Balmain Fall Winter 2024-2025 “A Masterclass in Fashion Deja-Brew“. Story by Eleonora de Gray, Editor-in-Chief of RUNWAY MAGAZINE. Photo Courtesy: Balmain.
Ladies and Gentlemen, fasten your seatbelts and adjust your monocles; we’re about to embark on a whirlwind tour of the Balmain Fall Winter 2024-2025 collection, where “new” is just “old” wearing a fake mustache.
Let’s start with Olivier Rousteing, the Houdini of ready-to-wear, Haute Couture Wannabe, who, instead of pulling rabbits out of hats, pulls designs out of history books. Imagine a world where copying homework is not frowned upon but celebrated with champagne and runway shows. Welcome to Balmain!
This season, Rousteing went on a Eurotrip, not for fun, but for “inspiration.” Valentino, Dolce & Gabbana, Dior, Thierry Mugler, and the evergreen Alexander McQueen were his stops. But instead of souvenirs, he brought back a suitcase full of design ideas, promising to make them his own by adding… well, a Balmain label.
Ah, the collection! A beautiful homage to the age-old tradition of “If you can’t make it, fake it.” The pièce de résistance? A technique so revolutionary invented by Valentino, and presented last September for Spring Summer 2024 season, it had the fashion world gasping: Altorilievo, but with a twist.. of the hands from Schiaparelli. Picture this: instead of sculpting fabric into three-dimensional forms, Balmain simply glued resin shapes onto dresses. Because, why bother with innovation when you can achieve a similar effect with half the effort and double the glue? Nailed it! Close enough!
But wait, there’s more! Fruits straight out of Dolce & Gabbana’s kitchen, because nothing says “fresh” like fruits from 4years ago. And let’s not forget the homage to Thierry Mugler’s suits, with lapels so sharp they could cut glass—or at least cut through the competition, if only they hadn’t seen it before.
Olivier Rousteing, the mixologist of fashion, claimed his collection was a “celebration of the beauty of diversity” by mixing all the brands together. It’s like a smoothie of high fashion; you know there’s kale in there somewhere, but all you can taste is banana.
And for the grand finale, Balmain branded net shopping bags filled with artificial fruit. Because nothing screams “luxury” like faux apples and pears that even a plastic worm wouldn’t bother with. It’s the perfect metaphor for the collection: looks real from a distance, but upon closer inspection, it’s just really good plastic. Dolce Gabbana in 2020 used the real fruits by they, didn’t you know that?
So, as the fashion world looks on, one thing is clear: Balmain’s Fall Winter 2024-2025 collection is not just clothing; it’s a comedy. Rousteing has not only blurred the lines between inspiration and imitation but erased them entirely, leaving us with a collection that’s as original as a photocopy of copy of the Mona Lisa.
In the end, we must applaud Olivier Rousteing. It takes a special kind of genius to create a collection that makes us laugh, cry, and question our fashion history knowledge — all at the same time. Balmain, the house of everlasting echoes, where the past is always present, and the only thing new is the laughter it brings. Bravo, Olivier Rousteing, bravo!
See All Looks Balmain Fall Winter 2024-2025
