Demna Wore a Black T-shirt, Natch, to Receive a French Honor
HEAVY MEDAL: There’s a good chance this was the first French medal of honor pinned on an artfully decayed black T-shirt.
Rachida Dati, France’s minister of culture, kept re-pinning and straightening the green ribbon and medallion after decorating Balenciaga’s creative director Demna as a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters at a ceremony on Monday night.
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Dati even adjusted the shoulders of Demna’s T-shirt, which gaped open at some seams, and exalted his many arm tattoos, including one of the Eiffel Tower.
The designer said he was touched by the recognition from the French state, twisting his fingers into heart symbols as his coworkers in the design studio let out a loud cheer.
Actress Isabelle Huppert joined Dati on a dais to recount the designer’s accomplishments as his parents, key journalists, his favorite fashion professor and Kering executives looked on.
The latter included François-Henri Pinault, Francesca Bellettini, Balenciaga’s longtime chief executive officer Cédric Charbit and his successor as of Jan. 2, Gianfranco Gianangeli.
“I often thought that my work was not really understood or was misinterpreted, but today, that’s changing and I’m very happy about that,” Demna said in his acceptance speech, spoken in French. “I didn’t know that Paris would become a home, and even more so a place that would influence my style and my vision of fashion so much.”
Huppert, a Balenciaga ambassador since 2023, lauded Demna for “taking fashion, this world often filled with rules and traditions, disrupting it and, in a way, turning it on its head.”
She argued his upbringing in Georgia remains paramount. “His roots are present in everything he does. In his way of looking at the world, understanding struggle, identity and even humor,” Huppert said. “He can be inspired by the banal or the monumental. He transforms the forgotten, the neglected into something sublime.
“Demna has never hesitated to take risks, to challenge the status quo or to address the complexities of our world,” she continued. “His work is bold, intrepid and above all very authentic. Through his designs, he has given a voice to so many people and proven that fashion can be a force for change, a medium of connection and, yes, even a form of protest.”
Demna studied international economics at Tbilisi State University before he enrolled in Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts, graduating with a master’s degree in fashion design in 2006, going on to work for Walter van Beirendonck, Maison Margiela and Louis Vuitton before founding Vetements in 2014, and assuming the helm of Balenciaga the following year.
Vetements ignited the luxury streetwear juggernaut in fashion, and he transformed Balenciaga with a unique new strain of dystopian-tinged chic, and alternative glamour.
Established in 1957 to recognize artists and writers, as well as others who have contributed significantly to the arts in France, the Order of Arts and Letters has been awarded to the likes of Iris Van Herpen, Giambattista Valli, Simon Porte Jacquemus, architect Peter Marino and the late fashion editor André Leon Talley.
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