Balmain Fall Winter 2023-2024 “Timeless-less or Processed Fashion”. Story by Eleonora de Gray, Editor-in-Chief of RUNWAY MAGAZINE. Photo Courtesy: Balmain.
Creative director of Balmain house Olivier Rousteing said in his interview to WWD: “It’s about quality, it’s about timelessness and it’s about bringing back to Balmain history. In 1945, the house of Pierre Balmain was built by someone that had the strength to believe in fashion and believe in a new French style.“
But what we see here is Thierry Mugler, Chanel by Karl Lagerfeld, Moschino by Jeremy Scott, and small Chinese brands production what we can find on Amazon and Aliexpress. I’m all up to Balmain history. And I’m also for Thierry Mugler, Karl Lagerfeld, Chanel, Moschino history. It is true that Olivier Rousteing today is not doing exact copy as he did before, he is combining and making compilations. So for the experts it is harder to trace where his “designs” came from.
Pierre Balmain is known for certain iconic looks, iconic specific elements. Thierry Mugler was known for creating amazing dresses inspired by tuxedos. Chanel by Karl Lagerfeld was known by black classy dresses and jackets, Valentino and Moschino for their bows. Olivier Rousteing thinks that he inherited them all. And now he started to use old catalogs and patterns from the 1980s-1990s.
Fast Fashion vs Processed Fashion
I see that Balmain opened a store in Beijing a week ago. So obviously he had to look for something trendy there. There’s no better way to pick designs from local little producers, but to check Alibaba catalogs. Small brands wouldn’t mind.
Coco Chanel said that this is great to see when her fashion goes to the streets. Olivier Rousteing said he can go to the streets and bring the designs for his fashion. It’s like processed food: at first there was a fish, someone ate it and left bones and some other parts, then these leftovers were transformed in industry into surimi, and now Balmain took big box of these surimi and used it like clay to form a fish, painted it, and said “here there’s a fish for you”. Pretty gross, hah? Are you really gonna eat it?
So how to recreate a Balmain look from Fall Winter 2023-2024 collection? Very simple., You’ll need a blouse with a bow (15-30$), add here tight long skirt (15-30$), and a hat (10$). Total look can be recreated from mass-production available on Amazon or Aliexpress. How smart, Olivier…. you take cheap and make it expensive. Won’t work though.
If someone still wants to buy it, wait for it – it’ll be recycled again to 100$.
Selected looks by Olivier Rousteing
Balmain Processed Fashion looks taken from Thierry Mugler – dresses inspired by tuxedos. Chanel by Karl Lagerfeld – black classy dresses and jackets, Valentino and Moschino – bow dresses and suits.
See all looks Balmain Fall Winter 2023-2024
