“Wearing Balenciaga always makes me feel bold and strong, because Demna is cutting edge, but he always makes it comfortable,” continues Yeoh, highlighting the 2022 couture show in Paris as the moment she truly fell for the brand. There was much for Michelle to love in the new resort edit, featuring elongated silhouettes inspired by Shanghai’s Pudong high-rises and deconstructed takes on Balenciaga’s famous hourglass silhouette, including dresses fashioned from old plastic bags. As per his usual nebulous manner, Demna chose not to over-analyze his work. “You know, I think so much less than people think when I make looks,” he told Vogue Runway after the Museum of Art Pudong show had played out. “I just like those silhouettes and I would like to dress like that and I would like to see women dress like that. There’s really no intellectualizing behind it.”
Mr. Fang
Mr. Fang
It’s this quiet confidence that drew in Yeoh, who shares the same “love of peace and quiet”. “Those are the moments when we can wander into our own world of fantasy and create and imagine beautiful things,” she adds of a friendship based on thoughtfulness rather than Instagram followers. Indeed, a stressed Demna – unable to control the inclement weather – later decided the drizzle “actually added a layer of some kind of uncontrolled poetry to what I wanted to bring to Shanghai for the first time with Balenciaga.”
Catch her if you can: Yeoh zipped out of the district in her “incognito” uniform of hoodie, joggers, capacious Rodeo bag and Circuit trainers, but with the couture shows mere weeks away, it’s only a matter of time before we see this impossibly elegant–and fearless–actor on the fashion circuit again. Her Balenciaga ambassadorship suits her.
Mr. Fang
Mr. Fang
