Pre-fall is showroom season. And of all the showrooms we visit, Balmain’s 9th arrondissement center of operations is amongst the buzziest. Both in womenswear on the ground floor and men’s in the basement, the models who roam the space in rotating looks appear to be having a blast. While the in-house retail teams and wholesale visitors seem tightly focused, the timbre of their dialogues is uplifted by laughter. Crucially, the designer is present.
Olivier Rousteing moves here and there between sections of his collections via moments with the models as they meander past. Despite the agreeable atmosphere, Rousteing says he is working to create tension by mining dichotomies. One central tension here runs between aristocratically historic Versailles pomp and democratically contemporary Parisian elan. Rousteing’s negotiations include a typical Balmain peak lapelled tailored jacket that explodes into mini panniers at the hips. This generates an extreme symmetry when placed alongside the huge-shouldered marabou belted jacket that wafts past shortly afterwards. Evening dresses combine grandiose materiality (chandelier-worthy cut crystals, crest-embossed golden buttons) with fleeting, borderline scanty silhouettes. Draped tops and dresses are cut in a trompe l’oeil spectrum of stone that gives them the appearance of weathered classical statues. Wrapped mini skirts and jackets are crafted from gold brocade frogging over densely woven cotton linen, while a white cashmere sweater features two parallel horizontal grids that simultaneously reference the Breton shirt and the Balmain’s officer jacket staple.
Around the structure there is slouch in diamond quilted leathers and denim (plus denim with Versailles worthy crystal embellishment) and oversized contemporary military outerwear in leopard and cheetah. Tweed, which Rousteing says represents around 30% of daywear sales, is deformalized through color, embellishment, cut, and placed in combination with leathers. Hardware includes the founder-favorite gold chains on belt charms and jewelry and the big-buckled belt detailing on bags and powerfully waisted envelope dresses. Rousteing says he hasn’t yet fixed on a name for his new squeezed-silhouette belted bag that comes in fabrications from rattan to leather: the Cinch (if not already clinched elsewhere) would be perfect.
As so often, the central intersection betweens menswear and women’s runs through tailoring. With half an eye on the upcoming Met Gala’s Black Dandyism theme, Rousteing has riffed on the urchin swagger of the Titi Parisien to evoke a hometown version of the dressed-up archetype. Silk robe suiting and scarf-fronted silk shirting create a Balmain-by-way-of-Beau Brummel starting point before he breaks into low lapeled, high waisted suiting featuring decadent gold hardware and pants hemmed high enough to showcase wickedly pointed stack-heeled boots. Topped with the Parisian version of newsboy caps and cinched with more belting, these looks mix the sartorial architecture of the 1940s with the 1970s and propel them towards a very French flavored form of futurism.
One particular highlight is the fur lined slide soccer boot in three colorways that Rousteing says will be called the “Halftime” and that features convincingly professional looking cleats. There are menswear equivalents of the oversized contemporary military outerwear and slightly more structured versions of the gorgeous cocoon coats seen upstairs. As we head back up there, Rousteing says: “It’s a fresh expression of our DNA. After 15 years here at Balmain I treasure that DNA more and more, and become more convinced of how important it is to keep focused on deepening and developing it. Because as soon as you stop, someone else will try and take it. Plus, I think that trends are not relevant anymore: as soon as a trend emerges everyone jumps on it and it immediately becomes meaningless. It’s so much better to be yourself.”
