compositions echo and investigate this feeling of chaos. They are not exactly harmonious; our eyes are pulled in every direction, and some of them feel almost confrontational. At the same time, there is a feeling that we have transcended the everyday, especially as we look at them more and more.
Everything feels deftly wrapped in a layer of irony that makes these strange portraits feel as if there is much more to them than meets the eye – but we might never figure out what it is.
Balenciaga Creative Director | Demna Gvasalia
Talent | Cardi B, Eliza Douglas, Mei Kawajiri, Zhuo Chen