Kim Kardashian was spotted wearing a Balenciaga couture wedding dress for ex-husband Kanye West’s last Donda listening party. This dress is a reference to Balenciaga’s 1967 iconic wedding dress and was presented earlier this year in Demna Gvasalia’s Couture debut for the Maison. What a blast!

When it comes to shocking the world, the ex-couple Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are pros. Kanye’s new album Donda came out last week, and since then, people have gone crazy. West’s 10th album had been long-awaited for his fans and was entitled Donda in homage to Kanye’s late mother Donda West. Before its launch, the rapper performed a few pre-release listening parties to promote this album. Each of the three listening parties – first in Las Vegas, then in Atlanta, and lastly in Chicago – were a boom and brought out shocking elements, including controversial fashion items. The costume designer and wardrobe supervisor responsible for those shows was Lila Nikole. She is the person behind Kanye’s iconic balaclavas and the Balenciaga outfits worn by performers during the listening parties. On August 27th, 2021 the last of them happened in Chicago and, supporting the West’s ex-couple long history with Balenciaga, by the end of the concert, Kim Kardashian appeared wearing a Couture wedding dress from the Maison’s last Couture show, presented on July 7th.

Demna Gvasalia, Balenciaga’s current Creative Director, made his Couture debut in July this year, during Parisian Haute Couture Week, after 53 years that Balenciaga stopped presenting Couture shows. This collection enhanced 63 looks and showcased both Demna’s vision of Couture today, as well as the heritage of Cristobal Balenciaga’s work. Gvasalia has been reshaping the traditional and classic Maison into a more updated and modern brand, and this Haute Couture collection was an absolute mark in Balenciaga’s history. Demna created a perfectly harmonic combination of past and present, in a fashion show that was presented in the shape of early Couture shows: in a completely silent environment where the audience was able to listen to the clothes moving as models walked. Balenciaga’s Couture collection presented two wedding dresses, which is very uncommon for fashion shows, that usually only present one. The show was closed by look number 63, the second wedding dress, a reinterpretation of Balenciaga’s 1967 single-seam wedding dress. According to Gvasalia, this piece was already modern, so the designer decided to only update the fabric used in it: instead of the original pure silk, he chose a silk molton. The look was finalized and tied up with a very simple transparent veil.

Kim Kardashian had been attending Kanye’s previous Donda listening parties, – and wearing Balenciaga’s outfits matching her ex-husband – but for the last one of them, the celebrity surprisingly chose this iconic Balenciaga dress. This amazing fashion moment caused a lot of buzz and speculation over social media platforms. Since Kim’s gown is a wedding dress, people started questioning if she was back together with Kanye, but those rumors were denied by the two of them. On the other hand, some people understood Kim’s outfit as if she was portraying a ghost-bride. Moreover, as Kanye set himself on fire right before Kim’s appearance – walking unnoticed, as a ghost, among performers -, people understood it as a way for West to get rid of his sins. As Kanye now showed up without the balaclava he had been wearing for all Donda listening parties, his meeting with Kim could mean his encounter with some sanctity, as a new man that doesn’t need any masks.

We cannot be sure what Kim Kardashian’s wedding dress outfit represented in the last Donda listening party, but the fact she wore a very acclaimed Balenciaga Haute Couture gown is itself an incredible moment for fashion.

Published by HOLR Magazine.