Nicolas Ghesquiere reveals Balenciaga appointment was by chance

During a fashion talk held at New York’s Met Museum of Modern Art on Tuesday between Nicolas Ghesquière and Grace Coddington some juicy gossip was revealed. Ghesquière was not the first choice to helm Balenciaga when he was appointed creative director in 1997.

Ghesquière was to design an interim collection for the house after Helmut Lang, who was take the top job, didn’t sign his contract. Ghesquière had been at the house since 2015 as a freelance designer, when two years later creative director Josephus Thirster was fired from the role. “I think Helmut never signed the contract and in fact they asked me to do a six-months collection, an in-between collection—just for them to have the time to find someone famous. It’s the way it was explained to me,” Ghesquière told Coddington during the talk.

Ghesquière confirms launching own label

Earlier this month Louis Vuitton and Ghesquière signed another five year deal for the designer to stay on as head of womenswear. "It’s true I have many more things to say at Vuitton—and they have many more things to ask me to say,” Ghesquière said. "We did an announcement, which is quite unusual, to say there is stability, there is happiness, and voilà. The story is great so we want to celebrate this announcement. That means also I have more possibilities, absolutely, and one of these possibilities is to create my own name. So stay tuned.”