That rapscallion Demna Gvasalia has done it again. Last year, the Balenciaga creative director collaborated with The Simpsons to send stars like Waylon Smithers and Selma Bouvier down the runway. This year, he’s moved on to only the most memeable celebrities to walk his show. Dula Peep, the spokeswoman for AMC Theaters, and the woman who maybe ruined Marilyn Monroe’s dress were among the notables who traveled to Paris for Balenciaga’s 51st Couture Collection. Tracee Ellis Ross and Anna Wintour could be seen in the audience, eating up all the vinyl gloves (there were so many vinyl gloves).
But before the famous faces, we got a host of anonymized models walking in shiny black masks. It’s giving Daft Punk, it’s giving Looking Glass in the HBO version of Watchmen, and combined with the black gloves it’s giving That Time Mannequins Came to Life on Doctor Who. These nobody models sported fetish-meets-business-casual wear, like what the Rubber Man from American Horror Story would wear on Shark Tank. All the models, face-having or not, wore oversize footwear that could only be described as Clarabelle Cow–esque. They fed into the padded shoulders and nipped waists that exaggerated the silhouette. But they also made walking harder. Nicole Kidman usually has a wider range of movement. Have you seen her walk out of a divorce lawyer’s office? That’s a powerful stride.