Too far?

For the last 20 years I have been a proponent of websites being simple - it increases the UX. However, has Balenciaga gone too far?

Even my KISS attitude thinks that for this particular company, this may be a tad too far – the key reason being that Balenciaga is selling a product [clothes] that have an aesthetic appeal and so images may draw customers into the 'shop' – such a 'minimalist' approach might better suit a ‘soulless’ product such as government departments [Gov.uk. for example].

That said, perhaps 'minimalist' non-conforming to couture norms is the Balenciaga brand – and so the site makes sense. Note how on pages where the clothes are shown, the models have a distinctly ‘un-glamorous’ pose, and that the site lacks many of the ‘normal’ content, e.g. ‘about us’. I can find little about the company – but as their only outlets in the UK are in Knightsbridge, Covent Garden and  Mayfair, I suspect the brand is very much up-market. If anyone's visited one of these shops I would be interested to know if they are as minimalist as the website.

However, although the first visit to the Balenciaga.com is a bit of a shock – in subsequent visits you just click on the relevant word on the screen: job done.

As far as I know, this site went live in 2017 – check it when you read this to see if it is still as shown above ... or whether Balenciaga's nerve has broken.