Imagine my surprise when I turned on my Switch a while back to play some Fortnite — YES, FORTNITE, I am not immune to the allure of being able to play as a half-man half pancake stack called, yes, Mancake — and I saw a screen advertising some Fortnite x Balenciaga skins and a Balenciaga in-game challenge. Between that and the notable uptick in celebs wearing the brand at the Met Gala, it felt even then like the brand had a new budget and potentially a new person holding the purse strings. And that was before the new runway show, which a) blurred the lines between models, celebrity models, and celebrity guests in a way I read three times and still don’t totally understand (okay, WWD made it a little clearer), and b) led right into a Balenciaga episode of The Simpsons in which Marge models in Paris. That’s A LOT. The collection itself, I think, didn’t quite live up to the hoopla. Maybe that’s why hoopla was required?
