Balmain's showroom today was thick with buyers and models showing off the skinny jeans, second-skin tees, and body-worshipping minidresses that the French label is known for. But designer Olivier Rousteing was busy pulling clothes off the racks with not just a new silhouette but also a different sensibility. The houndstooth tweed overalls were the biggest surprise, their boyish slouch summing up the relaxed new vibe Rousteing was going for.
"I always love the dream, the fantasy, but at the end of the day, reality is important," he said. "As a designer, you need to push yourself. After five seasons, I wanted to go to another story." He's got the party girl hooked, in other words, but what about when she's not partying? In addition to those overalls (guaranteed crowd-pleasers, considering salopettes are trending with the street-style set), his other propositions included dentelle button-downs tucked into pleated menswear trousers barely clinging to the models' hipbones, oversize bombers with confectionery embellishments, and, in a first for the brand, flat boots. In quilted black leather and metallic toe caps, natch.
Maybe the sensibility wasn't that different after all. Those teddy bombers hardly lacked for embroideries, and neither, for that matter, did a denim minidress with a bodice quilted in a Vichy check, or a pair of tiny little frocks with ballerina-esque tutu skirts. In the end, though, it was the off-duty ease of those overalls that made the collection a winner.
