Balmain’s vibe this season was of a ragtag army of in-the-future, ethnically diverse, hot-as-hell, and well funded survivalists who gradually morphed into night creatures ready to hit the clubs. What were they surviving? “Too much partying?” wondered Olivier Rousteing backstage. The key thematic pieces here were two T-shirts, one in embroidered beading, which proclaimed: “Fashion is not Evolution but Revolution.” This, said Rousteing, “I took from Mr. Pierre Balmain. But he said the opposite: fashion was not revolution but evolution. Now, though, things are very different. I think we are all living a revolution, and trying to survive that revolution. You can see from the press and you can see from the designers that there is a revolution happening. We are all scared to talk about it. But it’s what is happening. Digital is getting more and more important. How are editorials going to talk to people? Who are the next models? Everybody is trying to look for millennials—what’s gonna be next? This is what I think is the most interesting part of fashion at the moment.”
You can’t fault Rousteing for saying what he sees. And it’s true, too. His answer to the limbo of who-knows-what’s-happening right now was to double down on his codes while playing with some new ones along the way. The opening section of militaria contained some awesome outerwear, pants and sweaters that mixed jersey, nylon, paracord, and quilted nylon with the same par main precision the atelier usually applies to beading and chain mail. “I worked that jersey as hard as any embroideries,” said Rousteing, and it looked like this opening chapter shift in the lexicon might bring him a new menswear audience attracted to virtuoso-but-rugged technicality.
Of course there were many beaded, embroidered, and chain mail looks. The twist this season was to insert a lot of PVC—including, rather audaciously, a PVC drop-crotch men’s pant, teamed with a by comparison conservative flattened camel cashmere topcoat. This added its slick shine to the high glint of Rousteing’s fall-off-the-body slither dresses and powerfully shouldered gem-punched jackets for men quite effectively. There were appealing sheath sneaker boots, minimal and sprightly looking, a section of fringed dark blue bouclé outerwear, and then more graphic T-shirts—sort of French retro-futuristic—some worn under transparent PVC outerwear. Was there womenswear? Yes, there was plenty, from a new capsule called Episode that incorporated elements of the men’s, plus some pieces that seemed to be from Pre. Before the show, Cindy Crawford arrived to watch her son Presley Gerber on the runway. She said of Rousteing: “I’m a fan of his artistry. I really think he’s a creative talent: Good designers are not just designing clothes, right? They make you dream and they have a vision. I like that Olivier obviously sees women as strong and very powerful—and that really comes across in the looks he designs for women.” Presley and the rest of his menswear-wearing coworkers looked pretty strong alongside Rousteing’s powerful women, too.
