Move over, Golden Goose: There’s a new poverty-chic sneaker in town.
In a few days, after we’ve all gone out on the streets to yell and protest, and display for maybe the final time our rights to protest, before that too, is taken away from us, what do you imagine we’ll look like?
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Balenciaga answers the question with its latest campaign dedicated to its newest drop, the Paris Sneaker. In the interest of not spreading Fake News like a mouth-breathing troll farmer on social media, this is merely a campaign.
The actual sneakers for sale are nowhere near as dirty as the viral images of these distressed kicks that look like they were worn by a man clutching an SD card as he walked the 22 hours from Laguna to Quezon City by foot.
They are meant to show what a pair of sneakers look like after you buy and keep them for life, much like a country looks like after it has been bought and kept for life: ripped apart at the seams, barely holding on, not functioning as a country anymore.
The actual sneakers are merely faded, with frayed edges and dirtied soles. Along with the main collection, 100 shoes are “extra destroyed,” but despite what the name suggests, is still a far cry from the campaign photos.
On the Business of Fashion Instagram page, GQ France editor Pam Boy said this was creative director Demna Gvasalia’s way of turning the essence of luxury upside down: “Demna will make people who can afford luxury items purchase ‘pre-worn’ looking sneakers for 1450€…once again he is making fun of people who will indeed spend a minimum wage on items that they might deem disposable, and which are seemingly worthless.”
Seeing as we are not very New York and therefore can’t afford this, it is probably why we don’t understand the appeal. But if you do want these sneakers, go buy them, and when people ask why you spent that much on something you can DIY yourself, you can tell them it’s your truth.
We’re all being made fun of, anyway.
