Reports are flooding in that Olivier Rousteing will fill Christophe Decarnin’s shoes at Balmain.
Balmain severed ties with its creative director after he failed to appear at the company’s fall show in Paris. Rumors suggested that Decarnin was suffering from depression at the time.
A source at British Elle said Balmain would likely search for new blood, and that’s just what they’ve got with Rousteing. While he’s worked at Balmain for the last three years he’s largely unknown amongst fashion circles. However, he was one of Decarnin’s key deputies, so he’d surely have picked up a thing or two about the design process.
Before his tenure at Balmain, Rousteing spent almost six years at Roberto Cavalli’s headquarters in Milan. Sources say that he’s a “young and promising creative dynamo,” but I guess we’ll have to wait for his first collection to hit runways to decide for ourselves.
It might seem a risky decision to promote internally, but Balmain’s in good company here. Hannah MacGibbon thrived when she stepped up at Chloe, as did Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli at Valentino.
What do you think of Balmain’s choice here? Would you rather see an established designer taking the reins of the French fashion house, or are you excited by the prospect of someone new?
[Image Source: Payal Jaggi/Flickr]
