Balmain Couture Spring 2023 at Paris Fashion Week

Balmain Couture Spring 2023 presented by Balmain Festival at stadium, it’s concert of Cher for Finale the runway. Theme of Balmain couture is a renaissance, highlighting the endangered beauty of the natural world that surrounds us.

As I’ve pointed out many times before, much of my love of working on couture is due to the incredible freedom that it gives a designer. Liberated from everyday commercial limitations, unconcerned about following marketplace trends and actually encouraged to push boundaries—working on collections like these give me a rare chance to truly experiment and push myself. Overseeing a couture offering is definitely a dream.

And my team and I were determined to make the most of this special moment—this dream—discovering and investigating new techniques and materials, in order to build directly upon the Spring 2023 runway’s love letter to our planet. In addition to relying on our own talented Balmain artisans, we’ve reached out to new creators from outside of the Paris couture world to partner with us. They helped open our eyes to how we can work closely with nature for this special couture moment—while helping us avoid leaving any footprints on the forest floor.

No trees have been harvested to create these pieces—instead sourcing teams were sent into forests to gather the perfect bark, branches, and twigs. Bark from chestnut-trees has been formed into a one-of-a-kind bustier and that from oak has been expertly shaped into a little bark dress. Striking basketweaves were created from pieces harvested from meadows, bogs, and forests, sorted by colours Striking and softened in water before being woven and sculpted directly atop the house model.

A long gown relies on multiple layers of raffia, each playing with an array of brown hues and hand stitched onto a gauze base, allowing us to riff on the amazing textures and tones of the gorgeous trees that we spotted during our expeditions deep into the woods. A pair of particularly eye-catching sculptural pieces were constructed from an extraordinary amount of natural raffia, jute cord and twigs—all stitched, assembled and shaped into incredible curving volumes by our singular craftsmen.

Throughout, the influence of Africa is, of course, quite easy to spot. Discovering recently that my birth parents come from the Horn of Africa has only served to intensify my lifelong fascination with the beauty, traditions, and designs of that region—and with the whole of Africa. And, for today’s Balmain Festival, as my team and I call for a global rebirth—a renaissance—while highlighting the endangered beauty of the natural world that surrounds us—melding that existential message with influences from the very birthplace of humanity seems a natural fit.

Just like our main runway collection, the creation story of this couture offering begins with my design team and me sharing worries about the possibilities of a dystopian climate future. By motivating us to redouble our sustainability efforts and opening our eyes to the endangered beauty that surrounds us, this summer’s disquieting heatwaves, droughts and forest fires have definitely affected us. There’s such a long way to go and so much work ahead of us. But we pledge to keep giving it our all —and we hope that others will join with us.

Olivier Rousteing, Paris