Do you wear Balenciaga to the gym?

Balenciaga at the gym? Really?

Well yes, if we are to believe Pierpaolo Piccioli’s second collection. After the latest round of fashion shows, major fashion houses have changed designers more than ever before; now we’re starting to wonder what exactly these marks will look like. Balenciaga, for which Mr. Piccioli on Thursday unveiled his fall line for men and women (and his first attempt at Balenciaga menswear), is the latest example.

Next, two New York Times fashion critics debate what the fall line means and, more importantly, what you might want to wear.

VANESSA FRIEDMAN There was much in this collection that seemed to reflect a general shift in fashion as the new wave of creative directors invaded the big houses.

Clearly, Pierpaolo retains some of the signatures of Demna, his predecessor – favoring continuity over radical change – while softening the edges and making everything a little more accessible to the general fashion consumer. So sneakers now function not only as fashion statements, but also as true performance shoes (and loafers feature sneaker engineering so they’re very comfortable). You can wear them to the gym with your new Balenciaga leggings and throw on a coat with a classic Balenciaga bag silhouette on top for the streets. Is this juxtaposition clever or shocking?

JACOB GALLAGHER For me, it’s pragmatic. These sporty-formal divides that once guided fashion are as archaic as fax machines. Mixing is the order of the day now. And it’s been a while. What I see here is Pierpaolo reacting to the hodgepodge of dressing he sees on the street. But I will say that there remains something dated about the notion of designer athleisure. It reeks of 2011. (And I can’t imagine people will work out in these towering sneakers, if Ozempic-ed,. Or maybe I just don’t know enough billionaires willing to pound their sneakers into four figures on the treadmill.)

The collection is strongest when it features real clothes. There are some great shapes here.

FRIEDMAN You love wide, cropped pant legs! What I loved were the ideas borrowed from sportswear, if you want to call it that, but incorporated into fashion pieces rather than mixing and matching.

I’m thinking for example of the daffodil yellow leather jacket with a cocoon back coated to be waterproof, and the jersey dresses that were apparently a piece of stretch fabric twisted and draped around the body, with a long train that could also be twisted and draped. Laufey, a new “friend” of the house, wore one to the Golden Globes. These are dresses that cover parts of the body that tend to make people self-conscious and create shapes without corsets or other restrictive internal structures.

Personally, I enjoy a dress that allows for sitting and eating.

GALLAGHER I mean, barrel jeans with a drop sleeve coat and white socks with black loafers? Sign me up.

When we spoke with Pierpaolo, he said he didn’t want things to seem cynical. It shows. Balenciaga’s critics, led by Demna, protested as too aggressive, too alienating a joke. The edges have been sanded here I would say. This is a more palatable traditional interpretation of the collection. The pants are oversized but not overwhelming. The jersey tops have a logo, not 18. The hems are frayed, but there are none of the hole-explosion jeans the brand offered in the recent past.

Do you think this might be too cautious for Balenciaga buyers who expect the extreme?

FRIEDMAN I think it’s more of a transition to a different Balenciaga, but rather than rejecting what came before, Pierpaolo is trying to incorporate it. It’s a different philosophy of label membership than what we’re used to. In recent years, it often seemed as if new designers arrived in old houses and immediately tried to erase the memory of the last one, like washing the Augean stables.

Demna-isms don’t feel entirely natural in Pierpaolo’s hands, and I’m not sure that, as you say, anyone turns or should turn to Balenciaga for their workout clothes. But I appreciate the effort. Although I love the nods to Balenciaga’s even older history — notably the peacoats with rounded shoulders and large polka-dot buttons, and the leather shawl jackets — much more than the leggings.

Bottom line: These are clothes that feel easy to wear but also sophisticated, and it feels like a time where no one really has room in their lives for clothes that require too much effort and attention. I think Pierpaolo reads the play correctly.

GALLAGHER I agree. Here are clothes that don’t require much deeper thought, either as a viewer or as a wearer. In this case, that’s a good thing.