Demna Gvasalia

Balenciaga‘s creative director Demna Gvasalia has officially taken the mononymous route. Similar to what Kanye West, aka Ye, did back in October, the Georgian designer now goes by only his first name, Demna. However, unlike Ye, Demna has not filed his name change legally and is still keeping his last name.

Lead ImageBalenciaga Spring/Summer 2022 Red CarpetPhotography by German Larkin. “Did you laugh?” It’s not what most fashion designers ask the audience after a show, at least not with the implication that it’s a positive thing. But Demna Gvasalia rarely approaches fashion in a linear or conventional manner. So after an haute couture debut of solemnity and severity, Gvasalia returned to the Paris Spring/Summer 2022 ready-to-wear with a fashion show that really wasn’t a fashion show, one that upset and upended expectations and conventions, while also – slyly – turning a mirror on the industry itself.

Following his appointment at Balenciaga in 2015, Demna Gvasalia has been one of the biggest forces in fashion, changing our understanding of luxury and continuously pushing boundaries in the industry. With a background at Louis Vuitton under both Marc Jacobs and Nicolas Ghesquière, working at Maison Margiela, and launching Vetements...

Balenciaga creative director and frequent Kanye West collaborator Demna Gvasalia has been awarded with a special honor by the president of Georgia. Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili awarded the prolific designer with the Medal of Honor on Monday for “his contribution to the popularization of Georgia abroad,” per a regional report from Agenda. In a tweeted statement, President Zurabishvili noted that Sept. 27 marked the commemoration of a day of mourning for the country, i.e. the Fall of Sokhumi, but added that being able to present Demna with the award signaled that they’ve “already won” somewhere.