Balmain.

Thurs. 09/25/2014.





Balmain.

While I am a HUGE Fan of Olivier Rousteing's work at Balmain, I do have to confess this was not my favorite collection of his for the house. There has always been an Undercurrent (sometimes far more than just an Undercurrent!) of the Gaudy, even, Mayhaps, Tacky to Rousteing's Work for the Maison. Decarnin was Tacky too, Gaudy as well, but because his Rock 'n' Roll sensibilities were usually filtered through his creations, there was less of a Gobstopper effect going on. Enter Olivier... His sensibilities run more towards the Baroque side of excessive, A La Gianni Versace in his heyday, but where as Frere Gianni was Lyrical, even in his most Sluttish moments, Rousteing is at times, Cheap! This collection was suffused with a bit too much Trashiness to make it more Digestible.

Not to say that there were not Flashes of Brilliance, The entire Finale Section with those Multicolour Weaving, Plaids and Serape Stripe patterns were Spot-On! But elsewhere, It was one Head shaking moment of Tawdriness after another, and those Boxy 80's Revisited shapes don't look good or do anyone any sense of Justice, even the Linguine Thin Models. That was the other unfortunate effect... Much of Rousteing's Output this season made the Whippet slender models look Wide and Inelegant and Frankly, Weighty! Now if these Girls look Hefty in the clothes... Normal sized women surely need not apply!

Rousteing can and HAS done better than this... although Hometown Honey Riley Montana did look FIERCE in her Pristine White opening Exit, The rest was a Mixed bag of Hits and Many more Misses.





That's All.





Bye4Now!