Cardi B Is Wearing the Future of Fashion

Finally, after an exhausting several weeks in the fashion desert, Cardi B has knelt down to us like the benevolent goddess she is and offered a drop of water.

It’s a Balenciaga yellow plaid coat from Fall 2018, paired with matching sock-boots and an aqua Birkin. “BALENCIAGA MAMA!” she wrote in the caption. It is sartorial majesty.

Cardi has a well-documented affection for Demna Gvasalia’s designs—“I like those Balenciagas / the ones that look like socks,” she rapped in “I Like It,” a reference to Balenciaga’s celebrated Speed Trainer sneakers. But this is a wave beyond the sports-infused streetwear Balenciaga is known for: in this collection, Gvasalia began experimenting with 3-D tailoring, in which the designer scanned models’ bodies and molds were printed out, after which he bonded a foam fabric to velvet, wool, and other fabrics to create the super precise silhouette you see on Cardi now.

Gvasalia refined and expanded this method in his Spring 2018 collection.”We challenged ourselves to make tailoring for today’s generation,” he told Vogue backstage. “How can they wear a suit—which they never do?” He called it “neo-tailoring.”

“It’s like a jogging suit, but it looks super-elegant in shape. There’s no obligation to wear a shirt and tie, because the jacket has become the shirt.”

In other words, Cardi looks like she’s doing the absolute most—except she’s doing the opposite. This is the future version of the t-shirt and jeans: over-the-top, precisely pulled together, super styled-out, making it look hard, when in fact, getting dressed is a breeze. Thank you, Cardi B, for showing us the future once again.