Shoes look as if they have been ‘flattened by 20-ton steamroller’ and now sit on auction site at £2,500
Balenciaga is not the only brand to have made distressed trainers. Gucci created a pair of dirty-on-purpose trainers in 2019, which are on sale on its website for £715. Golden Goose has long made these types of sneakers: a design called thein 2018 was deemed particularly offensive. “I think peak capitalism is selling shoes characteristic of those who can’t afford new ones for $530,” wrote one Twitter user.
Distressed clothing is by no means new. In fact, the distressed look often coincides with recessions. See the ripped and destroyed punk style in the 70s, or the downbeat grunge of the 90s. Helmut Lang pioneered the designer distressed look in this decade. He sent “painter” jeans down the catwalk in 1998, splattered with spots of emulsion.
Luca Solca, the senior research analyst of global luxury goods at Bernstein, says the worn-out sneaker is the latest product in Balenciaga’s rise. “It is more frequent to find, every now and then, a ‘hero product’,” he says “but to build a long successful series as Balenciaga has done is rather rare.”Photograph: Joshua Bright/Bright/Smith
Solca believes Balenciaga still stands apart from other brands. “One of the traits of the Balenciaga reinvention – from what I understand – has been to take the lead on irony,” he says. “The lookalike Ikea shopping bag is just one example.” In 2017, the brand released a £1,705 bag that looked like Ikea’s 75p Frakta. The irony often comes from turning something very prosaic into a hyped luxury item. These products also typically work well for memes on social media.
Balenciaga, with the designer Demna at the helm, is one of the biggest fashion success stories of the last few years. The brand grew by 44% between 2020 and 2021, and its parent company, Kering, reported in October that sales were “particularly buoyant across all product categories”. StockX, the resale platform, reports that there were more than 50,000 searches for the brand this year.
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