Balenciaga Meets Bernie Sanders to Create ... Bernenciaga?

Balenciaga designer and creative director Demna Gvasalia has mixed fashion and politics into one smooth, Bernie Sanders-inspired cocktail. The Balenciaga Fall/Winter 2017 Menswear Collection recently showed in Paris, and something seemed a little familiar about their logo. Gvasalia isn’t shy about mixing pop culture logos into his collections (ironically or not, you decide), and this time the designer wove in the graphic aesthetic of the Bernie Sanders campaign. Red and white curved lines between the white “Balenciaga” logo and “2017” adorn many of the garments in the F/W ‘17 Collection, including a logo bomber jacket, hoodies, t-shirts and one particularly in-your-face blanket scarf. See the Bernie Sanders campaign logo in the photo below for comparison—the similarities are not subtle.

(Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty)

The “Bernenciaga” collection is also seriously ‘90s dadcore, with corporate boxy attire, puffer jackets and orthopedic-esque sneakers that pull together the whole look with a massive dose of ugly-cool that already promises to be crazy popular this season. While this look is consistent with Balenciaga’s architecturally forceful tailoring, perhaps Gvasalia was also looking through his favorite socialist grandad’s closet for inspiration? Or is the Bernie-inspired collection a subtle satire on the fashion tastes of the “Bernie-Bro”? Either way, we’re into it.

Balenciaga Meets Bernie Sanders to Create … Bernenciaga?