Balmain: Olivier Rousteing announces that 50 pieces were stolen, 10 days before the fashion show

Fashion is always full of drama. The last one fashion victim, it’s Balmain. On September 17, 2023 on Instagram, the artistic director of the French luxury house, Olivier Rousteing, declared that around fifty pieces from the upcoming collection had just been stolen. However, Balmain’s Spring-Summer 2024 show is scheduled for next Wednesday, September 27 at 8pm. 10 days before the big show, there are many reasons to panic.

“More than 50 pieces stolen” deplores Balmain’s Olivier Rousteing, 10 days before the show

Olivier Rousteing says in his Instagram post:

“Today I went to the office at 9am waiting for the last pieces of our show, the Balmain show in September. I was creating looks with my team when our driver called to tell us that he had been hijacked [vol dans un véhicule] by a group of people. More than 50 pieces stolen. He was driving from the airport to Balmain headquarters.

It’s so unfair. My team and I worked so hard. We will work harder, day and night, and so will our suppliers, but it’s really disrespectful.

I wanted to share this with you to remind you to never take anything for granted and to be careful. This is the world we live in. »

In the caption, Olivier Rousteing specifies that the entire truck was stolen, leaving the driver safe and sound. Balmain is now working to reproduce what was stolen to complete the collection (in defiance of labor law, of course…).

Why are brands trying so hard to meet fashion’s unsustainable timetable?

And if you’re wondering the need to reproduce everything urgently to be presented in the scheduled time slot Wednesday 27 September, at 8pm, it is for multiple reasons. First of all because international buyers will gather in Paris for Fashion Week (which takes place in the capital from 25 September to 3 October): their task is to examine the collection to find out what they buy or don’t buy for their points of interest. sales, which constitutes a large part of a house’s turnover. The same goes for major direct customers who sometimes travel from all over the world to watch the show (usually lasting just 15 minutes).

Without counting the influencers and the press, this fashion show also serves as a demonstration of power and communicative opportunity destined to fuel its social networks and therefore the collective imagination around the brand for months. For this reason, an expensive, more or less imposing scenography has already been commissioned. Brief, crazy amounts are spent on a fashion show whose date can hardly be postponed or cancelled, unless even more money is lost in this way.

Note that very few houses as established as Balmain dare to show outside the calendar, with the notable exception of Alaïa during the lifetime of its founder Azzedine (1935-2017), who only presented his collections when he deemed them ready. But after his death, the house now artistically directed by Pieter Mulier (from 2021) has already entered the calendar. This shows how complicated it is to propose fashion according to one’s own rhythm and the whims of life, in this a globalized, ultra-saturated industry that wants to move ever faster. The show must go on.