Formula 1 has been dubbed our era’s most fashion-forward sport. Balenciaga is betting big on the trend. To commemorate the second-annual Grand Prix in Las Vegas this past weekend, the Spanish fashion house debuted three new racing-inspired garments and one new sculptural commission across their Sin City boutiques.
Japanese artist Showichi Kaneda sculpted a shark out of car parts for Balenciaga’s store at Wynn Plaza, on the Strip. The artwork remains on view, though it has been sold. Another edition of Kaneda’s piece will be unveiled in Balenciaga’s Dubai and Abu Dhabi stores ahead of the latter city’s Grand Prix on December 8.
The new Balenciaga Racing series, meanwhile, includes a T-shirt, zip-up hoodie, and racer jacket. Each garment features the brand’s Unity sports line logo, as well as tailoring motifs from real racing uniforms. Although Balenciaga launched the limited edition collection last weekend, it’s still available in Las Vegas while supplies last.
The racing jacket. Image: Balenciaga.
Kaneda’s striking sculpture, however, has only been on view at Balenciag’s Wynn Plaza location—situated amongst one of Vegas’s sexiest properties. There, racing enthusiasts can behold a different sort of spectacle—an impressive four foot-long hammerhead shark crafted from the recognizable shapes of Formula 1 car parts, emblazoned with the brand’s logo.
This collaboration marks just the latest installment in Kaneda’s ongoing “Human’s Own” series, easily the artist’s best known body of work. The series consists entirely of such sharks, all hand-crafted from Formula 1 car parts. This particular shark species fits Kaneda’s fascination with “speed, progress, survival, and desire in the context of fashion and technology,” as Balenciaga puts it, due to the scientific fact that hammerheads, uniquely, must swim forward to breathe.
Showichi Kaneda’s shark sculpture. Image: Balenciaga.
Kaneda began this artwork by designing each of its individual pieces digitally. Then he 3D printed them out. Next, the artist refined those pieces by hand, created a silicone mold to hold them all together, and encased the assembled shape in resin—resulting in a sleek finish that evokes both traditional Japanese lacquer techniques and fresh car waxes. Kaneda created a red and black sculpture for Las Vegas, a red and white edition for the United Arab Emirates, and a green edition whose fate remains to be seen.
Showichi Kaneda’s creation for Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Image: Balenciaga.
All three sculptures feature a wide array of stylized Balenciaga logos. While the brand has built a reputation for appropriating pop culture in its catwalk looks, their latest collaboration with Kaneda offers a kind of role reversal, upcycling their iconography this time.
Last weekend, British racer Max Verstappen won his fourth Grand Prix title. The Qatar race will take place on December 1, and the Abu Dhabi one week later. Verstappen will compete in both. For globetrotters fixing to watch his run, the next iterations of Kaneda’s Balenciaga racing collaboration will be unveiled alongside their new racing duds at Balenciaga’s Dubai Mall boutique tomorrow—and at The Galleria on Al Maryah Island in Abu Dhabi on December 3.