More and more in recent years, we’ve seen film and TV lean on fashion as a promotional tool. Whether it’s been the actors’ method dressing on the red carpet (see Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande wearing nothing but green and pink for the past two years) or the viral Marty Supreme jacket, fashion has become a major part of big-budget rollouts. 

Euphoria creator Sam Levinson is well aware of this, and Pierpaolo Picciolo’s sophomore show at Balenciaga was presented in partnership with the director. In the past, we’ve seen countless fashion shows inspired by the big screen, but it’s much more uncommon to see a designer create a collection alongside a director. That being said, Balenciaga is a brand known for embedding itself in pop culture, and let’s not forget Demna’s Balenciaga x The Simpsons collaboration, for which director David Silverman created a ten-minute animated film. 

With Euphoria season three due for release next month, the collection lands at the ideal time to remind us all that it’s coming – plus, Pierpaolo himself has openly admitted that he is “obsessed” with the show. The results of the Balenciaga x Euphoria mash-up appeared in multiple ways: from the guestlist to the logo, the soundtrack to the set design. Here’s everything you missed… 

LET IT SLIDE  

In the days leading up to the show, guests received a mysterious, interactive invite. Inside a silver box, eight slides of film were arranged in a circle, all pointing towards a loupe – a small magnifying tool used by jewellers and film photographers – at the centre. To discover information about the show, guests needed to use the loupe to decipher the time, date, and location. However, the slides also carried cryptic, fortune cookie-style messages such as “You’re all I got in this world”, “The moon is as bright as the sun”, and “You either believe or you don’t”. 

WINONA FOREVER 

With last season’s wave of debuts came new directions, a renewed sense of excitement, and new faces, too. Since showing their first collections last autumn, the designers have been slowly introducing us to their brand ambassadors, and last month, Balenciaga added not one, not two, but eleven new faces to its roster. Among them were Winona Ryder, Harris Dickinson and Hudson Williams, who all showed up to support Pierpaolo’s sophomore show. Elsewhere, Pillion star Harry Melling made a rare appearance, sitting alongside Bill Skarsgård, Rachel Sennott, Giveon and Levinson himself. 

EUPHORIA FANS WERE TAKING NOTES

For Pierpaolo’s debut, the designer staged his show at the former Balenciaga headquarters in Paris’s Hôpital Laennec. For his sophomore collection, however, the brand took over a venue just off the Champs-Élysées. Inside, Levinson had filled the space with video installations, featuring teasers from Euphoria season three spliced with cinematic California landscapes. Levinson also captured shots of the models who were about to appear in the show, all projected onto giant pillars inside the venue. The film slides from the show invite began to make more sense, like we were being shown holiday snaps from an American road trip (if that road trip included the cast of HBO’s hit teen TV show). 

WHAT PIERPAOLO DOES IN THE SHADOWS

During his first show, Pierpaolo honoured the brand’s history by reimagining Cristóbal Balenciaga’s infamous 1975 sack dress. He took us on a trip down memory lane with nods to both Nicolas Ghesquière’s era (bringing back the City bag) and Demna’s era, too, with those bug-like sunglasses. This collection, though, paid homage to Cristóbal’s favourite colour: black. Famously, the shade was the designer’s go-to, inspired by his Spanish heritage and the nation’s bullfighter costumes and mourning gowns. Titled ClairObscur, the show took its name from the artistic technique more commonly known as chiaroscuro, describing the contrast between light and dark. Though black dominated the runway, jolts of vibrant orange, purple and burgundy cut through the dark. 

THERE WAS A SENSE OF EUPHORIA THROUGHOUT 

Like any other show, upon arrival, guests posed underneath the Balenciaga logo. Unlike previous shows however, the logo had been completely revamped. To mark the occasion, the branding used the same font as the Euphoria posters – that ultra-thin, all-lower-case type face. Then, when cast member Chloe Cherry stood underneath the logo to have her picture taken, it all began to click together. 

During the show itself, models walked to Rosalía’s “Berghain”, alluding to two things: firstly, that Pierpaolo cares about opera (even if Timothée Chalamet doesn’t), and secondly, that Rosalía is about to star in the upcoming series of Euphoria (which we already know). 

We heard a second Rosalía track, “Divinize”, which was also used by Maria Grazia Chiuri during her Fendi debut last week. It might have been a while since Pierpaolo and Maria Grazia worked together, but clearly, they still think along the same lines. To top it all off, Labrinth – who was one of the 11 brand ambassadors recently named – also featured on the show’s soundtrack, the man behind Euphoria’s theme song “All For Us”. With all the online chatter, we don’t really know what to expect of the show’s third and final season. At least one thing’s for certain: Pierpaolo has his popcorn ready.