Guests arriving at the Balenciaga show at the foot of the Champs-Élysées in Paris stepped into a dark, club-like space where wraparound screens broadcast images of the moon, crashing waves and sunsets, alongside teasers from season three of “Euphoria.”
Amid the gloom appeared a host of familiar TV faces, and some less familiar, too.
In a haze of flashbulbs, “Heated Rivalry” star Hudson Williams, dressed in a black leather jacket with a portrait collar, headed straight toward Jordan Firstman. The two men warmly embraced, proving there are no hard feelings after their public online exchange of comments about the depiction of gay sex scenes in the HBO Max series.
“What’s up daddy,” exclaimed Firstman, who was flanked by his “I Love LA” castmates Rachel Sennott and Josh Hutcherson. “The whole fam is back together,” he noted.
You May Also Like
Williams was one of 11 new Balenciaga brand ambassadors revealed last month, alongside Winona Ryder, Harris Dickinson and Roh Yoonseo, who were also in attendance.
Ryder — accompanied by her boyfriend, fashion designer Scott Mackinlay Hahn — lowered her gaze as she was led through the heaving crowd, but the “Stranger Things” star lit up when she spotted Balenciaga chief executive officer Gianfranco Gianangeli, greeting him with a hug.
Also on hand was “Euphoria” cast member Chloe Cherry, who will reprise her role as Faye in season three, premiering April 12. She was joined by new cast members Danielle Deadwyler, Anna Van Patten, Priscilla Delgado, Darrell Britt-Gibson and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje.
Series creator Sam Levinson partnered with Balenciaga creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli on the show set, conceiving the video installations, which spliced fragments from the upcoming season with closeup footage of some of the runway models.
Flanked by his wife and producing partner Ashley Levinson, he said it’s been inspiring to see how the show has resonated with fashion designers.
“That’s, I guess, all you hope for when you make something — that it starts to create a dialogue, and it inspires someone else, and then they make something new, and that inspires another person, and it just keeps going. That’s one of the gifts of being an artist and having something that works on a scale that’s beyond what I anticipated,” he said.
“I think it inspires us, hopefully, as much as ‘Euphoria’ inspires them,” chimed in Ashley Levinson.
She noted the Balenciaga show soundtrack featured exclusive excerpts from Hans Zimmer’s new score for season three. It also included two tracks by Labrinth, who was one of the brand ambassadors recently named, and two by Rosalía, who will guest star on “Euphoria” this season.
“It’s just been an honor to work with Pierpaolo, who we’ve respected for a long while,” Ashley Levinson said. “This is very exciting to us, a live event, all of the different people that it requires to come together in this moment.”
