Olivier Rousteing has turned up the heat at the venerable Paris fashion house Balmain, powered by the celebrity glow of his friends Rihanna and Kim Kardashian
Olivier Rousteing in his Paris office Photo: Maciek Kobielski
In the pantheon of hot, gay, photogenic fashion designers - and it is quite a pantheon - Olivier Rousteing reigns supreme. Aged 28, the creative director of Balmain has cheekbones like geometry and perfect skin, to quote the singer Lloyd Cole, whose 1984 hit was released a whole two years before Rousteing was born. Why are we flagging up his looks? The short answer is, Instagram. The longer answer is, social media and its increasing importance to the fashion industry as a marketing tool. If Victoria Beckham and Stella McCartney are the best advertisements for their own brands, then Olivier Rousteing is the best arm candy for the sort of women who wear him. Every celebrity needs a gorgeous GBF.
Backstage at the spring/summer 2015 show with Kanye West, Kim Kardashian and her little sister, Kendall Jenner. PHOTO: Getty
- Happily for Rousteing, and Balmain, the sort of women who
- wear him are extremely famous. It is a specific sort of fame,
- the ultra-modern sort that is more commonly measured by
- numbers than by something as prosaic as one's canon of work. Pulitzer Prize? Well done, but how many Instagram followers do you have? Rousteing has 928,000, a respectable amount, though small fry when compared with Rihanna's 14.3 million. Although even Rihanna is dwarfed by Kim Kardashian, who has 24.7 million followers and counting. These numbers are important because, as Rousteing says, "When you look at the fashion brands, how many followers do they have? Balmain has 1.1 million. It's like 10 per cent of what those girls have. It shows you the power of the personality more than the power of the entire brand." If you totted up the total number of followers boasted by Rousteing's celebrity friends - the models, the musicians, the reality-TV stars - you would be in the realm of tens of millions, all potentially wearing #Balmain in one photo or another, handily tagged for easy reference.
Attending the Costume Institute Gala at MoMa in New York in 2013 with Kate Bosworth. PHOTO: Getty
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In the light of these facts it is not even worth asking whether celebrity endorsement is essential to maintaining the success of a fashion house. Fashion has always courted celebrity, but today's business model is more complex. You can't just send someone a free handbag; far better to entwine yourself in their life, so the relationship is ongoing (and, therefore, regularly Instagrammed). "Celebrity is more important today than it used to be," Rousteing agrees. If celebrity is the driver, Instagram is the conduit. "It gives access to so many different people. For me it's the new high-street window. You can actually be part of the dream. It's not only available to 10 people on the front row - it's a way of communication that's inclusive, and there's something generous about that." He is also astute enough to recognise its particular advantage for a house like the privately-owned Balmain, which, though successful (posting sales of €30.4 million in 2012 and a profit of €3.1 million) is still relatively modest when compared with, say, Louis Vuitton, which has sales of about €8.4 billion. The luxury-goods market may once have been controlled by those brands with the biggest advertising budgets, but not any more. "You don't need to be the richest house or have the biggest campaign. You now have access to everyone, and a different way to show the world your clothes."
The glamorous front row for the spring/summer 2015 show, camera phones at the ready. PHOTO: Rex
Rousteing was raised in Bordeaux ("One of the most conservative cities in France"), by adoptive white parents who wanted him to study international law - which he did for two months until, "I realised I was looking at the boys in my class more than I was looking at my books." On a whim he moved to Rome, interning for a small label before securing a job with Roberto Cavalli at the age of 18. "I realised late that your passion can become your job," he says sincerely, blissfully unaware that 18 is precociously early. While his tastes for high-octane glamour were piqued at Cavalli, they were honed at Balmain, where from 2009 he was the right-hand man to its head designer, Christophe Decarnin. The latter's resignation, amid rumours of ill health, led to Rousteing taking over the helm in 2011, when he was 25. "What I love about Balmain, even more than the style, is that they gave me this chance to express myself at such a young age, and trusted me, despite my colour, my age and my point of view that is sometimes a bit controversial," he says.
