Supermodel hair changes and rococo vibes at Balmain

At the end of the Balmain show, Kanye West, in his pearl-encrusted bomber designed by Olivier Rousteing, reportedly said, “Kim is the source.” Evidence of Kim Kardashian’s style (post-Kanye’s makeover) and perhaps, body shape, was indeed all over the collection – in curved lampshade skirts, in the thigh-high boots and in her penchant more monochromatic looks in shades of pastel. She wasn’t physically present but her sartorial spirit was definitely there. For Rousteing, it was a show to celebrate his missive at Balmain – to bring together the richness of a very French house with the global and diverse outlook of his own personal background.

“I think you can see like the difference of women that actually inspire the world,” said Rousteing. “It can be Kim, can be Beyoncé, can be Rihanna. What I love about these women is that they are exactly who they are – they are different body shapes, and I think it’s important to bring those shapes in fashion. It’s like when I did my last campaign with Claudia (Schiffer), Cindy (Crawford) and Naomi (Campbell). They are top models, but they are also really strong women who have something to say. They are personalities, not just clothes hangers.”

You’d have to have big personalities to pull off the abundance of rococo-esque interior fabrics in pastel shades and the mass of tassels that swung off of these OTT silhouettes. With a change of venue to the Hôtel Potocki and a mini orchestra complete with a harpist and a cabaret singer installed at the end of the harlequin mirrored runway, the ante was upped.

With a curious soundtrack that swung from Kylie Minogue’s “Confide In Me” to Placebo’s version of “Running Up That Hill” and ended with Savage Garden’s “To the Moon & Back”, Rousteing was revisiting his teenaged past. “It’s the music that I was listening to on my own, and I just tried to assume who I am and acknowledge my age. Sometimes I feel like because you are young, you need to prove a lot and I wanted to explain what I was feeling in my childhood,” he said. “I don’t want to wait to be like, 50 and say, ‘I love 2000’. I wanted to say, I love ’95, I love my culture and I love what is today but also, what I had in my life.”