Khaki pants on a Balmain catwalk? You bet. Olivier Rousteing designed a lot of fantastic pants for fall, proving that he is a designer who really can't be pigeonholed.
Backstage, he seemed in awe of his runway models, leaning for the first time toward the mature end of the age spectrum and carrying their broad-shouldered trench coats, the epaulets adorned with large gold snail-shaped buttons, with poise and self-awareness. .
She introduced everyone to the statuesque Bethany, already dressed in her opening look and holding her purse close to her ribs. “We're celebrating women,” Rousteing enthused about her all-ages cast. “She is powerful, she is strong, she is confident and she is beautiful.”
Sticking with his intimate salon format and continuing his exploration of Pierre Balmain's archives, the designer moved from spring floral motifs to fruit, enchanted by the founder's embellishments of apples, walnuts and strawberries, the latter appearing as a unconventional belt buckle on Bethany's waist.
“It's about timeless elegance and an homage to French culture,” he said, explaining that the theme led him to reference his hometown of Bordeaux and its wine heritage through a series of grape prints, grape earrings , charms for grape bags and large bunches of gold. of grapes carried instead of a bag.
Gingham, synonymous with picnics in the French countryside, also made an appearance, including in a bright evening column checkered in a distinctive blue that suggested recent Burberry.
But this collection was 100 percent Rousteing-era Balmain, unafraid of exuberant embellishments and always pushing the atelier to its limits in terms of draping, pleating, beading and leather work. There were fierce, sleeveless, X-shaped jackets and others with a lapel that protruded beyond the jaw and framed in gold metal.
Rousteing's idea of casual elegance is a pair of baggy khaki pants topped with a bodice of molded leather or what looked like hand-blown Murano glass dipped in color.
“Know-how is an obsession,” he said. “I really want to make sure that all suppliers in Italy, France and around the world can continue working.”
Some squeeze the grapes; others embroider them.
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