It’s More Than Just Sweatpants
By Shawn Hassanzei
April 26, 2026
Graphic by Samanvita Nalla
It’s 2016, and Demna Gvasalia, then the relatively unknown head designer of VETEMENTS, is appointed Balenciaga’s new creative director. At the time, the brand was experiencing a rather rough patch. Former creative director Alexander Wang was widely viewed as uninspired, leaving critics and consumers disconnected from the hustle and bustle of the fashion world. But Demna’s appointment sparked speculation and excitement, and many wondered whether this young designer could revive the historic house.
When Demna debuted his first collection, it did not disappoint. The show blended precise tailoring in glen-check wools that echoed founder Cristóbal Balenciaga’s design ethos while simultaneously pushing boundaries through the anti-fashion aesthetic that he had perfected at VETEMENTS, such as oversized cocoon jackets in nylon and neoprene. The result was an ironic collision of tradition and disruption that still felt undeniably luxurious. Instead of appearing uptight, Balenciaga became Demna’s vision of “cool.”
Although he is most known for his time at Balenciaga, Demna did not simply appear out of satin or sequins to save the brand from certain economic doom. So, how did he get there? His story starts in mundane post-Soviet Georgia. Demna grew up around people in a state of economic turmoil, and fashion-forward individuals tried to look stellar despite a lack of options. This inspired the young Demna, and when he eventually left Georgia due to the ongoing Abkhazian War, he went to the Antwerp Academy, one of the oldest fine arts academies in Europe and the origin of the highly praised “Antwerp Six,” to apply his unconventional viewpoint to fashion.
After his graduation in 2007, Demna sought to join Balenciaga’s menswear team but received a rather cold rejection letter in response. This blow was crushing to Demna, as it was his dream company to work for due to the rich cultural history of the brand. His second resort was to intern at Margiela and Louis Vuitton (which were both bigger than Balenciaga at the time), and during his time there, he learned to hone his craft and develop his design language. This culminated in 2014, when he established his own fashion brand, VETEMENTS, with the help of his brother Guram.
VETEMENTS means “clothes” in French. This perfectly encapsulated what Demna stood for. Growing up in Georgia, he saw that many people there, even the fashion-forward ones, viewed clothes as just clothes—a practical way to keep themselves covered. He melded this idea with streetwear, irony, and a critique of the fashion industry as a whole. These ideas came to form in a debut collection that blew up in popularity. The fashion world was taken aback and flocked to the norm-shattering VETEMENTS collection. The spotlight piece was the deconstructed hoodie. It reflected the post-Soviet Georgia that Demna grew up in by incorporating intentionally outlandish prints and a misfitting silhouette, but to viewers it represented a cool, grungy anti-fashion movement. People were tired of the stale and uptight world of fashion and were enamored with the anti-fashion, unisex, and oversized design notes of VETEMENTS. We still see these fashion elements used by many brands today, which is a testament to how impactful the debut of VETEMENTS was on the fashion world.
Then, in 2015, Balenciaga was going through tumultuous times. The current creative director at the brand, Alexander Wang, was wildly unpopular and was losing money for the parent company Kering, so he was replaced by the explosive founder of VETEMENTS, Demna. His very first collection for the brand in 2016 was not particularly radical; it consisted of playful reimaginings of Cristóbal Balenciaga’s work, such as a swing jacket in sporty neoprene instead of classic wool. This soft launch left everyone unprepared for the world-shattering collection of 2017. In this collection, Demna leaned heavily into the irony he had used at VETEMENTS. We saw the introduction of the Sock Shoe, the Triple S sneaker, and the Balenciaga political campaign motif inspired by Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential bid. These pieces propelled the sleeper brand into stardom reminiscent of Dior, Chanel, and Louis Vuitton. Rappers, models, and superstars started wearing Balenciaga, and from there it reached the height of its popularity.
Graphic by Samanvita Nalla
After this show, Demna entered his experimental era. There were leather trash bags, calfskin chip-bag wallets, and rolls of tape that were actually bracelets. Many critics began targeting his work en masse, but the ironic, almost fad-like designs were always used to tell a story. Much of his work during this period functioned as social commentary, and the collections were not simply fads or jokes. Take the Spring/Summer 2021 show, for example: the clothes were ripped and destroyed, but there were also jet-black suits with sharp, powerful shoulders. The set itself was submerged in water, with very little stage lighting. The show commented on the state of the world, suggesting that powerful figures in black suits were metaphorically melting the planet and forcing ordinary people to bear the consequences of their actions.
My favorite Balenciaga show was the 2022 “Clone” show. Instead of being hosted in person, this show was released on YouTube. At first, it seemed normal, but upon closer inspection, all the models had the same face, and so did the audience. Demna face-swapped his muse, Eliza Douglas, onto every model and attendee to highlight the dangers of AI, and in 2026 we are living in the time he warned about.
The magnum opus of Demna’s work at Balenciaga was reintroducing haute couture for the house. This aspect of Balenciaga had been dormant since 1968 (when Cristóbal Balenciaga himself did his last couture show) until Demna revived it, and he did so with impact. The looks were unconventional and a far cry from classic couture. Jeans, T-shirts, and sports jackets appeared on the couture runway, but the jeans were actually garments made from enormous lengths of fabric constructed to resemble denim. The T-shirt was hand-painted for over 60 hours. The sport jacket was silk-lined with aluminum to create a crumpled texture. In 2025, Demna presented his final show for the house, a couture collection in which he displayed the very rejection letter Balenciaga had sent him nearly twenty years earlier.
Now, in 2026, Demna is the creative director of Gucci, Kering’s largest brand. He was appointed to revive Gucci during a period of declining sales. In his debut collection, he appears to be succeeding, reintroducing the sensuality of 1990s Gucci spearheaded by Tom Ford, combined with a Demna twist.
He came from nothing, a poor kid in an even poorer Georgia, but his experiences there gave him the inspiration to take the fashion world by storm and lead one of Kering’s biggest brands. Now he is mentioned in the same breath as Galliano, Margiela, Dior, and Ford: a designer who has earned his place in fashion history. ■
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