Balenciaga Complicates the Fashion Calendar Just a Wee Bit More

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You don't have to be a buyer or editor to be well aware of the tumult going on with the fashion calendar right now — consumers had better be aware of it, actually, since designers' mass movement toward making portions of their fall 2016 collections instantly available for purchase was all for shoppers' benefit. Everyone from Tommy Hilfiger to Prada got on board with that shift, and in recent weeks, brands like Public School, Burberry, and Gucci have announced that they will be showing their men's and women's collections simultaneously. Beyond that, Public School is capping its output at two collections a year, a similar strategy to what Vetements has planned.

If you enjoy aggressively trolling Twitter for news, it's all very exciting. If not, resign yourself to a permanent state of confusion.

To make things a tad bit more baffling, Balenciaga switched up its pre-fall 2016 timing this year such that images are embargoed until May, WWD reports — months after creative director Demna Gvasalia showed fall 2016, his first collection for the brand. Most fashion houses showed pre-fall starting in November of last year; editors just received invites to see Balenciaga's offering last week. We've reached out to Balenciaga for comment and will update when we hear back, but WWD writes that the reason for holding off on pre-fall is that Gvasalia didn't have a full hand in creating it, as he did with fall 2016.

That's fair. It wouldn't be sensible to squander a massively hyped debut. It's really just a drop in Hurricane Fashion Calendar, anyway.