“I actually think the face is the sexiest part of a woman’s body.” So said Olivier Rousteing to Into The Gloss back in 2012. That was Rousteing’s first full year as creative director of Balmain, which he’d first joined in 2009, and first shown for in September 2011. Tonight, backstage, he said: “I didn’t know [then] I would still be with you talking about this incredible brand. I think the recipe of fashion is to not be trendy. The recipe of fashion is to be you.”
This evening’s Balmain show was about Rousteing being Rousteing. He referred back to the fiercely pointy shoulders and intensely worked detail that first emerged at the house when he was assistant to predecessor Christophe Decarnin, and which upon his accession he embraced and amplified. The marinière stripe, both a fundamental French trope and reflective of Rousteing’s Bordelais upbringing, was there too. Rousteing was the first Black lead designer at a Paris luxury house, and his long-term commitment to broadening fashion’s spectrum tonight, as last season, looked especially to include women from across multiple generations on his runway.
However this evening’s Balmain show was also very much about a key moment that Rousteing has long been working towards. Back in 2012, Balmain was only eight years clear of a bankruptcy scare, and still sold solely ready-to-wear: That year it posted revenues of just over €30 million. By last year, the range of categories had broadened to include bags, eyewear, sneakers, kidswear and more, and revenues had increased over tenfold. Tonight, though, was Rousteing’s runway declaration that Balmain has re-entered the broadest luxury category of all: beauty. Which brings us back to the start.
The face images in the dresses, jackets and shorts were rendered by the hand-embroidering of hundreds of thousands of pearlescent beads. The multi-toned, multi-textural dress and top in looks 31 and 32 were wearable mascara palettes. Many of the looks reflected the ridged and glossy flagons of the recently launched Les Éternels throwback heritage Balmain fragrance range. These also inspired heels and bag hardware. Sometimes the models more straightforwardly carried the fragrances. In the audience was William P. Lauder, executive chairman of Estée Lauder Companies, Balmain’s new long-term global beauty licensee and partner—rarely, if ever, could he have witnessed such a fully-expressed runway embrace. Rousteing delivered a non-metaphorical runway embrace to Brigitte Macron, a habitual Balmain wearer, before a finale spritz of draped silk dresses in multiple tonal shades. “This show is me,” said Rousteing, the essence of Balmain.
