Paris Fashion Week: decryption of Olivier Rousteing’s Balmain fashion show, intimate and always couture

Considering the soundtrack with Frank Sinatra’s “My Way”, one would have thought of a breaking collection. However, this Balmain Fall-Winter 2023-2024 show was not Olivier Rousteing’s last, says the artistic director. After twelve years of good and loyal service, he continues the relationship between the maison founded in 1945 in Paris by Pierre Balmain and the ” wonderful boy born under x in 1985 and adopted by Bordeaux residents. After the pharaonic show for spring-summer 2023 (literally called “Festival”, with 1,000 personal invitations, plus 6,000 people who had been able to buy tickets to attend this fashion show closed by Cher), Olivier Rousteing then returns to something more intimate , so that we can better appreciate his technical prowess.

Decryption of Olivier Rousteing’s Balmain Fall-Winter 2023-2024 show

As part of Paris Fashion Week, the Balmain Fall-Winter 2023-2024 show was held at the Carreau du Temple in front of an audience of 220 who flocked to savor this ready-to-wear which had almost all the qualities of a haute show high fashion. Starting with the hats, made by the brilliant hatter Stephen Jones, inspired by the archives of the maison dating back to the 50s and 70s to give an extra soul to the collection. One could guess other references to the founder of the house. such as the labyrinthine monogram, the knots, the avalanche of pearls and the deviation of the tailored lapels of the jackets to create structured necklines.

Olivier Rousteing updates Pierre Balmain’s “Jolie Madame” style in his own way

The collection could almost seem anachronistic if they hadn’t come to update it with resolutely contemporary techniques, such as the use of neoprene to lightly structure certain hourglass silhouettes. We recall in particular the collarless jacket entirely embroidered with short pearl fringes, which give movement to an otherwise black silhouette made up of an impeccable silk shirt and flared trousers, or the cream knit ensemble, also entirely embroidered with pearls positioned as a pure luxury polka dot dot pattern. Style ” nice lady developed by Pierre Balmain in 1945 transposed for the 2020s by Olivier Rousteing promises to seduce the red carpet. In his own way, to hijack the words of Frank Sinatra.