Nicolas Ghesquiere: Balenciaga just wasnt fulfilling anymore

In an interview with new publication System , the 42-year-old has revealed that it was a lack of support and recognition, as well as over-commercialisation of the brand that led him to leave his job as creative director after a highly-successful 15 years.

Comparing his role at Balenciaga to that of Miuccia Prada at her namesake brand, Ghesquière comments that unlike Miuccia, who runs her brands with husband Patrizio Bertelli, he had no support.

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"Sadly, I never had that. I never had a partner, and I ended up feeling too alone," he says candidly. "I had a marvellous studio and design team who were close to me, but it started becoming a bureaucracy and gradually became more corporate, until it was no longer even linked to fashion."

The dissolution of his name within the brand was also an issue, leading him to feel "dehumanised". "I began to feel as though I was being sucked dry, like they wanted to steal my identity while trying to homogenise things," he says "It just wasn't fulfilling anymore."

The designer also accuses the brand's management of failing to correctly gauge which pieces from the catwalk would become big sellers, bypassing his extensive research and instead opting for the most easily merchandisable product. "The strongest pieces that we made for the catwalk got ignored by the business people. They forgot that in order to get to that easily sellable biker jacket, it had to go via a technically mastered piece that had been shown on the catwalk." This, he says, has led the brand, which is now helmed by American designer Alexander Wang, to become "something much more reproducible and flat."

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"You need to have the right people around you: people who adore the luxury domain. There has to be a vision, but there also has to be a partner, a duo, someone to help you carry it," he says, summing up what Balenciaga's infrastructure lacked.

The Frenchman is now "preparing for the next chapter", although he doesn't offer any hints as to what it may entail. "We saw clearly when the split took place that there was a desire for my name," he says. "That's exciting because whatever choice I make, the possibilities are open, and that was confirmed with the freeing of my name from Balenciaga."

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