Suzy Menkes' Rubber Fetish

FUTURE TENSE Balenciaga coat While it's pretty much an accepted fact that the fashion world thinks Nicolas Ghesquière, Balenciaga's chef designer, walks on water, today his place in the pantheon was confirmed by fashion critic Suzy Menkes. Menkes just lurrved Ghesquière's high-fashion use of (dare we say totally unwearable?) rubber and latex, and had particular affection for the "hand painted samurai armor" that we doubt you'll see anytime soon in, say, Minneapolis.

The synthetic armor will, however, undoubtedly be all over the pages of Vogue and W next fall, just like those gold leggings fashion editors couldn't get enough of last year. Which is why, when we're next cornered at a fashion event, we'll crib from Suzy and say the show channeled "space-age futurism" with just a "hint of perversity." We, after all, live for perversity!