If you’ve ever attended a coed fashion show and felt that the womenswear overshadowed the menswear, you’re not alone.
That’s one reason Olivier Rousteing is giving back Balmain‘s men’s collection its own spotlight with a dedicated show on Saturday during Men’s Fashion Week in Paris.
“Also, sometimes the men’s buyers are not coming during women’s fashion week, so they don’t see the clothes in real life, and we sell via iPads long distance,” the designer said. “I think menswear needs to be seen and touched as a craft, to appreciate the tailoring and the sharpness.”
While keeping his fall 2024 collection under wraps until his show at the Grande Halle de la Villette, Rousteing characterized it as a “rebirth” for several reasons.
The coed format, which Balmain adopted during the pandemic, meant men’s and women’s collections were often thematically linked and shared similar silhouettes, fabrics and inspirations.
For the stand-alone men’s show, he said he would focus on tailoring, quality, timelessness and an attitude he called “citizen of the world.”
“My men love to feel like a new prince of the world,” he said over Zoom from his office. “The show that you’re gonna see on the 20th will have nothing to do with the women’s show that you will see on the 28th of February. I love to give two directions.”
Rousteing has designed Balmain menswear since he arrived at the creative helm of the French house in 2011, staging his first dedicated men’s runway show for spring 2016, and building it to represent about 30 to 35 percent of the business. His ambition is to take it up to 50 percent over the next few years, convinced men’s attitudes toward fashion, and dressing habits, have shifted dramatically over the past five years.
“The men’s wardrobe has completely shifted and there is a sense of freedom,” he enthused.
Despite all the headlines hailing the return of suits and the death of luxury streetwear, Rousteing countered that hoodies, jerseys, caps and sneakers continue to sell in important quantities — so much so that he’s introduced a men’s offering dubbed Main Lab, a clever scrambling of the Balmain name.
The sleek looks, done up in technical fabrics, mainly in black and white and with a “more minimal feel,” are in the spirit of Balmain’s bestselling sneaker — the Unicorn.
Main Lab debuted Wednesday at a pop-up inside Tokyo department store Isetan’s Shinjuku branch, then landed later in the week at 17 Balmain boutiques in the Americas, Europe and Asia, in addition to balmain.com.
In a wide-ranging interview, Rousteing acknowledged that the menswear archives of house founder Pierre Balmain are thin, since men’s was primarily a licensed business commencing in the 1980s.
Still, the French founder’s legacy of tailoring, craft and innovative fabrications, which have been rich fodder for recent Balmain womenswear collections, are good for the gander, too. “It’s a huge archive, where I can play with many elements for either men or women.”
Rousteing’s own fashion instincts figure prominently, seen in his recent penchant for wearing platform shoes, and designing them for his male Balmain army. Ditto his weakness for shoulder pads and — more recently — boot-cut pants that flare out over boots with a western twang.
“I try and give as much as I can from my own identity to my collections,” he said, ascribing his clothes provide “more self-confidence than sexual confidence.”
While many male designers rarely stray from a wardrobe of plain T-shirts and jeans or chinos, Rousteing is more of a chameleon, recently experimenting with long, braided hair and slouchy, oversize silhouettes, like the loose gray sweatshirt he sported for the video interview.
Rousteing, who suffered painful burns to his torso and limbs after a fireplace explosion at his Paris home in 2020, said that accident made him realize that he was “trying to please the rest of the world more than myself.”
So he strayed from his go-to double-breasted navy blazers with gold buttons, which he still wears from time to time, and embraced the freedom of being whomever he wanted to be, dispensing with fears of judgment.
“Right now we can feel that more men are also claiming their fashion freedom, which makes me happy,” he said. “It’s the beginning of a journey for me to be myself and be free. I would rather be hated for who I am than be loved for who I’m not.”
While Rousteing is loyal to iconic Balmain styles like slouchy double-breasted jackets, striped Breton jerseys and now high-heeled boots, he likes to mix in items from other designers, including pieces from Rick Owens, Vetements, Balenciaga, Dior by Kim Jones and also some women’s Chanel jackets and handbags.
Asked which men inspire him, Rousteing said Pharrell Williams has for years, in music and fashion. Last October, when French President Emmanuel Macron hosted a dinner for the fashion industry, Rousteing sat across from Louis Vuitton’s new men’s artistic director and “told him, ‘You’re always on my mood board.’”
James Dean and Serge Gainsbourg are icons from the past who fascinate Rousteing, while from modern times he has kept an eye on rappers including Drake and Kanye West, and also soccer players from the Paris Saint-Germain club. Indeed, Brazilian player Neymar, who in the fall transferred to Saudi Pro League club Al Hilal, has frequently appeared in the front row of Balmain shows.
“It seems that now athletes also feel more free to be who they want to be and are playing with fashion,” Rousteing said. “They’re becoming really interesting to follow as a style.”
