FASHION Magazine

Take a look back at Nicolas Ghesquière’s Balenciaga Top 10 »

As any entry-level fashion historian might know, clothing is as good a representation of what’s going on in the world as any. At a more micro level, its one of the best ways to chart changing aesthetics through time. What better proponent of so many of fashion’s most recent aesthetic shifts than Nicolas Ghesquière, creative director of Balenciaga, who announced today that after 15 years with the brand, he’d be stepping down. As someone who was so effected by Ghesquière’s genius while wading through my own fashion discovery (namely the one-two punch of Spring 2007 and Spring 2008), this news is real sucky. On the bright side, it’s a great time to look back at just how unbelievably influential Ghesquière was in starting so many recurring trends.