Now everyone can make a Balenciaga jacket at home

After a complex few months, to say the least, following the uproar raised by last year's campaigns, Balenciaga is preparing to return to the scene. As Demna has already mentioned, the next collection will return to reclaiming the materialistic values of tailoring, leaving aside the quest for virality on social media and focusing on the desirability of the final product. Therefore, accompanying the announcement of its new show on Sunday, March 5, the brand created the sewing pattern of a men's jacket making it freely available to fans who «is meant to be made at home or by a local tailor using the fabrics and trims of your choice». The initiative wants to «highlight the complexity of the art of tailoring» and signals the brand's desire to start from the basics to reaffirm the value of its production.

The idea of providing paper patterns to the public is not new: a few years ago J.W. Anderson posted the pattern of a knitted cardigan that went viral on TikTok for fans to replicate at home, while The Woolmark Company has an entire page on its website dedicated to making patterns for hats, scarves and other accessories public. The idea comes from the era when fashion magazines, Vogue included, sold paper patterns of numerous dresses so that readers could have the latest dresses seen in Paris or Milan made by their local seamstress.