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Olivier Rousteing's famous friends include Noomi Rapace. PHOTO: Getty
It is true that Balmain is a controversial and divisive label. Even if you possess the requisite body (toned, honed, relaxed about exposing vast acres of flesh), you may not possess the requisite bank balance. However cheap its critics may berate the clothes for looking, Balmain itself sure isn't cheap: the simplest white cotton T-shirt costs £200, while a leather miniskirt 'laden with brass-trimmed bone beads and fringing' is £3,975. More embellished pieces can soar well into five figures. That Balmain has doubled its profits every year since Rousteing took over proves that the 'super-luxe sex goddess' is a compelling proposition for an increasing number of women. Its ruthlessly sexy aesthetic might suggest otherwise but Rousteing insists Balmain should work for any woman, regardless of her body shape or age. "Fashion had started to forget women in a way, and concentrate too much on the clothes. For me it made no sense," he says. "In fashion the biggest moment was when the models were celebrities - we all remember Naomi, Claudia, Carla, Linda. The woman had to come back; the curved woman, and different kinds of body shapes. I don't like skinny girls. I want to represent a real woman, not just a shadow or a ghost."
A look from Balmain's spring/summer 2015 show in Paris. PHOTO: Rex
Certainly the new Balmain collection wouldn't be done justice by a shadow-woman; for maximum impact, curves are required. It was inspired by Free the Nipple, the equality movement whose high-profile supporters include Lena Dunham and Cara Delevingne. Less embellished than previous collections, the clothes can be worn in several ways, revealing or concealing as much flesh as the wearer wishes. "Do they let the nipple free? How are they going to hide it? I'm really curious to see how the fashion press is going to style the clothes," Rousteing says. In April 2014 Rihanna's Instagram account was suspended after she violated the Facebook-owned company's policies on nudity by posting a magazine cover of herself topless. "Sometimes the censorship of Instagram is too drastic," Rousteing says. "There's a lot of hypocrisy in the world, and above all in the fashion world."
Rousteing with famous friend, Rihanna. PHOTO: Getty
He once said that Rihanna could turn him straight. "There's no doubt about it," he laughs. "She has this aura, this charisma. It's not only sexual. It's something else. She is like a new Grace Kelly, or a Madonna… This woman of the world who represents a new world." Is he in love at the moment? "No, if you mean, 'Do I have someone in my life?' No, I don't. Just work and Rihanna." He pauses. "But that's enough. That's a lot!"
A look from Balmain's spring/summer 2015 show in Paris. PHOTO: Rex
Rousteing thinks Balmain's founder would have approved of Rihanna too . "I keep Pierre Balmain in my mind because he loved strong women, women who have something to say. All the French designers - Balmain, Poiret, Dior, Balenciaga - they believed in strong women. Their mothers were really important. In France fashion has always been connected to the role of the woman. I keep in my mind the rules of French fashion."
Pierre Balmain was established in 1946; that a storied French couture house hired a black man as its creative director is particularly significant given the parlous state of race relations in France. Rousteing mentions a friend, a black model who is hesitant about trying to get work in Paris because she claims if there are two new black models on the scene, she knows she will be surplus to requirements. "Honestly, you still count how many colours of people you have in the show?" he rails. "It's just sad. There is no other word. It's fashion getting old. Just two black girls? In the whole city? I don't think it would be the same with blond girls."
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Olivier with Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. PHOTO: Getty
As a mixed-race black man - one of a mere handful of black designers working at a high level in fashion today - he is acutely aware of the covert (and overt) racism that still flourishes within the industry. Unlike most, a Balmain show will always have more than one token black model. "The mixety [sic] of my castings is one of the most important things about the show," Rousteing says. "Sometimes I feel like some designers just focus on the clothes. Obviously it's a business, but when you do a show you want to be modern - it's not only about trying to find the fabric that no one else uses. Being modern means having a view or a vision of what the world is today. I want to show a vision of my world, what I see and what I want to see in the future." That we are speaking shortly after the Charlie Hebdo atrocities makes these issues seem particularly acute. "A week ago Paris was completely dark in many ways. It was really sad, kind of like losing hope."
A look from the Balmain SS15 collection. PHOTO: Rex
Before the Charlie Hebdo massacre did Paris feel like a happy city, or a city divided between rich and poor, black and white? "Paris is a mixed city. Everybody's different, and from every part of the world. Some people have a vision of Paris from the outside that is quite different from what it is. Paris the city of light, French culture, tradition… But Paris is really modern too. It's a mix of so many different races; really international. But at the same time, sometimes Paris is too traditional. I think what happened is showing a different way of seeing Paris, and it's making people closer to each other -all the Muslims, black people, white, Asian, we are together fighting for the cause.
"Some Muslims in Paris are scared to be judged for this event," he continues. "But it's not their fault. We need to be careful that we don't associate what happened with the wrong things. I hope the country won't go to extremes. We have a Front National…" he tails off. "I'm really scared of [the] racism too. Freedom is the most important thing. Freedom in every way. All the good art is political. It can be really controversial but what is important today is that we don't mix up what happened with black religion. We can't misunderstand."
