The fashion coverage around here has been pretty abysmal since Emily went back to gotdamn school, and neither of us have been paying much attention to the shows in the past few weeks, other than what the Times covers every morning. However, among a few other collections, Balenciaga was one that really caught my eye. Click to enlarge:These clothes are subtly strange — imaging seeing someone wearing them on the street. I think I'm probably fairly predictable with the stuff I like but again I think Nicolas Ghesquiere is doing interesting things with shape, structure, color, and texture.He told Cathy Horyn his aim was “to ennoble everyday domestic objects.” Looking at the clothes with that in mind, I think he succeeded. (Video of the show is here.)

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Related gossip: Carine Roitfeld and staff did not receive invitations to the show — apparently because they had the nerve to mix and match Balenciaga with another designer in the pages of French Vogue. It's almost always lame when designers get mad at good magazines, and especially so in this case, considering that (as New York puts it) mixing brands is the entire point of styling. Oh well.