The change of creative direction in a brand signifies either the deconstruction and reconstruction of the codes that the predecessor worked with or a slow shift to adjust into the new era without creating a visual whiplash that makes it feel and look like a completely different brand. It seems like Pierpaolo Piccioli is going for the second option, as seen in the brand-new campaign for Balenciaga’s Fall 2026, where, with a strong focus on the dynamism of sports and a life that is always on the move and that requires a wardrobe that can be as active as we are, the house leans little by little into the craft and shapes we know the Italian designer for, but still with a very heavy aftertaste of what has been working commercially for them for the last decade.
With a large and very diverse campaign that seems to include every possible situation that makes up a day in the life in the XXI century, from chilling at home, running errands, going to the gym, and taking the subway, plus a few more editorial studio shoots, the brand presents what feels like a 360 vision of what the new Balenciaga is striving to become. With this approach from different angles, Piccioli portrays his interest in blurring the categories that classify garments and the original intention they are made with to create a transversal wardrobe that relies less on the preconceived notions and ideas we have of certain pieces and where and when they should be worn and more on the comfort required to survive the modern world and the ever-present need of expressing our minds through personal taste, fashion and style.
In this way we can see how some of the most well-known and highly respected shapes and silhouettes conceived by the master Cristóbal Balenciaga jump from the refined haute couture salons to the concrete streets where we spend most of our time, all in materials and garment typologies that don't require us to attend the most elegant soirée in town to be able to feel the confidence a cocoon-shaped piece creates in our minds and bodies. In this type of garment we can see the Pierpaolo most of us thought would arrive at Balenciaga: the contemporary elegance that knows how to incorporate the legacy of a house into our modern world. However, in this collection we discover a new side of the designer, who’s expressing a heavy interest in sportswear, making it one of the main focuses of the season.
This makes pieces and details like the logos or the chromatic choices, or even the streetwear-inspired outlines, help us travel in time not so far back to reminisce about the work of the founder but to remember what the brand looked like before Pierpaolo arrived, a prolific but definitely disruptive time that attracted a type of audience that can feel their needs catered to by this new take on the oversized slouchy garments and the sport-focused attire that has signified some of the biggest recent successes of the house. Surprisingly, mixed with the pieces meant to be used at a gym — more traditional in shape and focused on the comfort and technical qualities of activewear — and the cool trendy streetwear pieces — some of them born from the collaboration with NBA Apparel — there are some pretty frightful choices, for example, a set of sports top and leggings paired with some ripped denim shorts on top and a wool coat (?).
The good thing about a campaign as opposed to a runway show is that a more subjective narrative can be constructed around it and things can make slightly less sense, it can be presented more as “an introduction to” rather than a “this is it”, because we hope this is not it. Aside from this faux pas and some others, the taste and skill of Pierpaolo are evidently there, as is the need of the brand to not lose the market that has given them the position they have in the current fashion panorama. The future holds the answer to whether this will be a transition in motion that won't stop until we reach a new set of codes that will distinguish and define the Piccioli Balenciaga or if we will continue to get a mélange of everything that has ever been part of the house.
