Pierre Balmain was born on May 18, 1914, in the city of Saint-Jean-de-Marienne. His father was the owner of a small clothing manufactory, and his mother was a style consultant! Since childhood, he was fascinated by the process of creating luxurious toilets.
In 1934, Pierre left for Paris, where he entered the Academy of Fine Arts, but left it without thinking, for an internship with Edouard Malin. From him, Balmain learned excellent tailoring.
In 1939, Pierre transferred to the workshop of Lucien Lelong. There he learned the art of hand embroidery with beads and bugles, and also mastered the technique of working with glass rhinestones.
Here he worked side by side with Christian Dior. They jointly conceived the idea of creating a joint brand, but Dior did not dare, and in 1945 the history of the Pierre Balmain brand began.
Pierre Balmain created his models in an exotic style, the main element of the designer’s decor were arabesques – complex oriental ornaments of intricate plant and geometric interlacing. These patterns necessarily appeared in each new collection of the fashion designer.
In addition, Balmain’s signature style was considered to be embroidery with gold, bronze, pearls, as well as the use of fur, pastel-colored satin, silk and taffeta. All this was complemented by unrivaled handwork.
Missing the chic of social events, complex hairstyles and bright makeup, ladies began to order outfits for the revived balls from the house of Pierre Balmain with pleasure. It was Pierre Balmain, even earlier than Christian Dior, who began to sew dresses with a very narrow waist and a bell-shaped skirt.
He became one of the few designers who managed to be both expensive and incredibly popular. He conquered not only Paris, but also America, opening his salons in New York and Caracas.
For the first 25 years of the brand’s existence, Balmain adorned his name only on haute couture clothing. Already in the 1950s, Pierre Balmain was widely considered the king of French fashion and dressed such big-screen stars as Ava Gardner, Marlene Dietrich, Katherine Hepburn and Brigitte Bardot.
In the late 50s, Balmain shocked the world of high fashion by introducing cocktail dresses with exposed collarbones and knees, too revealing for that time. But customers liked this idea, and the new models were a success.
And in 1964, he created a tight-fitting transparent dress for Hollywood star Carol Baker.
In the 60s, minimalist designer Yves Saint Laurent began to conquer all the best positions in the fashion world. The Balmain era is over, the shine of a thousand Balmain beads noticeably loses to the original print in the style of Pablo Picasso’s paintings.
Pierre Balmain begins to produce watches, accessories and other luxury items for the first time.
Even before his death, Pierre handed over the management of the brand to his assistant, but he fails to achieve visible success…
The brand changes owners, creative designers (including Oscar de la Renta), in 2001 it changes the brand name from Pierre Balmain to Balmain, but… it loses and loses customers.
The former chief designer of the Paco Rabanne brand, Christophe Decarnin, came to the post of Balmain designer in 2005 and became art director in 2007, literally resurrected the fashion house from the ashes and returned it to its former glory.
In 2011, young designer Olivier Rousteing was appointed as the brand’s art director, and the first full-fledged spring-summer 2012 collection became an absolute triumph for Olivier: all fashion critics without exception saw in his work a harmonious symbiosis of the brand’s traditions and his own fashion ideas.
The leading motifs of the collection are pure white, luxurious gold graphic embroidery, soft leather, light blue denim, torero fringe on the sleeves of jackets and dresses, embroidered floral prints and massive metal accessories.
And finally, here he is – the young, bold and talented Olivier Rousteing, who returned the Balmain brand to the Olympus of high fashion.
