As couture week got underway, the French Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, rained praise on Demna, who, in addition to celebrating a decade at the helm of Balenciaga, tonight received the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres. The French order of merit honors those who have distinguished themselves through artistic or literary creations, or by their contribution to promoting arts and literature both in France and around the world.
Kering’s top brass—Chairman Francois-Henri Pinault, Deputy CEO Francesca Bellettini, YSL president Cédric Charbit, and new Balenciaga president Gianfranco Gianangeli—as well as the entire Balenciaga studio and the designer’s parents, aunt, and husband beamed as Dati praised the Georgia-born designer for celebrating fashion design at its most beautiful, “not as an abstract concept of idea, but as a practical endeavor, like a history of savoir-faire and gestures; the métiers d’art that are the force of French fashion.”
Before pinning the medal on the designer, who opted to stick to his workaday uniform of black jeans and a well-loved black t-shirt, she concluded by saying “You are a great artist, an immense designer, and also a man of culture. Art is your oxygen.”
Friend and muse Isabelle Huppert followed up with a heartfelt speech of her own. “I’m no fashion expert; I wear clothes,” she deadpanned. “I like wearing clothes. Sometimes not so much. But often, they’re amusing. Especially these last few years.” Addressing the designer directly, the award-winning actress described his vision of fashion not as an industry, but as a language. “Wearing your clothes, Demna, is like walking a very steep path, but at the summit, the view is beautiful! When you look closely, there is an extraordinary creativity, but also something very simple and direct. Like a rousing shock, or like a mischievous child who conflates up with down and right-side with inside out.” In conclusion, she said, “thank you for reminding us that fashion doesn’t just speak of what we wear, but who we are.”
After posing for photos with well-wishers, including Danielle Slavik, a fit model for Cristobal himself, and Palais Galliera director Miren Arzalluz, Demna allowed that he had always felt a little bit French. “Strangely, it was even before having it confirmed by the state,” he mused, citing his half-French grandmother, whom he called his “first and only icon.”
“She’s the only person in my family who knows how to put color together,” he offered. “She was really my teacher, in a way. The idea of France came through her. But [tonight] I feel finally seen and valued by this country that I love so dearly, after almost 15 years living here. It’s the country where I’ve lived the longest in my life. It’s chez moi, it’s my home. But anyway, you can’t become French in one evening. It’s a long transition. But I’m getting better [at it].”
Asked what he considered his greatest contribution to his adopted country’s culture, the designer replied not by citing a silhouette, a look or a technique. “I think the importance of the freedom of thought that French culture, and especially French fashion, needs in order to evolve and stay modern and in touch with the times we live in. It’s not just Versailles; you also need to go to Château d’Eau sometimes,” he said, referring to one of the scruffier corners in the French capital.
“You can also look up to the idea of something popular, kind of looking from bottom up, rather than the other way. It’s probably the most important thing I have done working here.” After tonight’s celebration, he said that work was top of mind. “It’s hard times we’re living in, but also I feel like it’s a blessing to work in fashion and to do what I do, to make people happy and feel good about themselves,” he said. “Fashion’s such a transformative power. It’s almost like: it’s useless but it’s also very useful at the same time—and it’s at times like now that you feel it the most. I’m very happy to be in fittings, cutting and pinning. It’s almost like a meditation for me. But maybe it’s just because I love making clothes.”
