Just when we thought the churn of the fashion world waters had finally started to calm, another tidal wave has come through. On Wednesday, November 5, Balmain announced that Olivier Rousteing, the brand’s creative director, has stepped down after almost a decade and a half in the position.
“I am deeply proud of all that I’ve accomplished, and profoundly grateful to my exceptional team at Balmain, my chosen family, in a place that has been my home for the past 14 years,” Rousteing said in a statement. His departure from the brand marks the end of a partnership characterized by its creativity and cultural significance. It also ends one of the longest creative director tenures in recent fashion history.
Born in Bordeaux in 1985, Rousteing moved to Paris at a young age to study at Ecole Supérieure des Arts et Techniques de la Mode. He began his career at Roberto Cavalli in 2003, where he worked as the head of the brand’s women’s ready-to-wear collection for five years. In 2009, he moved on to Balmain and began working closely with the French house’s then-creative director, Christophe Decarnin. Two years later, at just 25 years old, he was named creative director at Balmain, becoming the youngest replacement designer to lead a major Paris fashion house since Yves Saint Laurent took over Dior. He was also the first Black designer to lead a French house ever. Rousteing was basically unknown at the time of his appointment, making the choice a risk, albeit one that paid off. According to Vogue, over his tenure, Rousteing increased annual revenue tenfold, from €30.4 million in 2012 to an estimated €300 million last year.
Rousteing was successful in placing Balmain back in the cultural landscape, with highly energetic and embellished collections that caught the public’s fickle eye. His friendships with celebrities like Beyoncé, Rihanna, and Kim Kardashian helped to push his designs further into the mainstream. In 2014, Kardashian wore a pearl-covered mini dress from Rousteing’s fall 2012 collection to her Parisian bachelorette, a moment that had a significant impact on Balmain’s cultural street cred. It also helped to create the Balmain Army, the name associated with the following that soon materialized around Rousteing and the brand, inspired by Rousteing’s armor-adjacent designs.
In 2015, Rousteing became the latest designer to design a collaboration collection with H&M, which featured pieces inspired by Rousteing’s first few seasons with Balmain. The collaboration was a huge hit, with fans sleeping on the streets to get an opportunity to shop the pieces, which sold out in just hours.
During his time at Balmain, Rousteing was always moving the brand forward. Not long after joining the house, he facilitated the opening of the first Balmain stores outside of Paris and, in 2019, he presented couture as a guest designer on the schedule (and acted as the guest couturier for Jean Paul Gaultier’s fall/winter 2022 haute couture collection). In 2023, he launched Balmain beauty and fragrance with Estée Lauder, expanded the brand’s accessories category, and co-designed a collection with Beyoncé.
It wasn’t always easy. In his 2019 documentary Wonder Boy, Rousteing opened up about his adoption and the search for his birth parents. In 2021, the designer suffered an at-home accident, which left him severely burned. The incident inspired his spring 2022 collection, which featured gauzy bandage dresses. “My last show was about the celebration of healing over pain,” he said on Instagram. “I remember when they took out all my bandages it felt [like] FREEDOM.”
Rousteing completely transformed Balmain from a quiet, ivory tower fashion house to a cultural phenomenon. In that same time, Rousteing grew from a 25-year-old kid to a celebrity designer working with some of the biggest names in the world. Of course, the question now is, who will attempt to fill Rousteing’s shoes and what will he do next? Though he has experienced a lifetime of milestones, Rousteing is only 40, and therefore, likely has a lot of creativity left in him.
Source: W Magazine
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