Balenciaga, AW14, Paris.

The Autumn-Winter 2014 collection at Balenciaga was filled with innovative textile details punctuated with unusual uses of zips, eyelets and branded belt plates.

Zippers were used throughout the collection as both a functional and a decorative detail. Although we are accustomed to seeing zips ready made, the zipper tape and hardware components can be purchased separately to create decorative details. In the case of this collection the zips were sometimes used to create X shapes or to outline sleeves and pant legs.

Grommets were also used in the collection to punctuate the edges of cleverly looped fabric, and reappeared as small eyelets that edged leather tops. A small leather cord was then laced through the eyelets and the top of a belt to soften the edges of the garment.

There was also an interesting use of running stitch in two leather tops where a thick woolly thread was used to create dashed lines growing from the waistline and neckline. This graduated effect seemed to reappear in the use of beading which grew like crystals across the shoulders of knitwear at the end of the collection.

Images from Vogue.co.uk»