Balenciaga Fall Winter 2024-2025 “eBay is new luxury”. Story by Eleonora de Gray, Editor-in-Chief of RUNWAY MAGAZINE. Photo and Video Courtesy: Balenciaga / DemnaGram.

Ladies and gentlemen, fasten your thrift store belts and prepare for a dive into the opulent dumpster fire that is Balenciaga’s Fall Winter 2024-2025 collection, masterminded by the ever-philosophical Demna Gvasalia. In a world inundated with questions like, “What is luxury?” and existential crises over the significance of fashion, Demna decides to play a high-stakes game of “What can I get for under $20 on eBay?”

“As you know, I like question things that matter to me through my work, and some of the questions I have been thinking about recently are: What is luxury? What is fashion and why does it even matter? Who do I do what I do for? Is fashion enough? In a world oversaturated by content, is anything ever enough? What is enough? The important part is not necessarily finding answers, but the process of questioning in itself. Luxury is by definition a sort of scarcity, something that is not infinitely available. What seems to be truly rare and finite right now is, actually, creativity itself. I believe that creativity has secretly become a new form of luxury. I wanted this show to represent a link between the past and the future of Balenciaga as a house based on creative value. It starts with with silhouettes and themes directly inspirited by the legacy of Cristobal and evolves into further experimentation with the ideas that make up my body of work: the rethinking of the concept of beauty, the forging of an immediately recognizable style and the consideration of how the body interacts with garments. This collection is about the aesthetic that I have been evolving in fashion for exactly ten years now. It is about identifying with and belonging to this aesthetic. It is also about the fashion that matters to me,”

Demna Gvasalia, creative director of Balenciaga.

This season, Balenciaga shatters the very foundation of haute couture, proving once and for all that luxury is not about the exclusivity of materials, but rather the audacity of layering random eBay finds into a semblance of an outfit. Imagine strutting down the street in a $3,000 ensemble that’s essentially a curated collection of $10 tees and $20 jeans, meticulously piled on top of each other by Demna into the looks from casual to evening wear. It’s not just fashion; it’s an archaeological dig through the annals of eBay, unearthing relics of forgotten wardrobes to clothe the elite. It’s not just recycling; it’s “re-luxurizing” the discarded into the desirable.

But wait, the invitation to this grand spectacle? A random object from eBay, because nothing screams “exclusive fashion event” like receiving a used snow globe, a lone fork, or perhaps a gently nibbled spoon. Perhaps a snow globe from someone’s forgotten holiday, or a spoon from a long-lost love’s kitchen drawer, each invite carries with it the weight of untold stories and the promise of connecting us to the essence of human emotion. Each piece, a talisman of someone’s past, now a gateway to the ultimate luxury fashion experience. It’s as if Demna raided the attic of the internet, grabbed whatever gave him a hint of nostalgia, and said, “Yes, this spoon will definitely make them feel something.”

Our journey doesn’t stop there. The runway show, set in the “TV-trone,” a colossal hall swathed in screens playing a chaotic mix of YouTube’s finest—dogs frolicking in meadows, random forests, and eerily empty houses, faces of people—serves as a stark reminder that we’re just one viral video away from oblivion. It’s an ambiance that screams, “We may be on the verge of the apocalypse, but at least we’ll be fashionably layered.” It looked like a scene from sci-fi movie before hero dies, some doomsday organized by Demna for your pleasure.

Demna, in his infinite wisdom, declares this mishmash of pre-loved eBay garments as the pinnacle of new luxury. Because nothing says “I’m rich and creative” like wearing a stack of random internet purchases. It’s a bold statement, a rebellion against the constraints of traditional fashion, where creativity is not just the new luxury; it’s found in the ability to wear an entire wardrobe at once and call it a day.

In the end, as we ponder the existential questions that haunt our very being, Balenciaga offers us a glimpse into a future where luxury is not defined by scarcity, but by the sheer will to redefine beauty through the lens of eBay’s checkout basket. It’s a collection that boldly states, “Yes, we are indeed living on a garbage planet, but at least we’re doing it in style.”

As attendees navigate this post-apocalyptic dreamscape, clad in their eBay finery, Demna’s message becomes clear: we are the inhabitants of a garbage planet, destined to layer our lives with the remnants of those who came before us, their digital footprints the only legacy in a world where traditional notions of luxury have been rendered obsolete.

Piece de résistance: Oh, and how much I loved the long gown out of used knickers and bras stitched together… That was indeed the look to have, the piece to get! So, hats off (or should we say, bras off?) to the genius who looked at a pile of laundry and saw the future of fashion.

“By nature, we are emotional beings, which is important to recognize in our ever digital world. This found object is a keepsake and beautiful connection to the essence of who we are as humans,” – wrote hired Balenciaga blogger who follows Demna everywhere. But he doesn’t feel so bad – he’s paid for that and get hugs from Kim Kardashian .

And yet, amidst this chaotic reimagining, one can’t help but wonder how Cristóbal Balenciaga, the founder known for his exquisite craftsmanship and revolutionary designs, would feel about his legacy being intertwined with the concept of “luxury layering” straight from the depths of eBay. Demna assures us that this collection is a bridge between the past and the future of the house, yet one can’t shake the feeling that this bridge might just be a makeshift construct fashioned from repurposed jeans and t-shirts.

So, hats off to Demna Gvasalia, for not only questioning the essence of fashion and luxury but for turning eBay’s leftovers into this season’s must-haves. It challenges us to find beauty in the mundane, luxury in the discarded, and high fashion in the layers of our collective digital and material histories. The Balenciaga Fall Winter 2024-2025 collection isn’t just a fashion statement; it’s a lifestyle, a philosophy, a testament to the power of layering. After all, in a world where anything goes, why not find luxury in the art of piling on as many $20 jeans as humanly possible?

See All Looks Balenciaga Fall Winter 2024-2025

Details Balenciaga eBay finds