Balenciaga’s Biggest '00s-era Collector Solves the "Jungle Print" Mystery
Eden Pritikin cracks the origins of a Nicolas Ghesquière-era Balenciaga piece she's selling on #NEVERWORNS.
Eden Pritikin, who has been collecting Nicolas Ghesquière’s Balenciaga since 2016, is letting her collection go. At least the stories are forever—and this tale about the origins of the industry-shattering “Jungle Print” from the spring 2003 collection is captivating. It’s also the reason why you all need a “Wake Up To the Rainforest” T-shirt! You’ll be able to buy everything here and watch the full #NEVERWORNS video on Friday. Stay tuned.
I have never typed “Wake Up To the Rainforest T-shirt” into Poshmark as fast as I did this past week. In fact, I never even knew what this T-shirt was until this past week. The urge to find a piece of campy yesteryear merch that’s emblazoned with a kitschy jungle scene came from a #NEVERWORNS interview I did with Eden Pritikin about her Nicolas Ghesquière-era Balenciaga collection in which a similar print appears on several spring 2003 pieces. This compare and contrast moment of a thrifted T-shirt and a rare runway item fascinated me.
I interviewed Pritikin about her Nicolas-era Balenciaga collection for Vogue back in 2020. Pritikin has been collecting Balenciaga since 2016, which started with none other than that very first look in the spring 2003 collection: the rainforest scuba top. “I saw it and had to buy it. It was the first major piece I had ever seen,” says Pritikin. “And that’s what sparked my collection.” Like many die-hard collectors who dedicate themselves to one designer or house, she has a MENSA-manicured brain when it comes to identifying to prints (ask her about the tapestry one from fall 2000!) and a mob mind when it comes to procuring down some of the best pieces (snagging two fall 2003 jackets thanks to a glitch on The RealReal!).
The fantastical graphic is most clearly seen in look 1, a white tank on leggy Erin Wasson, (Pritikin owns this), the wide-sleeved top in look 11 on Mariacarla, and look 12 which is a black dress with jersey stripes on the sleeves, which Pritikin is selling there. The Balenciaga graphic shows a deliciously hallucinogenic image of a rainforest. An elegant black panther lazily hangs from a branch, surrounded by lush flora. A searingly bright red parrot peeks out from the corner, as does a toucan’s tangerine beak, a floppy petaled fuchsia flower, and a hummingbird. It’s a childlike tropic dream; a striking portal into another world.
The Balenciaga “Jungle Print” is a version of the “Wake Up To the Rainforest” T-shirts from the early ‘90s, which one can find on eBay or Poshmark ranging from $20 to $60. There are also the more expensive versions from the magician performers Siegfried & Roy. Pritikin found that the graphics were similar after a colleague tipped her off. She used Google’s reverse image search and found the Siegfried & Roy rainforest T-shirt, and later the “Wake Up To the Rainforest” T-shirts. In the magician duo’s shirt, the feline is their signature striped tiger, while the unbranded “Wake Up To the Rainforest” T-shirts show a leopard. Regardless of big cat specifics, the graphic is like the majestic version of the “three wolf moon” gas station garb. The rainforest image is glorious, camp, and beautiful, or rather, it was ripe for the riffing.
Ghesquière’s “Wake Up To the Rainforest” infusion is as peculiar as it is entertaining. Note: Yes, there’s the Kaisik Wong debacle that prompted Cathy Horyn’s New York Times piece “Is Copying Really a Part of the Creative Process?” from April 9, 2002. (There was also a near replica of the East West Musical jacket from resort 2010.) But the “Wake Up To the Rainforest” print usage feels entirely different. It’s commercial; mass produced—and there’s a delicious slice of subversion in how Ghesquière and his design team remixed the cheap, balmy fairytale graphic and used it on an incredibly engineered piece of body-skimming fabric. It’s fun. It’s cheeky.
Many designers do this. Maybe it is a tchotchke they see at some bazaar, maybe a vintage record cover, or some random poster at a bar. Sometimes designers or brands namecheck these references in the press release; sometimes they don’t. I recently watched the John Galliano documentary High & Low where a random reference becomes central to a collection—and to fashion history. In one scene, he talks about going on a research trip and describes finding a white sweatshirt that had sleeves in the shape of horses; their heads extending upwards into the chest area. (Galliano model and muse Suzanne van Aichinger called the find “nasty”). The find later became the design base for a gown in the spring 1997 “Circus” collection worn by Nadja Auermann. The placement of the horse was the same, but Galliano used ostrich feathers to create the trompe l’oeil equine mane as the sleeve.
Years later, in less ornate ways, Vetements created the famous cinematic Jack and Rose Titanic graphic hoodie for spring 2016 that was plucked from some film promo (which controversially may have first been seen on Slavik in Lviv). For fall 2018, Raf Simons used the image of drug-addled character from the 1981 film Christiane F in his pieces. Then there are the seemingly fair-use animals. Roberto Tisci’s Givenchy Rottweiler dog was inspired by a canine he saw in a boy scout catalogue. Pritikin notes that Ghesquière’s German Shepherd sweater from fall 2000 was supposedly inspired by a pup he saw on a calendar of French firemen.
This sort of imagery can be like an easter egg for fashion freaks, sending them down niche information-seeking rabbit holes. In their early days, Vetements kicked off my research benders as I tried to track down what every single Georgian and Soviet-era motif meant. I entered the depths of freaky conspiracy theory literature as I was trying to decipher the slightly demonic illustrations on a coat from the Undercover fall 2017 mens collection. Ultimately, these hidden graphic treasures are a peek into the designer’s brain (or at least the inner sanctum of their creative team). Where are they traveling? What are they reading? What are they consuming? People are naturally curious. We like to discuss. We like to learn.
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Pritikin suspects that the “Wake up to the Rainforest” version was the first edition of the T-shirt, and that the Siegfried & Roy iteration was the true inspiration for Balenciaga. She comes to this conclusion because the commercial pieces released from the spring 2003 collection had dolphins on it. “Siegfried & Roy would put on shows at the Mirage in Las Vegas,” says Pritikin. “It has a place called the Secret Garden and at the Secret Garden you can scuba dive and swim with dolphins.” Ok!
If you’re not able to buy Pritikin’s famous “Jungle Print” dress, look 12 from spring 2003, which will retail for $1250, don’t fret. There are zillions of these “Wake Up To the Rainforest” T-shirts scattered online. It’s incredible to own the budget origin piece of a runway piece that sent a shockwave throughout the industry. Tell me if you get one…I already did!
The #NEVERWORNS episode with Eden and her Balenciaga collection is dropping this Friday. You’ll be able to buy the collection here on Substack.
Hoping, praying, rubbing my hands together like a praying mantis that we get a piece on why Eden is parting with her collection!
These were the days of just walking into shows bc everyone in the industry knew each other. I loved fashion then… I love it now too but things have changed a lot.