In case you’re wondering, it is to be worn. Interested?

By Balenciaga: a roll of clear tape to be worn as a bracelet. Photo: myfacewheno_o/Instagram

Has Demna Gvasalia been spending too much time with packers or at the shipping department of Balenciaga? We have already established that Mr Gvasalia is rather enamoured with packing tape—yep, those that secure your Shopee parcels, as well as caution tapes, those you see on streets, particularly at an accident site or crime scene. The latter, he has used to wrap the innocent Hourglass bag and two willing celebrities: Lisso and Kim Kardashian (it is not certain who else went to the house for the custom mummification). We are not sure if the tapes with adhesive quality is an infatuation bordering on the fetishistic, but their repeated use seems to suggest that it could be. Or are they just cheap to employ and easily available? Some manufacturer, such as our own Heleflo Products, can customise the tape. Balenciaga’s bracelet has a cardboard core that is printed with the brand name, as well as the word “adhesive” (in case you can’t tell), and “Made in France” on both sides. Does that minimise the ridiculousness of the hardware store staple on the arm?

What Balenciaga proposes for autumn/winter 2024 appears to be made of OPP (oriented polypropylene) film, commonly used for sealing boxes and packaging. It is hard to tell from photos circulating online if the bracelet is really made of tape or is, in fact, acrylic cuffs made to look like they are. Why not? Even leather can look like denim now. If a roll of adhesive tape is really that fashionable, why not choose the more sleek-looking Kapton tape (high temperature tapes often for electrical application), with their appealing metallic sheen? But, perhaps, that won’t be ironic enough since irony in fashion, from normcore to gorpcore and everything between, is no longer grippingly so. And since ironic has oftentimes been outrageous at Balenciaga—not scurrilous, it must only get more enhanced. Since we’re going through a contractor’s tool kit, why not tap washers for a ring next?

A taped dress and the roll-of-tape-as-bracelet on the right arm. Photo: Balenciaga

There are those who consider the roll of tape destined for the wrist—and another meme in the making—to be funny. Marvelously, they got the joke. But there are those who are appalled that Balenciaga would “pull another fast one” on them. The more extreme of views believe the brand is mocking those of limited means, such as little girls (boys too) from less well-off families who do use the cores of tapes, kitchen paper, and toilet rolls, et al as bracelets to play dressed-up. But there is also a sense of the absurd, pitched to deliberately challenge our idea of what is truly fashionable or materially appealing. Mr Gvasalia has not spoken about the continued use of packing/caution tape or what—even who—inspired him to turn the said roll into a fashion accessory. Or to tape the fronts of clothes to keep design details in place, like a bad or indolent mender.

We asked a friend, who loves bracelets, and is never seen without at least one, if she would wear this clunky, plastic polymer roll. She said, “I don’t know any of my friends would. It’s not exactly Elsa Peretti.” Nor, 3M. Fashion victims unwilling to part with the three figure (at least) that Balenciaga would likely ask for the bracelet can easily pick one at Daiso for S$2 (before GST). They come in different widths. One marketing consultant told us that the appearance of the roll of tape as fashion accessory is not only irresistibly outrageous, but “truly a clever way for Balenciaga to continue to be talked about when there is a real risk they could lose their edge”. He continued: “Remember their take on the Fraktar bag and then the ‘chip bag’? The more ridiculous they are, the more people talk about them or even deride them, the more visible they remain. Nothing quite new in that strategy, at least not at Balenciaga.”