Balmain shows sensual collection with surprise guest Cher

Olivier Rousteing, one of French fashion's most famous designers, has staged what could be described as his third fashion week festival, a big event replacing the behind closed doors, more conventional runway show, with an audience of over a thousand fans who queued up for tickets or bought them online.

This time, the Balmain festival took place at the Jean-Bouin stadium in Paris, next to Paris Saint-Germain’s Parc des Princes football ground. The event was delayed by one hour and the show itself lasted nearly 30 minutes.

It featured some one hundred looks in which warm colours predominated, marked by elongated silhouettes, draped cuts and body-contouring dresses, the materials ranging from knitwear to braided fabrics and elaborately embossed leather with 3D designs, as well as vertiginous platform shoes that Balmain is keen to turn into next season’s statement items.

The show opened with a clip starring pop singer Cher, but to the spectators’ surprise it was not just a video: the 1980s icon herself jumped on the runway at the end of the show, to take the final bow with Rousteing.

Following the success of ‘Wonder Boy’, the Netflix documentary about Rousteing’s search for his parents, Balmain, which signed the young designer at the age of 25, has demonstrated that its trust in him is still intact 10 years on. To such an extent that, collection after collection, the label originally founded by Pierre Balmain in 1945 is embodied to a stronger and stronger degree in the figure of Rousteing.

“I want to create something that will last forever,” said Rousteing at the start of the show. Meanwhile, his face was projected on giant screens around the runway.

The truth is that the wonder boy who made Balmain’s triangular, pointed silhouette an icon of the 2010s is a man of many talents, as was demonstrated with the last haute couture collection of Jean-Paul Gaultier. Rousteing was commissioned with designing the entire line. The Balmain show was also a great success.

In this collection, Rousteing experimented with wide-brim hats and graphic prints on sheer dresses. You could just make out the model’s body beneath the fabric, becoming part of the pattern itself. The collection ended with a dozen mermaid-style evening dresses, their trains enriched with feathers and embroidery.

In addition, Balmain is extending its product range: this week, the label has announced it is partnering with Estée Lauder to create its first line of luxury beauty products. A new landscape to explore for the ambitious Rousteing.

(with EFE)