Balmain anyone? A look at Olivier Rousteing as creative director of the brand

I have to say I think Olivier Rousteing is doing a fabulous job after taking over the Balmain fashion house from Christophe Decarnin in 2011.















For those of you that are not up to date with your Balmainpedia, Balmain is a French fashion house created by Pierre Balmain in the 1940's. Balmain along with Christian Dior and Cristobel Balenciaga has been credited in bringing couture back to fashion after the second world war. The brand became rather famous following the war with devotees of the brand including Ava Gardiner and Brigitte Bardot. Under Pierre Balmain the brand got a reputation for being classic, luxurious and elegant- a traditional that was upheld during the tenure of Erik Mortensen (1982-1993) and Oscar de la Renta (1993-2002). A major shift in Balmain came when it was under the helm of Christophe Decarnin (2002-2011). He while staying true to the brand, made it much more modern and avant grade. Suddenly Balmain was everywhere, every magazine wanted to feature Balmain and every fashionista wanted to be featured wearing Balmain.

However, before people could get over crediting Decarnin over breathing fresh life into the brand he surprised the fashion world by announcing his plans to leave. Reasons for why he was leaving went from artistic differences with M Alein Hivelin (owner of the company) to rumours about severe depression.

Either way the fashion world waited in anticipation to see Olivier Rousteing being named creative director of Balmain. It was an internal promotion as Rousteing was already working for Balmain. Since taking up the post ( an unenviable task given the name and reputation of his predecessors) he has managed to put his own mark without taking away from all that is Balmain. If you look at his recent S/S 2013 collection, it is modern (printed jumpsuits, leather pants and Balmain belts) but also classic (beautiful embroidered dresses and jackets).


Contrastingly, his S/S 2013 collection was rather understated compared to his A/W 2013 collection, which was considered by some critics to be too over the top. Rousteing explained that with this collection he wanted to 'imagine 70's in the future'. This meant lots of embellishment and draping; bright, bold and metallic colours. Harem pants plus silver and gold jumpsuits made a comeback. Think Joan Collins in the sixties with a 2013 twist! It worked for me but if you prefer simple, elegant and understated this was definitely not the collection for you. You would not go to afternoon tea wearing Balmain A/W 2013, you would however go to the most happening club wearing it. It is easy to forget sometimes that Rousteig is still a twenty-something. So to his critics I say he is still young and doing a fabulous job. I am sure his skills will develop as he matures. As he develops within the fashion industry so will his craft. If you are a fan of Balmain please let me know what your thoughts are on the brand as well as its relatively new creative director!