Olivier Rousteing

Out has released their fourth annual 100 Most Eligible Bachelors list, and a few of our fashion friends have made the cut. This year, Olivier Rousteing, Marc Jacobs, Alexander Wang, Shayne Oliver, Prabal Gurung…

Hard to think of Spring on a gloomy day in Manhattan, but Rihanna gives us a little hope with the just-released images of her Balmain campaign. Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin shot RiRi last month in Manhattan, with creative direction by Franck Durand and styling by Mel Ottenberg. How does Balmain’s creative director Olivier Rousteing feel about this?

Look at these two gorgeous things! Olivier Rousteing and Joan Smalls posed for the BFA cameras at Balmain in Paris earlier today. Needless to say Joan didn’t wear the Kenzo sweatshirt in the show while walking. (Though that would have been so awesome!) The show also included a rare runway appearance by Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and included the traditional Brant brothers “skipping school to sit front row” appearance in Paris.

Balmain: Leave it to the houses that defined ’80s sex appeal on the runways to revive the era’s extravagance. In Milan, Versace chose to focus on punk. Here at Balmain, creative director Olivier Rousteing chose Dynasty. Shoulder pads, anyone? Big shoulders are a huge theme at plenty of shows this Fall, but here they were dramatically squared off. Who better to do a dramatic shoulder than Balmain? A white angora turtleneck sweater with broad shoulders was paired with gold lamé pants (flashy!). A black, broader-than-broad suit jacket (sparkly!) with white lapels was worn over a different sweater, cinched with a big gold belt to ratchet up the flare factor. Touching on the Harlequin theme from Spring, a hot pink diamond print, sequined one-shoulder top was paired with draped pants of the same hue, cinched and belted at the waist and topped with oversized chandelier earrings. A deeply spliced leather top with elaborately draped shoulders mingled with diamond patterned, gold and black MC hammer-style pants. Saucy good fun, to the same extent that an emerald green lamé jumpsuit seemed stage-ready. Maybe a bit too close to home for those who donned these looks during their original heyday. But for the style set a few decades younger? There’s plenty to relish…