“She’s a Very Rich Woman”: Mel and Dara on Pierpaolo Piccioli’s Balenciaga Debut

SUNDAY 8:25 AM OCTOBER 5 2025, PARIS 

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MEL OTTENBERG: Hey, thanks for getting up so early.

DARA: Hi. How are you?

OTTENBERG: I’m good. We didn’t have to do it this early, but I love that you were down. Let me pull up my pictures. Dara, what was your honest take on Balenciaga? I liked it, but some people don’t. It’s divisive.

DARA: Really? Well, I was curious what the feeling was in the space during the show. What was the vibe?

OTTENBERG: Well, it was at the Kering headquarters and it was massive. It feels like a giant warehouse meets tomb or something.

DARA: Work.

OTTENBERG: When it started, I was like, “Wait, I really like Piccioli at Balenciaga, because I understand who this woman is.” She’s rich, she’s middle-aged, and she loves to shop. Sometimes I just want to see some clothes as opposed to just an idea or a dream or whatever. You know what I’m saying?

DARA: Totally.

OTTENBERG: The clothes were dreamy but it was not, like–certainly not for everyone. It’s this huge place and when the first look came out I’m like, “Wow. She really commands the space. And she’s a real woman.” I mean, she’s not some normal lady. She’s a fashion woman. 

DARA: That first look is very striking, even though it’s so simple. And it also looks like something that a woman could wear at a dinner party or at a gala or something, and she would look amazing and not insane but still commanding, which I think is sort of the ideal scenario. Seeing a lot of other collections, that’s almost a rarity. There’s a lot of “who’s putting that on their body?” It’s hard to hit that middle ground that does both, and this looks comfy but sophisticated.

OTTENBERG: She’s a very, very rich woman that wants to buy clothes. The clothes were well-cut and the pants were so good. There’s just so many skirts out here, after a while you’re like, “I love a skirt, but what else?” Anyway, what do you think?

DARA: Well, I really liked the silhouette, because there’s only so many times we can just see a cinched waist thing. And this sack thing that he’s doing—I don’t know, that sort of Cristóbal Balenciaga big bag effect or whatever—it looks really beautiful and lush. The fabric feels relaxed in that shape.

OTTENBERG: Absolutely. It’s something that only a real master designer can do. I was actually surprised because I was at Tish Weinstock’s birthday party last night and I ran into someone who was like, “Oh my god, I didn’t like that Balenciaga show.” And I’m like, “Really? You guys are crazy.” The pants are so good.

DARA: The pants are great. To me, the really strong parts of Ghesquière’s Balenciaga were the pants and the little jackets that women would want to fucking wear. 

OTTENBERG: Yeah, yeah. Whatever happened to making pants that women want to wear? We should be rejoicing. By the way, pants that women would want to wear in a fashion show is enough for me to say it’s a great success. There isn’t enough that’s designed well for a woman these days. 

DARA: Yeah, the sharpness of them and the pleating down the front that makes your leg look a thousand miles long. I feel like if you found those pants you would just die, you know?

OTTENBERG: Yeah. I’m looking at the look that’s like a white pillow with the really long white pants and the sharp white shoes.

DARA: That is amazing.

OTTENBERG: It’s amazing.

DARA: If someone showed up like that you’d be like, “Wow, she’s the fucking chicest person here.” I feel like I keep seeing this in a couple shows, this really low vamp on the heel so that you get all this toe cleavage. I love all the toe cleavage this season, actually.

OTTENBERG: The smoking is really hot too. I don’t know what number it is, but it’s like a cropped top.

DARA: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah—19.

OTTENBERG: Oh, you know what though? I really liked the show, but then the beaded stuff I was like, “I don’t get it, maybe it’s just not for me.”

DARA: Yeah. And I don’t love the flower things either. For me, the strength of Balenciaga is interpreting the flower as a form and draping fabric to mimic a tulip instead of decorating with it. I mean, even on Look 37, the sort of green knit dress with the flowers. The print is from that Ghesquière collection that’s like the football shoulders with the florals.

OTTENBERG: Oh, right.

DARA: I wish that print was explored in some other way because it’s such an amazing print and I feel like it would be so great to see again. That being said, I like that he’s confident about acknowledging the past of the brand, all the different versions of it. It doesn’t feel copied and it doesn’t feel weighed down by it, which is confident. Other debuts don’t necessarily have that same effortlessness. You know what I mean? You could sort of buckle under all of those amazing designers that have come before, ’cause it’s been literally the greats of the greats at this brand. And he actually feels very easy about the fact that he’s following this lineage—

OTTENBERG: Right. The weight of history is not falling heavily on his shoulders.

DARA: Not at all.

OTTENBERG: And this doesn’t look like Valentino to me. I also thought of my mother, who was always a real fashion buyer. She bought a lot of Phoebe [Philo] Celine and a lot of Consuelo [Castiglioni] Marni, and she was always really sad when they left those brands because she had nothing to buy anymore. I think it’s important right now to make stylish, real clothes, you know?

DARA: Yeah. There’s little bomber jackets and leather jackets and gray pants and things that work in the evening that are not hyper-formal, you know what I mean? There’s the occasions that we live in now, where you can wear a pant with an interesting top instead of a gown. It doesn’t really feel Valentino, and it’s not Demna. It’s its own universe now.

OTTENBERG: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Another thing that I liked is that it’s whole world of dressing. You’re showing jean shorts, bomber jackets, gowns. You’re showing a million different ways to be a wealthy customer of Balenciaga.

DARA: It’s a whole wardrobe.

OTTENBERG: It’s rich and it’s jet set and it’s not street. And I’m in the mood for that. I like it. I think dressing up is good right now. The world’s so embarrassing—having some taste, it’s a good idea.

DARA: [Laughs] So real.