Demna presents a Balenciaga Spring 2026 collection that reads more like a constructed archive than a traditional runway lineup. Titled Balenciaga by Demna: Exactitudes, the offering gathers pieces from 35 previous seasons and combines them with new designs and garments from his personal wardrobe. This isn’t about introducing a fresh theme, it’s about defining a pattern that has evolved over ten years at the house.
Rather than reshaping the aesthetic codes he’s known for, Demna cuts straight to their essence. Familiar proportions return: dropped shoulders, extended silhouettes, sculpted volume, directional denim, and heavy outerwear. What might have once felt experimental now looks like a uniform, intentional, consistent, and authored. Each look carries a history, both from Balenciaga’s archives and from Demna’s private rotation.
The designer focuses on how clothing operates in real life, not just how it performs on a runway. He builds on questions he’s asked from the beginning: What do people wear? What does luxury look like outside of tradition? And how do those answers shift over time? With Exactitudes, he keeps those inquiries in motion, but turns them inward.
To frame the collection visually, Demna collaborated with Ari Versluis and Ellie Uyttenbroek, the creators of the Exactitudes photo series. Their long-running work classifies individuals by dress and identity, forming visual grids that Demna has often cited as a reference point. The same observational spirit runs through this season, where styling, casting, and silhouette echo that taxonomic structure.
Demna describes the process of assembling Exactitudes as a return to form. Instead of aiming for spectacle, he focused on understanding his own catalogue, what stuck, what evolved, and what felt worth repeating. That instinct has guided much of his design thinking, not only at Balenciaga but throughout his career. His interest in dress codes and social cues grounds the collection in reflection, not nostalgia.
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Still, this project doesn’t signal a final chapter. Demna treats it as a record, not a conclusion. In the days before what will be his final couture presentation at the house, he will launch Balenciaga by Demna, a curated exhibition surveying his most defining contributions over the last ten years. The collection and exhibition stand as companion works, editorial and physical, both curated by the designer himself.
