‘Less Cynical, More Human’: Inside Pierpaolo Piccioli’s Balenciaga Vision

PARIS — When Pierpaolo Piccioli arrived at Balenciaga as its new creative director in June, his predecessor Demna was still working in the brand’s Avenue George V salons preparing a final haute couture show.

“For a month we shared the space, the people, everything. It was a first. I’m proud of that.” Piccioli recalls. His resulting women’s ready-to-wear debut in October, put together in just six weeks, paid homage both to Cristóbal Balenciaga’s archive as well as Demna’s…