D'OH! BALENCIAGA X THE SIMPSONS

On 2 October, luxury fashion house Balenciaga won Paris Fashion Week. Not because of some out-of-this-world creation (they had plenty of that too), but because they brought to style what had been missing for a long time — humour, fun and playfulness. The past 18 months have seen consumers swap clothes for toilet roll, factories close and Topshop shut their flagship in Oxford Circus, London. Enter Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, Maggie and the rest of Springfield who could be seen via a screen strutting down the Spanish label's catwalk. The brand's Georgian designer also staged a red carpet runway, with Vogue calling it 'hysterical.' 'Well,' remarked Demna Gvasalia, with a considerable amount of laconic understatement, 'we needed something fun to happen.'

The Simpsons | Balenciaga Via Wikipedia

The one-of-a-kind evening kicked off at 8 o'clock at the Théâtre du Châtelet with celebrity guests arriving to a replica of a film premiere clad head-to-toe in Balenciaga SS22 ensembles, from Elliot Page in studded rocker-esque Crocs, to Offset wearing clothes three sizes too big for him. Also in attendance were Demna's models — one in a gigantic ruffled ball gown and another in a metallic silver dress complete with exaggerated bows and train. The soirée was being live-streamed to the seated audience inside taking the place of the traditional catwalk and playfully poking fun at over-the-top red carpets. Ayo Ojo of The Fashion Archive says: 'This is what I love about what Demna does, he's always finding ways to make runway shows fun and blur the lines between fashion and entertainment.' On his decision to subvert fashion show tradition, the former Vetements designer tells Vogue's Sarah Mower: 'I've wanted to do a premiere concept where the guests would be the show for many seasons. It was nice to have a social occasion again. I hoped it would make people smile.'


The subversion didn't stop there as following the unique unveiling of the range, the audience were treated to a surprise 10-minute premiere of The Simpsons | Balenciaga, an animated short film in collaboration with the popular TV series. Directed by David Silverman, the episode starts in Springfield with Homer forgetting to buy Marge a birthday present. He then emails 'Balun-- Balloon-- Baleen-- Balenciaga-ga [...] can you send me the cheapest thing with your label on it?' Gvasalia sends him a €19,000.00 dress which Homer hilariously tries not to ruin before Marge returns it alongside a note saying: 'I'll always remember those 30 minutes of feeling just a little special.' Demna declares it 'the saddest thing I've ever heard' so he flys to Springfield to invite the 'style deprived' to 'model my clothes in Paris!' Chief Clancy Wiggum opens in a black buttoned-up coat, Moe the bartender wears a brown blazer with exaggerated shoulders, Bart skateboard's down rocking an arrow t-shirt and leather boots from the Fall/Winter 2020-2021 collection, Lisa and Maggie match in red velvet fishtail gowns from Resort 2022, Smithers can be seen in a one-shoulder bodycon dress and the label’s infamous knife boots and Homer poses in an oversized puffer jacket and shades. In the words of Jessica Testa of The New York Times: 'Homer Simpson Was Made For Fashion.' Marge then closes in a spectacular Beauty and the Beast-esque ball gown with exaggerated bow. 


The movie is a tongue-in-cheek parody of the over-the-top luxury fashion industry, which makes sense for Demna Gvasalia as 'his work a lot of the time is making fun of fashion,' as Ayo Ojo notes, from Homer not being able to pronounce the name of the brand, the ridiculously expensive dress delivered to Springfield via police escort, Marge getting stuck in the door due to the pointy shoulders on her dress, when the person sitting next to Anna Wintour says: 'Terrible. Terrible,' the Vogue editor utters: 'Hmm, I like it,' he then changes his mind and everyone chants: 'I love it! I love it!' and Anna shedding a tear which is captured in a bottle and labelled Wintour No. 9. GQ's Rachel Tashjian writes: 'The short was jam-packed with fashion world deprecation, a rare thing in these self-serious fashion times (or actually ever).'

Speaking to Vogue, the 40-year-old designer wanted to partner with the long-running sitcom: 'Because I’ve always loved The Simpsons, for its whole tongue-in-cheek nature and the slightly romantic-naive side to it.' Jess Cartner-Morley of The Guardian also notes: 'The episode was a dream come true for Gvasalia, a Simpsons fan since his childhood in the former Soviet Union.' On how the unlikely pair got together, the creative director approached the producers in April 2020 without much hope that they would ever want to collaborate, 'But in fact they did. They saw the blue show—the Parliament one—and liked it. Matt Groening’s been amazing.' Vanessa Friedman of The New York Times hails it: 'The smartest show of the week', Cathy Horyn of The Cut calls it: 'Hands down, my favorite experience this season, in many seasons,' Thom Bettridge of HIGHSNOBIETY says: 'It had everything anyone could have asked for,' and Jodie Simpson for PRWeek writes: 'It's wonderful in every way. The script is ace, Marge and Homer on the catwalk is everything, and the casting outside of your usual Springfield suspects is excellent, with fashion royalty taking on silly and light-hearted personas.' British Vogue's Alice Newbold notes: 'If you'd have told us at the start of Paris Fashion Week that we'd see Chief Wiggum strutting down the Balenciaga catwalk, we might have said, "Eat my shorts". But walk the runway — baguette in hand — Clancy did, along with The Simpsons family.'