While Keanu Reeves still knows kung fu, Demna Gvasalia, too, has never forgotten his references to The Matrix. The proof in pictures with the collections and campaigns of Balenciaga’s creative director.

By Ludmilla Intravaia

“I still know kung fu”. Keanu Reeves warns us : he is ready for his return to The Matrix Resurrections, the long-awaited sequel to the Matrix series in theaters this December 22. Since the release on Monday of an official trailer, almost 3 minutes long, Le Boudoir Numérique, monomaniac guardian of the cult of The Matrix, has been wondering in a loop: does Neo's comeback also mark that of coats-cassocks that collect dust (white) bunnies on the catwalks? 

Better, the Christmas holidays approaching, will we, like Trinity, wear squeaky vinyl catsuits to kiss each other, under the mistletoe on New Years Eve?

Will Santa Claus put dark micro-glasses in our gifts, under the Christmas tree?

In short, does Lana Wachowski's new opus sound the revival of the visionary sartorial aesthetic of the cyberpunk sci-fi trilogy in our wardrobes? Answer: yes but no. Because the spirit of Matrix has never ceased to blow through the world of fashion. Starting with the planet Balenciaga, whose creative director Demna Gvasalia carries high the torch of a fashion tech influenced by the work of the Wachowski sisters.

Illustrative in this regard, the Balenciaga Summer 2019 campaign film, signed in February of the same year by the Canadian artist Jon Rafman, gives pride of place to references to video games, Japanese anime and martial arts movies. 

Now, like Neo in the first Matrix, falling asleep on your computer with cheetos scraps on your lips has become hugely cool, even for a fashion model.

This campaign is a continuation of the Spring-Summer 2019 collection runway show, still designed by Jon Rafman, whose work, like The Matrix, explores the impact of technology and digital media on society.

Thus, for example, the wall of messages of the LEDs tunnel of the show at the Cité du Cinéma in Saint-Denis, on September 30, 2018, is reminiscent of the code rain of the opening scene of The Matrix in 1999 (more info in this Boudoir Numérique article).

Likewise, in Balenciaga Fall-Winter 2017/2018 collection, Demna Gvasalia has brought up to date the thin-rimmed glasses that conceal, in the trilogy, the gaze of the characters who know the truth about the virtual simulation, tool of enslavement of humans.

And if Balenciaga's Fall 21 campaign film was also eyeing on the Matrix (more info in this Boudoir Numérique article), all you have to do is immerse yourself in the latest collections of the French house to treat yourself to a bath of Matrix inspiration, in Fall-Winter 2020 or Spring-Summer 2022 in particular.

Maybe, if you look closely, will you find an hommage to Carrie-Anne Moss who, let us remember, started her career on the catwalks, in a Balenciaga show. Le Boudoir Numérique did.

The fourth movie of the Matrix series, The Matrix Resurrections,  will be released on December 22, 2021. The second version of the official trailer was unveiled, two days ago, by Warner Bros. Pictures. Check it out below.

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