As Balenciaga debuts their FW24 show in Paris this week, it felt only right to spotlight their latest collaboration — which hits very close to home. Along with a host of celebrity tastemakers, Wildflower co-founder Devon Lee Carlson was tapped by the brand to front the ‘Le Closet’ campaign — modeling the first designer bag she ever bought.
The Inez & Vinoodh-shot campaign features Devon alongside ambassador Kim Kardashian, Paloma Elsesser, Nicola Peltz, famed Sex and the City costume designer Patricia Field and actress Roh Yoon Seo – positioned against a backdrop of Balenciaga bags. Devon, specifically, posed with a Le City, which happened to be her first-ever big designer purchase.
“The first designer bag I ever got was a Balenciaga Le City bag and now 10 years later I’m doing a campaign for it,” she shared.
The ‘Le City’ bag, which first debuted in 2000 while the brand was under then-creative director Nicholas Ghesquiere’s oversight. It was something of a “sleeper hit,” with investors reluctant to release an oversized, utilitarian style when Fendi’s dainty ‘baguette’ bags were reigning supreme.
Eventually, the brand conceded to produce just 25 Le Citys — designating one to Kate Moss. Soon, the model was wearing her Le City religiously, and the fashion elite followed en masse (if they could get their hands on one). As recently as 2023, the style was one of the 10 most sought-after on designer resale site Vestiaire Collective.
Dazed was among the first to publish the Le Closet imagery, though Hello! and WWD also covered the news. The campaign also came on the heels of Balenciaga's FW24 Los Angeles show late last year. Hosted in Hollywood-adjacent suburb of Hancock Park — a familiar locale for native-Angelenos Devon and Sydney Carlson, who attended together in matching monochromatic looks. May there be many more Carlson collaborations to come.
