“In the last couple of months, I needed to seek shelter for my love affair with fashion and I instinctively found it in the process of making clothes.” A note sat on each guest’s seat directly from Balenciaga’s creative director Demna. It was his way of addressing recent campaign imagery controversies at the Parisian fashion house while outlining this season’s vision. “This is why fashion to me can no longer be seen as an entertainment, but rather as the art of making clothes.”

And so, Demna presented a collection that ditched the theatrics and embraced design. Exploring the ways in which clothing can be evolved and distorted, acts of reconstruction saw trousers twisted into a dress, a trench, a moto jacket, and a suit. Dimensions shifted as unused trouser legs were draped over legs, creating a sense of motion as models walked through the minimalist showspace (not a celebrity front row guest in sight), and protective inflatable forms were sewn into garment linings, the sort you’d find in clothes designed to cushion the body in case of a fall. Florals decorated gowns with sculptured shoulders, and shimmering embroidery danced with the room’s subtle lighting.

Demna has said that this move away from theatrics was decided before the campaign crisis, and that it will be an ongoing vision as he allows the house’s storied craft and art to speak the loudest.