By Ella McCauley
Balenciaga’s SS27 collection Unsized proposes a lighter, more body-conscious interpretation of the house’s architectural heritage. It marks one of Pierpaolo Piccioli’s first collections since assuming the creative directorship in May 2025, and already reveals a designer more interested in negotiation than disruption. Rather than dismantling Balenciaga’s couture legacy, Piccioli loosens its grip. The monumental volumes and sculptural silhouettes that have long defined the house remain present, though their authority is softened by garments that adapt to the body rather than dictate it.
Presented through a lookbook photographed inside Balenciaga’s Salon de Couture in Paris, the collection places the house’s history in direct conversation with its future. Piccioli describes Unsized as an attempt to reclaim couture’s radical potential by allowing it to exist beyond ceremonial occasions. Here, construction becomes less prescriptive. Ribbons cinch and release garments according to the wearer’s discretion, transforming clothing into something adjustable rather than absolute. Fabric follows movement instead of resisting it. Sequinned embroideries, cascading fringe and sheer drapery interrupt sharper fabric manipulations, creating a tension between precision and spontaneity that runs throughout the collection.
That dialogue extends into the wardrobe itself. Denim and substantial leather sit comfortably beside featherweight taffeta, the latter replacing Balenciaga’s familiar structural rigidity with an unexpected softness. Ball gowns appear alongside polo shirts, tailored leather jackets beside translucent eveningwear, collapsing the traditional hierarchies that separate haute couture from everyday dress. The styling reinforces this refusal to categorise. Chunky armbands wrap bare skin or gather generous sleeves, elbow-length suede gloves accompany casual looks, and the City Bag, one of the house’s most recognisable accessories, returns in softened leather that mirrors the collection’s gentler disposition.
The collection’s success lies not in abandoning Balenciaga’s identity but in reconsidering where its authority resides. Under Piccioli, architecture no longer comes solely from construction, but from the relationship between garment and wearer. Unsized suggests that couture need not be defined by rigidity or spectacle. Instead, its radicalism may now lie in allowing the body to complete the design.