PARIS (AP) — Designer Olivier Rousteing is stepping down as inventive director of the Balmain style home after 14 vastly seen years by which he fused the rigor of Parisian tailoring with a digital-age sense of celeb, he introduced Wednesday.
“Today marks the end of my Balmain era,” Rousteing,40, wrote on Instagram. “What a unprecedented story it has been — a love story, a life story … I’ll all the time maintain this treasured time near my coronary heart.”
Balmain confirmed Rousteing’s departure and mentioned in an announcement {that a} new inventive path can be introduced “in due course.”
“All through his exceptional 14-year tenure, Olivier’s visionary method and artistic brilliance propelled Balmain to unprecedented heights,” the label mentioned.
Rousteing, who turned inventive director in 2011 at age 25 after two years on the label, spent his tenure reviving a once-sleepy style home with a mixture of couture craft and pop-era bravado.
He remodeled Balmain right into a headline-generating model with a imaginative and prescient constructed on sequins, energy shoulders and social media muscle, reframing French luxurious for a era raised on Instagram.
Underneath Rousteing, Balmain turned as a lot about group as clothes. He cultivated what he referred to as the “Balmain Military” — a loyal circle of fashions and stars together with Rihanna, Beyoncé and Kim Kardashian — which embodied the glamour and visibility he championed.
Runway reveals turned pop occasions, blurring the road between style present and stadium live performance. The designer’s inclusive casting and celebration of range helped redefine the picture of a Paris home typically related to old-world exclusivity.
Born in Bordeaux and adopted as an toddler, Rousteing later realized that his organic dad and mom have been of Somali and Ethiopian origin — a revelation that he mentioned deepened his sense of id and artistic mission. His collections typically wove references to heritage, resilience and belonging, providing a contemporary counterpoint to the Eurocentric codes that after dominated French couture.
That private resilience was examined once more in 2020, when a hearth explosion in his Paris house left him with extreme burns throughout a lot of his physique. Rousteing saved the accident personal for almost a yr, designing in bandages whereas concealing his accidents from the general public eye. When he revealed the ordeal on Instagram, posting a picture of his scarred torso, the gesture was each uncooked and defiant — a reminder that vulnerability may coexist with glamour.
The designer’s candor about his trauma and restoration additional humanized a determine as soon as seen as style’s final showman. In interviews, Rousteing mentioned the expertise stripped away concern and bolstered his perception in honesty and transparency. His subsequent collections — notably the Spring 2022 present marking Balmain’s tenth anniversary beneath his path — have been suffused with themes of therapeutic, energy and rebirth, with corseted silhouettes and bandage motifs doubling as symbols of survival.
“Like every story, this one also has an ending,” Rousteing wrote on Instagram Wednesday. He thanked his crew and colleagues, however didn’t say what his subsequent step will probably be.
“Today, I leave the House of Balmain with my eyes still wide open — open to the future and to the beautiful adventures ahead, adventures in which all of you will have a place. A new era, a new beginning, a new story. THANK YOU.”
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Related Press author Jocelyn Noveck contributed to this report from New York.
