Suryansh Sarangi, 16, Queen Elizabeth’s School, Barnet, England
Suryansh Sarangi, 16, writes that the Balenciaga fall 2024 fashion show is “a testament to the modern American dream, an illusory ideal we can only chase, yet never achieve.”Credit...Balenciaga
Erewhon bags, sleek athleisure and cartoonishly chunky trainers. Draped in the golden Californian sun on a pristine neighborhood boulevard punctuated with postcard-perfect palm trees, everything about the Balenciaga fall 2024 collection just screams Los Angeles.
Historically, Demna, Balenciaga’s designer, has not shied away from the brutal, the rugged and the controversial. With previous runways involving mud-splattered models trudging through artificial trenches representing the mud graves dug during the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and a human-made blizzard raging through the show in reference to the ongoing climate crisis, the fall 2024 collection contrastingly focuses on the perfect, or rather, the seemingly perfect.
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The first models emerge, set against the iconic Hollywood sign. Dressed in casual sports attire, they exude an effortless coolness reminiscent of paparazzi shots capturing A-listers in their daily L.A. lives. The runway then shifts to a nostalgic nod with velour tracksuits from 2005. As the show progresses, high fashion takes center stage with red carpet gowns. The finale features a model in a striking white dress, collar raised, face mostly concealed, leaving only cold blue eyes visible — an enigmatic climax, the dress shielding the figure from the audience like Hollywood royalty.
Having grown up in a dreary “post-Soviet vacuum,” Demna himself states that the very culture he idolized as the perfect, colorful life was that of L.A.’s. Amid his personal cultural revolution, the American dream itself underwent its own revolution. No longer is success symbolized by flaunting wealth and holding Gatsby-esque parties; modern luxury means lazy beauty and quiet comfort. And that’s what the relaxed yet stylish outfits symbolize. Perhaps the mundanity of the clothes at first shows how, behind all the glitz and glamour, celebrities are just normal people. Perhaps celebrities are just like us. But are they? This runway transports us throughout Hollywood, from the whole food store to the gym to the red carpet, taking us through the lives of celebrities in L.A. But at the climax of the show, we see the stern figure clad in white, almost disassociating from the viewer as the collared dress separates us from them. An inherent feature of the American dream is inequality — not everyone can achieve this tranquil, sun-kissed life of luxury — and with the modern dream, this is no exception. On a surface level, celebrities may wear the same clothes as us, go to the gym like us, drink coffee like us, but will we ever be like them?
To be fair, some clothes in Balenciaga’s fall 2024 collection are wearable, with items like the hoodies being attractive to the average consumer. However, through its ironic highlighting of inequality, Demna’s newest work is nothing more than a testament to the modern American dream, an illusory ideal we can only chase, yet never achieve.
