Balmain sheds its armour for spring-summer 2017
“My Balmain army has shed its armour,” creative director Olivier Rousteing stated in the show notes. Balmain’s spring-summer 2017 collection – the first after its acquisition by Mayhoola (the Qatar-based investor behind Valentino and Pal Zileri) was one of Rousteign’s most covered-up and wearable collections. That said, he didn’t shy away from sensual and provocative details such as sheer panels revealing plenty of underboobs - the new cleavage, maybe?
The show which took place at Hotel Potocki transformed the venue into a jungle oasis with foliage hanging from the decorated ceiling.
“The calmness of today’s garden-runway reflects the spirit of a new age,” Rousteing said. “There’s also a bit of myself in this collection.”
In an effort to “open up the house to a wider audience”, the collection scaled down the house’s signature embroideries and replaced them with floor-sweeping body-hugging dresses and printed caftans. The audaciousness is rendered in a bright colour palette, sequined graphic stripes and colour-contrasting snakeskin prints. The collection grew from 60 looks to 80 this season.
Gigi Hadid, Alessandra Ambrosio and Jourdan Dunn were among the Balmain army. Stealing the spotlight in the front row were the Kardashians (Kim, Kourtney and Kris), Carla Bruni-Sarkozy and Baptiste Giabiconi.
The house’s new collection replaces signature embroideries with floor-sweeping, body-hugging dresses and printed caftans