If fall 2010 was the season of the curvy (by fashion standards) model, is spring 2011 the season of the pregnant model? Has the embrace of full breasts given way to an embrace of bellies full of life? Miranda Kerr is the second officially pregnant woman to appear on a major European runway this season, after Abby Clancy walked Giles Deacon with her pronounced baby bump. Kerr and her growing fetus landed on Balenciaga’s spring 2011 runway today, along with supermodels like Gisele and Stella Tennant and random cool-looking people with spikey hair whom Nicolas Ghesquière plucked from the street. The street casting fit with the punk collection, which included studded leather belts, houndstooth prints, backless tops, fringed rubber-soled sandals, layering, and Balenciaga’s signature futurism.
The Telegraph’s Hilary Alexander spoke to Ghesquière:
“It’s going to be a boyish season,” said Balenciaga’s Nicolas Ghesquière, after his spring/summer 2011 showing at The Crillon this morning, “so I wanted a twist on a man’s wardrobe; the masculine side of a woman is very intriguing.”
The collection “borrowed from the music scene”, tapping into various “band” stereotypes, such as the rocker, the punk, the goth, the heavy-metal thrasher, interpreted with Ghesquière’s masterful and quirky interplay between faux and real fabrics, man-made and natural fibres.
So Burberry’s Christopher Bailey won’t be the only one to do studded leather this season! All of you who aren’t excited about orange caftans are saved.
Paris Fashion Week: Balenciaga spring/summer 2011 [Telegraph UK]
See a complete runway slideshow of the spring 2011 Balenciaga collection.