Demna Gvasalia is a Georgian fashion designer best known as Demna, co-founder of Vetements, a Swiss-based luxury fashion brand, and artistic director at Balenciaga. Demna’s rise to popularity comes from his tendency to accentuate and exaggerate qualities in his designs that would otherwise render a fashion “unfashionable.” From graphics referencing dark-web drug markets to sending his models trudging through a runway of mud, Demna’s work is marked by a distinct unseriousness that the fashion industry had yet to see before.
Gucci is a fashion house that historically (much like Balenciaga) opposed the philosophy behind Demna’s approach to design entirely. The work of the house was opulent and refined, and was the West’s definition of luxury through the 2010s.
Gucci’s Spring 2026 Ready-to-Wear Collection, however, was wholly under Demna’s creative direction. The collection was and still is met with mixed reviews, but frankly, I think that Demna’s position at Gucci is a poor fit. This isn’t to say that he’s a poor fit for a designer, as I think he’s had stellar work in the past. Demna’s work is a product of his fashion philosophy more than it is of craftsmanship or aesthetics, and is often described as being “anti-fashion.”
In theory, this makes him a poor choice for creative director; however, there’s irony in a largely anti-fashion designer overseeing a traditional high-fashion house, and thus his work is celebrated. The anti-fashion takeover of Balenciaga was interesting for a couple of seasons, but it seems as though he’s approaching Gucci in a similar, hackneyed fashion.
Demna’s collection satirizes high fashion and its clientele, doing so through the use of exotic furs for looks 22, 24, and 29, and by featuring fit young models dressed in only underwear in looks 28 and 30. Specific commentary on the exotic fur market and fitness and nutrition being only attainable with considerable wealth is productive, but when he has already used a traditional fashion house as an outlet to protest, commentary like this becomes redundant and unnecessary.
Ultimately, Demna’s a promising talent, but his potential to bring about serious change in the world through his work seems to have stalled with this collection.
–April 7, 2026–
