F@B Presents: Olivier Rousteing Transforms Balmain | Brown Fashion Week ’21

Olivier Rousteing, Creative Director of Balmain, was interviewed by Lynn Hlaing ′21 and Kasia Hope ′21, and introduced by Sasha Pinto ’21 as part of Brown Fashion Week 2021 at Brown University on March 14, 2021.
𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐁𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐅𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐊 ’𝟐𝟏:
Brown Fashion Week, an extravaganza inspired, planned, and executed by the 130 undergraduate student members Fashion@Brown (F@B), is the annual culmination of the club’s mission to inform, enthuse, and educate members and the community about the fashion and lifestyle industries. F@B’s Distinguished Speaker Series features conversations by the fashion industry’s top designers, CEOs, creative directors, journalists, editors, and industry professionals, offering real-life perspectives and advice for students. Brown Fashion Week culminates in its annual Runway Show spotlighting the collections of F@B’s Design Team of Brown and RISD student designers.
𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐎𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐫 𝐑𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠:
Rihanna, Kim Kardashian West, Gigi Hadid, Kendall Jenner. There’s no limit to the names and personalities that make up the Balmain Army of stars and models, but they all have the same defining features: boldness, confidence and conviction. Across the globe, countless people find themselves enraptured by the glamourous, forward thinking fantasy that Olivier Rousteing, the creative director of Balmain, has made a reality in the fashion industry.
In 2011, at the age of 25, Olivier Rousteing was chosen as creative director of Balmain, a historic Parisian fashion house, making him the youngest creative director of a French fashion house since Yves Saint Laurent. Where the previous creative director of Balmain, Christophe Decarim, revitalized Balmain and brought the rock and roll energy of the 40s and 50s to Balmain’s heritage, Olivier Rousteing brought Balmain into the future with his internet savvy, grafting a universality and diversity that speaks to a digital generation onto Balmain’s historic style.
Bringing an innovative spirit of adventure and understanding of a digital generation, Olivier Rousteing’s creative vision has been integral to Balmain’s rapid growth as a brand and as a cultural staple on social media through his “Balmain Army.” This cohort of some of the most popular presences in modern culture has been brought together by Rousteing’s desire for a fantastical fashion world that reflects the designer’s own generation--a modern Balmain world highlighting a 21st century culture--with its inclusive diversity, look towards sustainability and more. Since taking over the role, Rousteing has began his grand plans to modernize the brand with pushes for diversity, his reintroduction of Balmain to haute couture in 2018, the first time for the brand in 16 years since Oscar de la Renta, and now his fashion campaigns with virtual models.
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