Balenciaga in New York, Maria Grazia Honored in D.C., Margot Robbie’s Chanel Reading Club

HITTING THE ROAD: Balenciaga is heading to New York City to unveil its spring 2023 collection, WWD has learned.

The Paris-based fashion house, controlled by French luxury group Kering, said its creative director Demna would stage a runway show there on May 21.

Other details, including the venue, are still under wraps.

It’s the latest sign of a strong return to destination fashion shows as the pandemic loosens its grip. As reported, Pucci is heading to Capri on April 28 to unveil its first designs by Camille Miceli and Dior plans to hold a runway show for Maria Grazia Chiuri’s pre-fall 2022 women’s ready-to-wear collection on April 30 in Seoul.

Chanel kicks off the 2023 cruise season with a showing May 5 in Monaco, and Louis Vuitton heads to southern California for its show on May 12. Meanwhile, Gucci has earmarked May 16 for a coed show to be held somewhere in Europe, and Kim Jones plans to unveil his spring 2023 men’s collection for Dior in Los Angeles on May 19.

Balenciaga’s New York showing is bound to be a hot ticket, given Demna’s reputation for mounting immersive and gripping fashion spectacles.

His fall 2022 show in Paris last month had models battling gale-force winds in a giant snow globe, evoking images of Ukrainian refugees fleeing their country amid Russia’s invasion.

The designer is known for fearless and incisive commentary on the climate crisis, the perils of technology, the geopolitical situation — and fashion itself.

He also continues to have a broad impact on fashion. Last July, he staged Balenciaga’s first couture show since Cristóbal Balenciaga retired from fashion in 1968, and his strong-shouldered tailoring foreshadowed a glut of dark pantsuits in an array of fall 2022 collections.

Alexander McQueen, also controlled by Kering, opted to show its fall 2022 womenswear collection in New York on March 15. — MILES SOCHA

MARIA GRAZIA HONORED: On Friday evening in Washington, D.C., the National Museum of Women in the Arts honored Maria Grazia Chiuri, artist Judy Chicago and Mellody Hobson, co-chief executive officer and president of Ariel Investments, at the museum’s annual spring gala. The night, which was sponsored by Dior and was the first spring gala for the museum since 2019, featured a performance by Charlotte Day Wilson and drew D.C. art patrons in their black tie best.

The evening was co-chaired by Ashley Davis and Marlene Malek, and the Ambassador of France, Philippe Étienne, served as honorary diplomatic chair. It marked the first of a string of honors for Chiuri, who will next travel to New York to be recognized at the Brooklyn Artists Ball on Tuesday. — LEIGH NORDSTROM

ESCAPE KEY: “I think I read for the escapism, the same reason I love movies,” said Margot Robbie in the latest instalment of Chanel’s “In the Library With…” released Friday.

The Australian actress and producer reveals some of the books that swept her away in this eight-minute episode of the French fashion house’s Rendez-vous Littéraires Rue Cambon (literary gatherings at Rue Cambon, in English) series.

Robbie revealed that she enjoys cutting away from the world with a book and a cup of tea in her reading nook, owing to a childhood habit of climbing into a tree or the roof for some respite from the hubbub of her busy family home.

One of the first destinations she escaped to was the fantasy world of J.R.R. Tolkien, which she discovered at age 8 when a teacher read “The Hobbit” in class. “As soon as she started reading it, I was so hooked,” Robbie remembers, recalling that her impatience to know what happened next led her to pick up the book from her older sister.

Up next for the young voracious reader were a number of book series, starting with Harry Potter, in which her husband, British film producer Tom Ackerley, appeared as an extra at age 11; American series “Nancy Drew,” and “The Famous Five” and “The Secret Seven” adventure and detective novels by English children’s author Enid Blyton.

Becoming an actress then a director changed her relationship to the written word. “It’s really hard to read a book without thinking about it in a work sense,” she says, revealing she enjoyed scripts, thanks to a format that allows her to get through them in a couple of hours.

Robbie also expressed her belief in the power of words, be it to unlock a character or even change her experience while traveling. “It could be one line and it can change everything,” she feels.

Take Ernest Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises,” which was recommended to her just before she went backpacking in Europe at age 18. Despite being initially unsure about the title when she picked it up before beginning her journey, she said the book “became everything” to her once she arrived in the Spanish city of Pamplona for its Running of the Bulls festival.

Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” — one of the few school-time readings she actually enjoyed — is a book she has returned to several times. “The use of language and her vocabulary is quite remarkable,” she said, revealing that her appreciation led her to name her dog Boo Radley after one of the characters.

When asked about her favorite books, she named “Five People You Meet in Heaven,” a philosophical novel by American author Mitch Albom; and “Animals” by Emma Jane Unsworth.

Other volumes she called out include “Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock ‘N Roll Generation Saved Hollywood” by Peter Biskind, and “The Magicians,” a “kind of grown-up ‘Harry Potter’” she is currently reading.

Although she does enjoy love stories and those featuring male duos, narratives around female friendships hold a special part in her bookshelf as their depiction with “that emotional weight that they do have in real life” are quite rare.

“Women will agree that their friendship with their best girlfriend is hugely important,” she concludes.

Previous videos in the series have explored the literary tastes of Chanel ambassadors Tilda Swinton, Margaret Qualley and Charlotte Casiraghi. — LILY TEMPLETON