Balenciaga Hybrid Velvet & Leather Jacket | Look 31, Spring 2018
Two Jackets Fused Into One
This is the Balenciaga hybrid jacket from look 31 of the Spring/Summer 2018 runway show, a quilted magenta-purple velvet coat fused directly onto a black leather jacket, with the leather forming exaggerated, structured shoulders and cropped sleeves that peek out from beneath the velvet outer layer. Rather than a single, straightforward coat, the piece reads as two entirely different garments merged into one silhouette: a soft, romantic velvet swing coat layered directly over a harder, more utilitarian leather biker jacket.
The velvet portion is finished with a dramatic, gathered ruffle collar and covered button closures, giving the upper half a distinctly feminine, almost Victorian quality, while the exposed black leather at the shoulders and sleeve edges introduces a sharper, tougher contrast underneath. It's a construction technique very much in line with Demna Gvasalia's "hybrid" garment concept from this era, a design language that saw him fuse two recognizable, everyday pieces into a single, reworked object.
Balenciaga's Gvasalia years produced a number of hybrid pieces built on this same fusion logic, combining two familiar garments (a denim jacket and a blazer, a shirt and a coat) into a single, new silhouette that plays with the viewer's expectations of where one garment ends and another begins. This velvet-and-leather hybrid coat follows that same idea, with the leather jacket's structured shoulders and sleeves acting almost as an underlayer glimpsed beneath the softer velvet exterior, blurring the line between outerwear and layering piece.
Styling Tips
Let the hybrid construction be the focal point — this is a piece built to be worn as a statement outer layer rather than layered under anything else. Pair with simple, monochrome pieces underneath, the way it was styled on the runway, so the contrast between the velvet and leather stays clearly visible.
Keywords: Balenciaga hybrid jacket, Balenciaga Spring 2018 runway, Balenciaga velvet leather coat, Demna Gvasalia hybrid design, Balenciaga archive resale, Balenciaga runway sample
Photography ©Balenciaga