Designer Report - Grade: B+ PDF

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Essay about Olivier Rousteing, House of Balmain Designer. Student is to choose their own designer and write an essay about that specific designer. Teacher's name: Mrs. Remy Odukomaiya. ...

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Lufile Designer Report: Olivier Rousteing In 2011 the House of Balmain appointed a new creative director of the fashion company named Olivier Rousteing. Rousteing was born September 13th, 1985 and is currently 31 years old. After his birth, Rousteing was placed in an orphanage at only 7 months old so he did not get a chance to know his biological mother and father. Around the age of 1, Rousteing was adopted by a couple, the husband’s name was Bruno-Jean and the Wife called Lydia. As a boy of color Olivier was constantly made fun of in school but little did everyone know, Rousteing was to later become an important part of a famous fashion house.

According to Rousteing, “from about aged 10 through to high school, people would criticize him by saying things like, ‘Oh, you're a bastard, your parents are white and you're black,’ or ‘Your mum slept with a black man,’ or ‘Your dad was with a black woman’” all during his time going to a state primary school and a private high school. Racism also played a part within Olivier’s family. According to Rousteing, his grandmother was in love with a man of color during her youth but was told by her mother (Olivier’s great-grandmother) that if she marries him she is “not part of the family anymore” and being adopted by a white family, Rousteing was at first not accepted because of his color, his parents actually suggested to his great-grandmother that “if you once say anything about the color of our kid, [then] we won’t see you anymore” and according to Rousteing “from that moment [he] was more than welcome” into the family. Rousteing’s comment on what he thought about his childhood was “I think, when I was a kid, I was looking more to the past, but now I'm looking more to the future. I think I was growing up with so many doubts. But my doubts became my strengths, and I'm deciding now to actually enjoy the present, and have an eye on the future more than the past” (Rousteing, Vogue)

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When he was young Olivier Rousteing was introduced to fashion by his grandmother whom he says was really into fashion, “grandma, Suzelle, always believes that she is hot. When she was 60 years old, she was still going clubbing with me and my friends. She [loved] Chanel pearls… is beautiful… and [gave] so many tips on how to be. She was always coquette; she was the one who actually drew on her legs to make it look like she was wearing stockings, she was always putting on make-up and was really flamboyant” (Rousteing, Vogue). Rousteing was also inspired

by “designers such as Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Gianni Versace and of course, Pierre Balmain.” All these people played a part in the growth of Rousteing’s love for fashion. Olivier Rousteing initially went to school to get a degree in law but later ended up dropping out to attended school at ESMOD (L’Ecole Supérieure des Arts et techniques de la mode). At 17 Rousteing got an internship at a couture house in Rome and 3 months later started working at Roberto Cavalli underneath the designer Peter Dundas. In 2009, Rousteing started working at Balmain under Christophe Decarnin. During his time there Rousteing had felt like he initially “wanted to move away from that rock ‘n’ roll vibe” that Christophe had created for the Balmain brand (Rousteing, the-divine). According to Rousteing, “It’s getting more chic, defined and sophisticated, while keeping the sexiness and glamour. It’s less rock n roll and more of sexy couture.” In 2011, when Olivier Rousteing was moved to the creative director position, he went back to the archives to look for inspiration for his debut for the 2012 spring/summer fashion show. Rousteing decided that “while everyone was going minimal or dark, [he] wanted to keep it happy, fun and light” (Rousteing). Because of this, critics would say that Balmain was out of touch with the trends but Rousteing didn’t care, he is more focused on “carving the brand’s identity than following trends” (the-divine). Rousteing’s aesthetic for the brand is now tight,

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Lufile bright and leggy. It is a rarefied, artisan-embroidered, exquisitely tailored version of an aesthetic instantly recognizable by any 18-year old as Friday-night party wear” (Jess Morley). During Rousteing’s reign of the fashion house of Balmain, things have changed and the brand is becoming more popular than it has been in years. In 2015 Dan Stapleton, of afr.com, found that “profits have grown almost 20% in the past three years” and Rousteing says that, “Balmain’s menswear is now 40% of the business of the house.” According to Alexander Fury, of Independent.co.uk, “Balmain has something of a rocky time before Rousteing.” Because of Rousteing, the house of Balmain was growing in success, he was known to create a style that “drew on Balmain’s couture heritage… but fusing it with rock-star influences” (Fury). Even now, the Balmain brand continues to grow. Olivier Rousteing is young and because of his fame, looks and friends in high places, people like “Rihanna, Kendall Jenner, Gigi Hadid, Justin Bieber, and Kim and Kanye, to name a few” He is known to be his own advertisement for Balmain (Lizzie, Crocker). With 4.1 million followers on Instagram Olivier’s followers are known as “his Balmain army” (business of fashion). Although people are still skeptical about the brand and some even dislike the brand, Rousteing is making changes that work and the word is spreading about the new creative director of Balmain. The brand’s children’s wear is a hit and Rousteing is even looking to lowering the

brands price a little so that others can be able to afford it, even H&M has a Balmain line within their store so that everyone could be able to get a little bit of Balmain. Olivier Rousteing commented saying “to begin with, I was the Balmain baby… today, Balmain is my baby.” Rousteing is headed down a good path for now and hopefully the brand will continue to grow through to the future.

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The start of Balmain: Balmain was started in the late 1900s, during the Gregorian Era, by a man named Pierre Balmain. Since the 1940s “the House of Balmain’s has held a dominant position in the fashion industry” (Bloomsburyfashioncentral). The repeated aesthetic of the House of Balmain was the “emphasizing [of] the waist” and is what is used in many of Olivier Rousteing’s designs.

“Pierre Balmain Fall 1955” http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/met adc283720/?q=balmain

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Examples of Olivier Rousteing’s Designs:

Balmain 2013

Balmain 2014

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