The Balenciaga takeover of Shanghai began at the Pudong International Airport where, upon exiting immigration for baggage claim, travelers were greeted by larger-than-life black-and-white photographs of actress Yang Chaoyue sporting a Le City bag, looming over the luggage carousels. It extended to the impossibly chic Regent hotel on the Bund, where room keys came in Balenciaga card sleeves, and on to the fashionable Xintiandi district, where the Nu Xiang Mu Dou restaurant, famed for its xiao long bao or soup dumplings, would host a four-day commemorative collaboration à la the infamous black Erewhon smoothie from six months past: a custom-created Balenciaga steamed vegan xiao long bao, filled with French black truffle. The skins, expertly rolled out by hand and pinched to create 16 perfect pleats, were tinted the same Balenciaga gray as the pyramidal umbrellas shading the tables out front.
It’s clear that Demna does not do anything by halves, and the creative director took the occasion of his first runway show in China, which houses more Balenciaga stores than any other nation, to indulge in a creative exercise deeper than chinoiserie. “It’s such an important place for Balenciaga, we have such an important audience of people here,” he said backstage after the show, which had been years in the making. “You know I don’t believe in doing cruise collections and going on the boat or whatever… but what I believe in is bringing what I do, my vision, to people who appreciate it, consume it, and China is that place for me.”
As other houses were showing their resort collections, Balenciaga chose to unveil its spring 2025 men’s and women’s at the Museum of Art Pudong, designed by the French architect Jean Nouvel. Alas, the steamed win-win cakes—a little Shanghainese confectionery meant to symbolize good fortune, dyed lucky red and stamped with the double-B logo—were not able to stave off the rain, which began falling in the late afternoon and into the evening show. That said, the rain did nothing to deter the crowds lined up beyond the barricades, donning plastic ponchos and clutching umbrellas to await celebrities like actress and house ambassador Michelle Yeoh.
Inside the stark white museum was a sea of black. Black visors and wraparound shades, strong-shouldered suits, lace-trimmed dresses, denim slashed from top to toe; even the sea of black umbrellas, provided by the house, met the unspoken dress code. Demna has always played with the artful clash of high and low, blurring the lines between good and bad taste. It’s no wonder that his work has won so many fans here in China, whose local fashion has, for so many years, toed a similar line. A 40 yuan top, fetched from a street vendor, would not have looked out of place, and neither did the man wearing a plain black t-shirt that said Contemporary S**t.