September 11, 2025 |
When I first met Demna, it felt like we had known each other forever. We just continued where we once parted.
I became a part of the total artwork at Balenciaga – as a character and a creative. For me the process and the way of being felt was always very natural and yet very personal.
I have always been true to myself, and that is what I wish to give. My existence and bare presence. Sharing the different sides of me, characters, moods, genders, personas. The honest human diversity. I do it for all of us.
Fashion is an altar of opportunities, a perfect playground for mixing fantasy and reality. A real-life cinema with all that horror and romance. Wearing an haute couture creation, meticulously handcrafted to embrace one’s unique physique and designed to enhance your essence, feels like metamorphosing into a masterpiece. A living artistic marvel.
Demna’s final Balenciaga show, 54th Couture, was a very emotional and beautiful celebration of an exceptional era in fashion. While walking the show something from me lingered at the salon forever. A hint of my spirit, dust of my DNA. This portrait story is my homage, as a ghost of Balenciaga. We have left a permanent stain on fashion history and I intend to keep contaminating the future.
Bisous, Minttu
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BALENCIAGA: AVEC AMOUR MINTTU
Photographer, Fashion Editor, Talent and Text MINTTU
Hair MIIKA KEMPPAINEN using ALI PIRZADEH Wigs
Make-up JENNY JANSSON
Manicurist FANNY SANTA RITA
Photo advisor JOSEPH KADOW
Digital operator PEGGY THEODOROGIANNI
Photographer’s assistant BENJAMIN CARRION
Fashion assistant CLARA ZIEGLER
Production THEO GILIBERTO
Special thanks to ROBIN MEASON
On the cover MINTTU wears BALENCIAGA
