The Photo Rep: I'm so excited to talk about this one. First of all, it stops you dead in your tracks. It's so amazingly elegant! But it's a new elegant.... like elegant gone sci-fi. You think "Is that Christy? Wow They shot in the harshest sunlight." Then you look at the details. The pose with the arms that seems almost broken. The cool graffiti on the pictures. The way the shadows fall erotically between her legs. The vacant landscape. This ad is major and important and THIS is the one I consider to be historic because I've never seen anything like it before.I mean the previous Balenciaga ad with the blonde featuring the peacock drawing was great, but that was high school compared to this one which gets a Masters degree!
The Shop A Holic: At night I dream of Balenciaga lol. I do! I want to wear everything here. Balenciaga is the only label I would ever think about doing a head-to-toe in right now. Look at those shoes ! It's a long shot and I still want the shoes. Did they produce those shoes? If I ever met Nicholas I swear I'd kiss his feet! Can you get me backstage?
The Ad Exec: I think this campaign put Balenciaga on the map as the label of the future. What Helmut Lang looked like he was going to be, I think the torch just passed to Nicholas. It's that thing of doing a brand that has classic value but creating something twisted. I haven't always loved his vision for Balenciaga. Those lionhead sweaters with the 80's shoulders. Cristobal would have died! I don't know why fashion kids today are so into defacement and destruction. Galliano's Dior. Just trash everywhere on the runway. Vuitton. Neon graffiti over everything. It's fun and it sells but sometimes it's like a bunch of kids drawing with crayons over Mommy's best white dress. But here the defacement of the brand is right. Whoever did the drawings or doodles, or whatever you guys call them, has real talent.
The Photo Rep: Well what's the difference? I love what Marc and John do with Vuitton and Dior. You have to stay young!
The Ad Exec: I think it's because the photographers and the designer are of the same mind. They look like they come from the same generation so what Nicholas does with the clothes, they're doing the precise same thing with the pictures and I agree it's wonderful. If it weren't a little bit too esoteric and therefore limited in its market impact it would get my No 1. It definitely is the most creative thing we saw all season.
The Editor: I'm verging on tears. Do you know how you desperately search a magazine's pages for inspiration. For imagery that feels like now. For an aesthetic that looks the way Bjork sounds, the way Droog designs, the way Lars von Triers films and you never can seem to find it! And a magazine is supposed to be a mirror of its times, but magazines today are too terrified of their times. Well when I found this ad in the Sept W, I was astounded. Part Salvador Dali, part Star Wars a bit Belle Epoque (that corset) and also something difficult and detailed and rigorous like the world today. Thank God for Balenciaga. Now I can hardly wait to see what Inez and Vindooth do with Calvin!