The presentation of Capital B—Balenciaga’s Spring 2024 collection—is better characterized as a slice-of-life performance than a traditional runway show. The film is framed by the facade of its 10 Avenue George V Maison, models moving to the city’s circadian rhythms past and through its doors. It’s an alternate reality that’s only just out of reach: a timeline where everybody is adorned in head-to-toe Balenciaga.

The collection itself is subtle and sophisticated; the Parisian house’s affinity for the avant-garde materializes mostly in the science-fictionally-shaped sunglasses and experimentally-structured shoes. The Biker Boot, for instance, becomes a pantashoe, finding a strange intersection between subversive style and flexible functionality.

Ready-to-wear takes new literarility as the designs are flaunted in practice: hopping on the back of a scooter, couriering packages, walking dogs, retrieving fallen coins from the ground, seeking shelter in a sudden rain. In Creative Director Demna’s hands, life is a runway, and should be treated as such.