Balmain SS24 Women at Paris Fashion Week

Balmain SS24 / Spring Summer 2024 Women Collection at Paris Fashion Week

This evening’s presentation for Balmain Spring Summer 2024 Women collection continues our celebration of the incredible legacy that Monsieur Balmain left behind for us. Maybe the easiest way to discuss the message, inspirations and details of this runway would be to tie it together with what is perhaps the most famous quote from the woman who was perhaps Pierre Balmain’s most famous friend, Gertrude Stein:

a rose…

Building upon the amazing designs and sketches that we’ve pulled from this house’s rich archives, my team and I have been focused on the strongest elements from this house’s couture designs from the late 1940s and early 1950s. Channeling Pierre Balmain’s architectural mastery of sculptural shapes and precision tailoring, my team and I have paired our atelier’s sharp cuts with the soft curves of jackets and skirts transformed by crinoline. Just as it did in Pierre Balmain’s midcentury collections, a signature house motif, the petit pois (polka dot), weaves itself through these offerings, relying on a wide variety of sizes, colors, and materials. And, most notably, Balmain Spring Summer 2024 women collection goes all out in celebrating our founder’s lifelong love of the rose, a flower that always held a special spot in Monsieur Balmain’s many garden and couture designs for Balmain SS24 Women

is a rose…

My team and I have pulled out all the stops, with the fragrant and feminine perennial seeming to show up everywhere, in multiple forms—from single-bud adornments to colorful prints filled with a gardens-worth of cabbage roses. Three-dimensional roses are crafted from a wide variety of materials, including patent leather, rubber, latex, porcelain and even recycled plastic bottles. It’s clear that it’s the spirit of the rose—the joy, beauty and love associated with that flower—that’s driving this collection. Because we all could use a whole lot more joy, beauty and love today.

is a rose…

But I’d like to try to avoid the easy assumption that a florals-for-spring offering that celebrates love, beauty and joy must, by definition, be superficial. Love is complex—every rose, after all, comes with its thorns. And we wholeheartedly embrace that complexity, with thorns showing up in multiple sizes and forms throughout this runway. I doubt that those who know me will be too surprised by that, since I’ve always loved to expand upon the fascinating tension caused by adjacent opposites—and that fondness for oppositions is particularly pronounced in our designs for next season. This is a collection filled with vibrant colors, as well as strict monotones, where softness, fluidity and sensual curves are paired with the sharpest Parisian tailoring, and where we continue to build upon the potential of anextraordinary couture heritage transforming itself into something even more remarkable when complemented by a fresh and modern mindset.

is a rose.

As the saying goes, you can complain about rose stems having thorns, or you can celebrate the fact that thorn bushes produce roses. My team and I have chosen the latter. Our celebration sees stems, blooms, leaves, trellises—and, yes, thorns—decorating a wide variety of runway looks and multiple accessories, including bouquet-inspired leather bags, petal-covered heels and geometric eyeglass frames gripped by sinuous, thorn-covered stems and topped by mini-flowers in maxi bloom. Yes, we see those thorns, but we’re concentrating on the roses, as we celebrate love, joy, and beauty.

Paris, Olivier Rousteing

PS: The recent robbery of fifty of our pieces was definitely not the type of news that my team and I were hoping to hear in the days leading up to this presentation. But, of course, a big part of working in fashion is always trying to deal as best you can with unexpected setbacks.

But, instead of rehashing the facts, I’d love to add a note to this release in order to give thanks. And I owe a lot of thanks to a lot of people.

First to the Balmain team. I will always remember your impressive efforts, as everyone joined together, working all that much harder to make up for our losses. You were exhausted already, but you found the strength needed to help ensure that a robbery would not affect our runway. Now, even more than before, I am filled with admiration for your talents and gratitude for your amazing spirit. Thank you.

I was also very moved by all of the messages of concern and offers of help that I received from my friends and colleagues in the fashion world—thank you, again, to everyone who reached out. Your messages were very appreciated.

And, finally, on behalf of the entire Balmain family, many, many thanks to the Paris police, who have been working hard on this case from day one. They’ve recovered the stolen van and some of the boxes and they’re still continuing their work. Mille mercis.