Perched on Frankenstein-calibre platform boots, Olivier Rousteing negotiated Balmain’s vast Paris showrooms, linked by a coiling stone staircase, with the same ease as if he was wearing sneakers.
He didn’t have to give up on vertiginous footwear for pre-fall since the collection is rooted in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, when radical bell-bottoms swallowed up heavy disco heels.
Continuing his intensifying dialogue with the legacy of Pierre Balmain, who founded his fashion house in 1945, Rousteing found plenty of appealing historical elements that added up to a diverse, groovy and approachable collection.
“I really want to dig and go deeper into the archives of the house,” he said, noting that many of the brand codes he’s exalted — among them gold buttons, strict tailoring and the Labyrinth monogram — are rooted in decades long past. “It’s interesting to go back to the past and understand all what went through the house and where we are today.”
He’s recently been pushing leopard prints, a wink to Balmain looks worn by Josephine Baker in the late 1950s, and also round shapes, which have their roots in sketches by Karl Lagerfeld, whose first job in Paris in 1955 was sketching for Pierre Balmain.
Why home in on the 1960s and 1970s?
Rousteing said he was attracted by the glamour of the period, when the founder moved away from “jolie madame” styles into fashions that were slinkier, sharper and more international.
On cue, a model walked into the room wearing a strapless minidress as brief as a towel wrapped around the torso, a row of big gold buttons set on an angle. Rousteing noted these garments have tiny pantlegs, making them technically rompers, and were reproduced almost exactly as the archival styles.
Printed silk scarves from the ‘70s — which Rousteing didn’t change one iota — became draped tops, loose tunics and wrap skirts, while funky PB logos became embroidered patches on gym suits or eye-catching hardware for belts.
While the collection skewed heavily toward daywear, Rousteing went all out with crystal-paved tops and dresses resembling blown-up brooches and bows. Meanwhile, spectacular crystal-studded eyewear were a wink to the founder’s obsession with opera glasses and mask-like hats.
Rousteing likes to call Balmain a “sleeping beauty” with rich archives and countless narratives to mine. “It’s a never-ending story,” he enthused.
