PP Krit, Juyeon and more bring the heat to Balenciaga Spring 2025

Balenciaga on the Bund.

By Charmaine Tan

June 04, 2024

While the skies brought the drama, stars like PP Krit, Juyeon and Roh Yeon Soo brought the heat to Balenciaga’s Spring 2025 show in Shanghai.

Amid the heavy downpour akin to the simulated climate conditions Demna brought to his shows in Paris, a dazzling list of invitees for Balenciaga’s Spring 2025 show were brought to keep the atmosphere buzzing with electricity. Brand ambassador and our September 2023 cover star PP Krit made his supermodel debut wearing Look 10 of the collection, strutting with power in front of the likes of The Boyz’s Juyeon in a full suit of white, darling Roh Yoonseo, as well as ‘mother’ and fellow brand ambassador Michelle Yeoh. The front row was not without local wattage, Chris Lee, Sun Qian and Turbo Liu, as well as Joseph Zeng, Zhou Bibi and Yang Chao Yue pulling the stops for a edgy and provocative presentation of curious proportions.

When a storied house like Balenciaga finds itself in a city with renown for innovation (as seen via the past decade’s Shanghai Fashion Weeks), how does it captivate the eye (and soul)? If traditional Balenciaga — in its 3XL and 10XL proportions, City it-bag variations and graphic t-shirt clout — is already palatable to this futuristic city, how would one then cook up a feast befitting? The answer lies in Demna’s Midas touch of the inane. Once again, Demna supplied a barrage of Internet bait in his collection’s RTW and accessories; including but not limited to a leather-made trompe-loeil shoe box that functioned as a clutch, lapelled-handle trenchcoat and jacket tote bags, 18cm-high boots, and two new collaborative capsules with Under Armour and Alipay (China’s leading digital payment service provider). It sizes up, literally, to be a good fit for the show city’s ardour for luxury. “Wealth-flaunting” codes of conduct may have just been issued across the country, but there is no denying that China has, is, and always will be one of luxury’s top consumer bases.

Spring 2025 goes to show that nothing too out of the box — pun unintended — for Demna and the house, as the world has come to know a decade on. It is not to say that the Georgian is the sole proponent of this whimsy agenda. With time, Balenciaga — couture’s prodigal child — has returned home. One will observe a certain degree of comfort in the Spring 25 collection. Comingling with cross-branded tracksuits and elongated silhouettes are references from the house’s couture archives. Semi and full-couture looks thus were sent down the runway, experimental in their make, and elegantly Demna-esque.