The story of the Georgian designer
who turned the fashion world upside down

Demna Gvasalia was born in Georgia on March 25, 1981. At the age of 12, he and his family had to flee their home because of the brutal civil war that started in the early 1990s. In 1997, he began studying economics at Tbilisi State University, graduating in 2001. Shortly after, he moved with his parents to Germany. Since he always wanted to work in the fashion world, he eventually moved to Antwerp, Belgium, where he enrolled at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and graduated with a Master's degree in Fashion Design in 2006.

Demna Gvasalia worked for over 3 years at the French fashion house Maison Margiela before becoming a senior designer at Louis Vuitton in 2013. In 2014, he opened the VETEMENTS brand with his brother and close friends and presented his first women's ready-to-wear collection in Paris in October of the same year. A year later, he took over as creative director of the fashion house Balenciaga, and in 2019 he officially left the VETEMENTS brand. In an interview with the WWD portal, he commented on his departure with the following words: "I started Vetements because I was bored of fashion and against all odds fashion did change once and forever since Vetements appeared and it also opened a new door for so many. So I feel that I have accomplished my mission of a conceptualist and design innovator at this exceptional brand and Vetements has matured into a company that can evolve its creative heritage into a new chapter on its own".

Why Balenciaga's anti-fashion aesthetic
changed the definition of luxury in fashion -
Demna as a creator artist

Demna Gvasalia's greatest inspiration is everyday clothes - the infinite possibility to interpret, wear and rework them. The downright anti-fashion designs created first for his own brand Vetements and later for Balenciaga turned the definition of luxury upside down, redirecting fashion towards streetwear and normcore, making it more inclusive and interesting to a wide audience.

Demna brought street fashion into the living rooms, speaking to a whole new generation of customers in their own language. Breaking the conventional rules of the fashion world, he focused primarily on accessories with the iconic logo such as hats, glasses and the practical sneakers loved by all. His casual designs instantly became popular products - invitations to further discover the extraordinary Balenciaga universe.

The Georgian designer's projects are a fascinating deconstruction of everyday life. The memification and recontextualization of fashion, viral campaigns and unorthodox solutions have guided trends for the entire industry, making Balenciaga's designs true objects of desire. For several seasons, the Spanish fashion house has been on the lips of not only interested fashion fans, unequivocally reigning in the rankings in terms of the number of searches in web browsers or mentions in social media.

The phenomenon of the Spanish brand shoes -
why they are the biggest objects of desire

Fashion houses are racing with ideas to create unique sneakers, ready not only to look phenomenal but also, thanks to innovative technologies, to accompany their owners in extreme conditions and countless adventures. Demna Gvasalia has just released a limited collection of 'The Paris Sneakers' that look... like they have been through everything. They are absurd - but that is exactly what they are supposed to be. Demna's designs stir emotions.

The first sports shoe model created by the Georgian designer for Balenciaga was the record-breaking, brazenly clumsy 'Triple S' with a massive triple sole. He made the trend for 'dad shoes' - shoes associated with 'dads' who don't know anything about fashion - conquer the industry and set it's course for many seasons to come.

Balenciaga continues to surprise with designs that immediately become fodder for memes, gaining viral publicity not only among fashion lovers. The inspiration for customized shoes often comes from other elements of clothing, such as jeans or the iconic 'Cagole' bag model. It is also hard to be indifferent to the 'Chevalier Derby' model, referring to the medieval knight's armor, or the grotesque cooperation with Crocs. The last object of desire among exclusive sneakers is the 'Defender' model inspired by... tires.

The most interesting and surprising collections