The atelier is quiet in a way that fashion studios rarely are. No music. No chatter. Just the sound of hands at work, fabric moving in space, the precise language of tailoring spoken in real time. Photographer Sophie Adams she documents this essential silence in her turn from the Balenciaga Tailoring Workshopscapturing the 55th collection not as a finished product, but as a lived moment. Here is where Pierpaolo Piccioli The vision becomes tangible, becomes real.
Accessories reveal what the runway cannot. A model stands in a cashmere coat, 3D scans of her body have updated every seam. The inner leather shell shifts slightly as you move, offering both structure and near-impossible lightness. Stems steps back Christine adjusts a lapel. The collaboration between designer and craftsman is not hierarchical here, it is conversational. This is tailoring as a methodology, as a way of working that shapes not only the clothes, but the relationships within the atelier itself.
Sophie Adams The camera witnesses the negotiation between intention and material. A feather head from Philip Treacy is refined. The collaboration dissolves the boundary between millinery and clothing, yet here in the application, it is simply a matter of how the neck takes the weight, how the eye should rest. A seamstress sews embroidery that will carry a structural load, integral to the architecture rather than applied to it. Accuracy is absolute. There is no room for approach in tailoring.
The model roster reflects that by Piccioli commitment to diversity and presence. Gigi Hadid, Liu Wen, Anok Yai, Amanda Murphy, Malgosia Bela, Kongand dozens more move through the atelier, each body a canvas for the three-dimensional obsession that defines this collection. Ahol Aiyor, Angel Acc, Aluel Keror, Aluel Makuach, Nyawurh Chuol, Have fun Chuwoland Ager’s son it carries presence and power. Agnes Wahlström, Alaina Rae, Alva Clare, Annemary Aderibigbe, Apoline Rocco Fohrer, Athiec gang, Awar Odhiang, Betsy Gaghan, Caitlin Soetendall, Canlan Wang, Elodie Guipaud, Esme Cornelius, Evelyn Ephrim, Fatou Kebbeh, FeiFei Sun, Frauke Nijs, Hejia Li, Ivy Stewart, Jacqui Hooper, Caroline Wolter, Chris Crystal, Lauren Huyskens, Lina Zhang, Lucia Richardson, Malin Rudnick, Marylore Heck, Mona Tougaard, Noor Khan, Penelope Ternes, Saar Mansvelt Beck, Sarah Isaacsen, Sascha Rajasalu, Selena Forrest, Sen Samisheva, Valerie Margareta, Valery Sergeevaand Xinyue Guo they inhabit silhouettes with precision and grace.
The behind-the-scenes pictures do the talking by Piccioli philosophy directly. Before the Paris Fashion Week presentation, Balenciaga published only studio documentation. Three images. His hands Tidjane, Christineand Susie shaping the collection. It was a statement: couture is made by the people who live it. Not by the mechanism of exposure, not by the celebrity of the moment, but by the commitment and time and love in the atelier.
The creative team behind the collection reflects the same precision. Fashion Editor and Stylist Joe McKenna orchestrates the presentation of each silhouette. Hair Stylist Guido Palau shapes the frame around the face, understanding that tailoring exists in three dimensions. Makeup artist Pat McGrath she applies her art with the same rigor that seamstresses bring to embroidery, every detail integral and not decorative. Casting Directors Alejandra Perez, Evagria Sergeevaand Piergiorgio Del Moro assembled a group of models whose presence and bodies honor by Piccioli vision of the form.
Adams’ the photograph honors this commitment. Fittings are not vanity moments. They are moments of problem solving, refinement, the designer and the art working together to achieve what Stems describes as “the achievement of the impossible”. A silhouette that is both modest and exuberant. A weightless yet load bearing wing. A silk fiber that carries the tensile strength of steel while whispering instead of shouting.
What follows from Adams’ lens is the essence of what Cristobal Balenciaga understood: tailoring as a three-dimensional form, as a sculpture, as a conversation between the body and the garment. Stems does not translate this inheritance. It resonates. And in the atelier, surrounded by the people involved in sewing, this echo becomes a completely new language.
“This collection is the result of a feeling” Stems he said. “We worked while we knew each other, learning to understand each other. We built our own language, full of new words and timeless. We searched, we tried, we remembered. This collection is the result of the work of the people of the atelier, the people who are couture because the couture is made by the people who live it.”
The behind-the-scenes images are proof of that promise. Discover more in our gallery:
Backstage Photography: Sophie Adams? Fashion editor Joe McKenna? Hair Stylist Guido Palau; Makeup Artist: Pat McGrath; Casting Directors: Alejandra Perez, Evagria Sergeeva, Piergiorgio Del Moro
