Paris Fashion Week: Balmain Wants You to #JoinMyReality

Balmain, designed by 32-year-old Olivier Rousteing, the first person of color to head a French heritage brand, literally dazzled the crowd gathered at Paris City Hall for its Fall/Winter 2018/2019 presentation. Suggested Reading The Ever-Growing List of Lawsuits Against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Take a Look Inside Michael Jordan’s Former Chicago-Area Mansion, Which You Can Now…

Balmain, designed by 32-year-old Olivier Rousteing, the first person of color to head a French heritage brand, literally dazzled the crowd gathered at Paris City Hall for its Fall/Winter 2018/2019 presentation.

Video will return here when scrolled back into view
Trump’s Tariffs Might Stick Around. What Should We Buy Now?
Trump’s Tariffs Might Stick Around. What Should We Buy Now?

Olivier R.โ€”as the designer prefers to be calledโ€”sent out his #BalmainArmy in futuristic fabrics inspired by fantasies of a soon-to-be-real cyber mashup world. Holographic polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, fabrics (youโ€™ll be seeing this trend everywhere come fall) shimmering with chemical rainbows like oil slicks were cut into sharply tailored, high-waisted pencil skirts topped with signature sharp-shouldered, military-style jackets festooned, as always, with gold buttons.

Those sharp shoulders, which have always been a signature of the house, are right on trend with what weโ€™re seeing across the board, fashionwise: women dressing with more authority in this #MeToo moment.

The authority to make your fantasy life a reality is something that Rousteing, an adopted child of mixed-raced origin, is always striving to lead his tribe of fashionโ€”which includes 4.7 million personal Instagram followers and another 7.8 million who make up the #BalmainArmy on the brandโ€™s official siteโ€”in achieving.

The Balmain point of view is definitely for the male or female customer who wants to project the image that they have it allโ€”and are not afraid to show it.

Gone from Balmainโ€™s runway this season were reinterpretations of athleisureโ€”which have thankfully all but disappeared from most collections. At Balmain, they were replaced by holographic or crystal-beaded baggy balloon trousersโ€”the kind of genie pants M.C. Hammer made famousโ€”topped with cool, cropped tuxedo jackets with trompe lโ€™oeil lapels. Baggy pants were also teamed with bell-sleeved blouses tied with oversized bows at the neck, jutting out well above the shoulders and placed just above the breast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKk_tGdz9cI

Shocking colorsโ€”highlighter-bright pinks, greens, yellows, blues and redsโ€”are coming back into fashion; Balmainโ€™s take on this never-easy-to-wear trend was right on and wearable for most women. Neon-bright splashes of color were worked into black ruched bodices on black cocktail dresses, threading strands of color like embedded computer cables; creating a kind of body map that was a fun trip for the eye. What made it clever and wearable was the placement of black fabric as a background next to the face, which kept the neon (which can make nearly any complexion look sallow) at a safe distance.

But back to those shouldersโ€”a signature motif of the maisonโ€”which showed up again on pleated tulle shorts and narrow minidresses with cinched waists worthy of a vintage Grace Jones album cover.

Shoulders were rounded and substantial, of course, but the standout were the tulle spines standing up like an army of soldiers from wrists to collarโ€”seemingly sending the conflicting message of โ€œIโ€™m soft and sexy and feminine, but donโ€™t try meโ€”I can be tough if touched.โ€

Come fall, holographic accessories inspired by Balmainโ€™s Fall/Winter 2018/2019 collection are what youโ€™ll most likely see on the streets. Clear PVC shoes with black patent leather toe caps and heels fashioned out of silver chains will be trending strongly as well.

But thereโ€™s no need to wait until fall to make your piece of the Balmain fantasy a reality; the house just launched a new Snapchat filter called #JoinMyReality, where you, too, can virtually be a part of Monsieur Rousteingโ€™s sleek, contoured and glittering world.

Straight From The Root

Sign up for our free daily newsletter.