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Seven years of working together at Balenciaga have failed to accustom Cédric Charbit to the shock of Demna’s ideas. Several days before the designer would reveal his fall 2024 collection on a palm tree-lined residential street in Los Angeles, Charbit, the label’s chief executive, sat down for an interview in a Chateau Marmont hotel suite and recalled an uncomfortable moment with his genre-challenging creative director.
Demna proposed a design for a new shopper made from sumptuous calfskin leather and nearly indistinguishable from a plastic Hefty trash bag. It’s now on sale for $1,795 after causing a storm online when it was revealed in 2022. How did Charbit respond to putting out a trash bag in the name of a brand known for a century of savoir-faire? “It came through my mind very fast: ‘Why are we doing this?’” Charbit replies, eyes wide. “Is it relevant? Why are you scared? Don’t be scared.”
Charbit and Demna have proven to be a formidable duo over the eight years they have worked together, strategising over weekly phone calls. They have lately managed the rarest of accomplishments, emerging from near cancellation a year ago, not unscathed by the scandal that followed a misguided ad campaign, but successful in having saved the brand from the brink while keeping their jobs. Kering, which owns the brand, has continued investing in it. Balenciaga’s Instagram comments are once again chock-full of heart emojis, with nary a call for a boycott.
The label that has emerged this year remains subversive but is more cheeky, more willing to giggle at itself as well as the world’s fashion victims. It’s Different, Balenciaga’s recently revealed ad campaign, is Apple-like in its minimalist efficiency and humour. “Probably not what you’re looking for,” taunts bold copy on a stark white page faced by a photo of cartoonishly bulky lace-up boots made of EVA, or ethylene-vinyl acetate, a type of plastic. Mr Porter is currently selling them for $1,400.
“Demna has a good sense of what people are going to want to buy,” Charbit says.
Charbit is guiding Balenciaga into new categories. Haute couture, which the brand prefers to call merely “couture”, debuted in 2021: Demna feels the “haute” sounds too high-minded for a house whose leading inspiration is the streets. There’s a perfume coming, though he declines to share the deadline for its debut, noting that developing scents is “very hard”. One’s mind boggles at the potential for Demna’s inspirations — asphalt and rubber rather than vetiver and musk?
A new line of ski, snowboard and hiking gear is selling best in China, the US and South Korea. The skis — white, with “Balenciaga” splayed across the tips — are priced at $6,290. The line wasn’t Demna’s idea, but when Charbit proposed it, the designer accepted the challenge on the condition that the apparel and equipment be technical and not just fashion. The house hired an equipment brand for the technical design, but the line is no collaboration, Charbit says. “When in doubt, you go to the best partners. I won’t say the name, but it’s a French company.”
The American streetwear-inspired fashion collection Balenciaga revealed in Hollywood on Saturday afternoon was heavy on the accessories that Charbit sees as the brand’s leading growth opportunity. It introduced two Le Cagole totes, exaggerations of the label’s iconic Cagole. The Le City bag, first designed by former creative director Nicolas Ghesquière in 2001, will be introduced next year as well. The show also revealed actress Nicole Kidman as the label’s newest ambassador, wearing a long couture jacket.
Charbit, like many luxury executives these days, is calculating how to ride out the current softening of luxury goods sales in the US and globally. “Overall, we see challenges,” he says. “There’s a pressure on luxury right now, let’s be honest. You’ve got to be thinking in the long term. This house is 100 years old.”
Long-term thinking is a luxury for Balenciaga, which is owned by the publicly traded conglomerate Kering. In the third quarter, Gucci, Saint Laurent and Bottega Veneta — Kering’s biggest brands — all reported sales declines in the double digits. Sales for the group’s “Other Houses” division, which includes Balenciaga, fell 19 per cent.
Charbit, though, takes a pragmatic approach: “We must be realistic and cautious but also continue developing,” Charbit says. “In times like these, I really don’t believe in over-listening to the market.”
Neither does Kering. The company has continued to invest in new lines, such as Balenciaga’s couture, which is not yet a profit centre, he says. Couture is part of his strategy to pursue “elevation”, which he says is the other major avenue for growth besides new accessories.
There is a reason that Kering stuck by Charbit and Demna last year. Over the past eight years, Charbit says, “I can’t say the numbers, but the sales grew in a very, very strong and solid way. Everywhere in the world, all categories. All channels. The fact that we have done this allows you to say we built a strong foundation — to look at the future in a very confident way.”
Charbit excels at articulating Demna’s bulging silhouettes and genre-mocking designs. He notes repeatedly that while they look exaggerated and bizarre to many consumers, he expects some to become normalised over time. After all, the daring couturier Cristóbal Balenciaga launched the label in 1917, and many of his subsequent creations were once criticised for providing women with bulk and curves (exaggerating their bellies and hips).
As he said this, Charbit’s feet were clad in a pair of black leather bulge-toed shoes that would raise eyebrows or chuckles in a more conservative setting. He is a believer.
“I feel through innovation,” he says, “we are creating classics”.
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