The touristcore aesthetic of Balenciaga's Pre-Fall 2021 collection Around the world with Demna

At the beginning of the year, we talked about touristcore, that is, the new relevance that the world of travel and tourism would have on fashion both in terms of aesthetics and in terms of product. And in fact, a year after the first lockdown, with the world of tourism substantially paralyzed, the desire for travel and exploration of the world has become stronger and stronger. It is, therefore, no coincidence that for Balenciaga's Pre-Fall 2021, Demna Gvasalia and photographer Patrick Welde have virtually made their models and audience travel, photoshopping each look in iconic locations such as the Taj Mahal, St. Mark's Square, Milan Cathedral, New York, Moscow and Shanghai. Familiar destinations both in the background and in the foreground: after the digital-medieval excesses of the FW21 collection, the Pre-Fall traces, updating them, the greatest hits of Gvasalia with a very strong focus on the product but without giving huge shocks to the storytelling of the brand, certainly waiting for the Couture collection that we will see in the summer for which all the fireworks will be reserved.  

In terms of future trends that the collection intercepts, however, the tourist declination of Balenciaga's aesthetic is remarkable, which already lent itself very much to the campiness intrinsic to the idea of touristcore, but which is now being put among the real tourists of the Hollywood Walk of Fame or the crowds of Paris or Tokyo. The college-style graphics, the emphasis on slouchy-chic and the cocktail of extravagant accessories, activewear and touches of French haute bourgeoisie are all the cornerstones of an uncoded and very transversal aesthetic but whose spirit finds all its cohesion in the desire for travel and internationality evoked by the compilation of famous destinations that become the idealistic background to the looks of the collection.