PARIS (AP) — Olivier Rousteing opened Balmain’s Wednesday show at Paris Fashion Week with an audacious angular micro-gown — a glittering number featuring peaked shoulders, humped hips and a massive clasping hand motif. It was clear from the start: this season’s Balmain was not going to be a study in subtlety. Meanwhile, Nicolas Di Felice’s latest offering for Courrèges took the audience into a futuristic world.
Here are some highlights of Wednesday's shows: Balmain’s eyes, shoulders and a dash of chaos Rousteing , ever the showman, leaned into extremes, delivering a collection that unapologetically fused boldness with a dose of camp. Prints of half-painted women’s faces guided the eye down floor-length gowns, while disembodied eyes, lips, noses and nails formed the visual leitmotifs of the evening. At its core, this collection’s identity hinged on the sculptural, almost scaffolded, shoulders — a signature of Balmain’s power dressing reimagined yet again.
The peaking effect extended to the hips in gold-striped chain mini-dresses, evoking an exaggerated 1980s glamour. Not every look hit the mark, however. A pink-beige conical suit suffered from wonky asymmetry, with a bustline that seemed comically repelled by the garment itself, a reminder of Rousteing’s tendency to overindulge in his maximalist ambitions.
As with past collections, the lack of restraint occasionally detracted from the overall coherence, a critique that has followed him across seasons. T.
