Balenciaga Deserved Martine Rose

Fashion’s worst-kept secret has finally been confirmed: Chemena Kamali is taking over Saint Laurent! Oh wait, sorry, no. Still waiting on that one. 

The real news is that Balenciaga dropped Pierpaolo Piccioli as creative director after only three collections — the latter of which was actually really good, but came too little, too late — and announced Martine Rose as his replacement a day later. It’s less a shakeup and more a recentering: Rose consulted on the brand under Demna pre-Piccioli, helping to shape the house’s menswear while juggling her own brand.

In such a shaky period for the luxury market, and fashion writ large, it’s refreshing to see the powers that be at a brand hire a designer people actually shipped with the fashion house. Rose to Balenciaga feels like endgame after a wrong turn; the fashion equivalent of Belly finally dropping Jeremiah and ending up with Conrad Fisher on The Summer I Turned Pretty (spoiler alert, I guess). 

The British designer built a devoted following for a reason. Simply put: Rose has the sauce. She always offers something wholly original — fresh and unexpected, yes, but also tied to a British streetwear savvy that can’t be taught. See: surprise Stüssy collab riding gloves or, for her namesake brand’s Spring/Summer 2026 collection, skin-tight versions of menswear staples like jerseys and track jackets. 

She’s masterful at playing with proportion like Demna, but the end product feels familiar but twisted in a way that doesn’t come off as confrontational and, respectfully, edgelordy like what was on offer during the Georgian designer’s Balenciaga era. Rose’s larger sportswear-with-edge style has also won over the likes of Rihanna and Kendrick Lamar. Plus, those Nike Shox Mules? They’ve been a staple choice for Berlin art-world baddies for years. 

Though the announcement is slightly blunted by the fact that everyone even tangentially interested in fashion has been waiting for this exact chain of events to commence for weeks, it’s no less historic. Rose isn’t just the first woman to take over in Balenciaga’s 109-year history; she’s also only the second Black woman to be named creative director at a major European fashion house. The first? Grace Wales Bonner for Hermès, announced only a year ago. (Bonner’s debut menswear collection for the brand will debut in January.)

There’s no announcement yet on exactly when we’ll see Rose’s vision for Balenciaga hit the runway, but with this much goodwill at her back (plus the benefit of knowing the brand), this is one case of designer musical chairs that feels perfectly in tune. 

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