Balmain and how it Began

How the Brand Started

Balmain is a luxury fashion brand that started in France, 1945 by founder Pierre Balmain. Balmain created the brand to evoke a “boldly feminine and opulent signature style”(Pierre Balmain - Balmain, 2020)which was a distinct contrast to the clothes women wore during the wartime period. Pierre Balmain’s career took off and his French couture garments graced many celebrities of that time including Sophia Loren and Marlene Dietrich. In 1951, he set up a company in New York to create ready-to-wear collections. It was essentially the start of the golden age of couture and Balmain aspired to move away from the more utilitarian wear to a redefined, feminine look and silhouette (Berry, 2018). However, even with great craftsmanship, Balmain eventually lost his fame and was no longer viewed as a contender in the French fashion scene (McDowell, 2016).

After Pierre Balmain’s death, the brand was succeeded by many people who influenced and implemented great changed within the Balmain world. These included Erik Mortensen, Oscar de la Renta and Christophe Decarnin. Decarnin was particularly innovative during his time as he stepped away from the “studied opulence” and towards a more daring direction ( Yaeger, 2007). The brand has seen various changes from the return of simple, classic Parisian pieces to more flashy ornate implementations in recent years. It has helped to shape them as each creative director incorporated their own input and flair while staying true to the origins of the brand and to Pierre Balmain himself.

However, in 2011, Olivier Rousteing became creative director of the brand thus truly bringing Balmain into the modern era. Rousteing began to put emphasis on the younger generations, how their culture operates and the “diversity of the modern Balmain universe” (Olivier Rousteing -Balmain, 2020). In a way, the brand has managed to diverge into the modern fashion industry, thanks to Rousteing who has applied his youth and culture to integrate it

with French fashion and the heritage of the brand.