Before founding his own house, Pierre Balmain worked in some of Paris’ greatest pre-war couture houses, learning from two master couturiers of the early twentieth century: Lucien Lelong and Edward Molyneux. They distilled in Balmain a deep respect for the power of great construction and precise tailoring, as well as an understanding of the importance of always working closely with the finest artisans to perfect a couture design’s final embellishments.

For this collection, Olivier Rousteing cleverly subverts codes of an upper-class world that was once beyond his reach, adapting symbols of exclusion and twisting them to turn the focus on the beauty of an inclusive, no-longer closed-off world. To do that, Rousteing modernized classic styles and patterns, including age-old silk-scarf motifs, which were impressively converted into 3D embellishments, thanks to the remarkable embroidery skills of the Balmain atelier.

Returning to the land of the Pharaohs for his second Egyptianthemed collection, Olivier Rousteing relied on the impressive finesse of the Balmain artisans for sleek and sensual, perfectly tailored, woven, pleated and draped designs. These were wonderfully complemented by intense Egyptian blues, shining golden tones, scarab-inspired iridescents and many ornate plays on animal patterns, serpents and plumage.

Ten years after his Cuban-inspired collection, Olivier Rousteing returned to the beauty of raffia for Spring 2023, but this time, he directed the Balmain atelier to treat the fiber in an entirely different way. Rousteing and his artisans constructed some particularly sculptural pieces from an extraordinary amount of natural raffia, jute cord and twigs—all stitched, assembled and shaped into incredible curving volumes by the house’s talented team of craftsmen.

Pierre Balmain’s mastery in draping and pleating was a key ingredient of his legendary “New French Style”—and one can clearly see Balmain’s architectural training in the volumes he created. The Balmain archive’s vast collection of past designs, sketches and fashion-magazine editorials provides a constant inspiration to Olivier Rousteing and his team, as they build upon the founder ’s legacy of remarkable fabric manipulations.

Bringing traditional Parisian couture’s love of int r i cate weaving and meticulous corset lacing to a whole new and very modern level, Olivier Rousteing often directs his atelier team to use weaving, braiding, knotting and lacing techniques on a wide variety of luxury fabrics, in order to create the unmi stakable, sensual Balmain silhouette.

When examined closely, the complicated macramé and braiding patterns that were created for Beyoncé and Olivier Rousteing’s joint Renaissance Couture Collection are stunning. Due to their fascinating complexity, they took several days for the talented artists and teams of craftsmen to complete.

To create Zendaya’s impressive gown for the Venice Film Festival, Olivier Rousteing and the Balmain craftsman worked for several weeks through many stages: first came the creation of a plaster mold, created directly upon of Zendaya in Los Angeles. That base was then molded in natural leather, which was covered with a camel-colored lambskin drape. Finally, a special couture skirt was designed to join to the bustier, to form one single piece. To perfect each and every element, several fittings followed, in California and, finally, in Venice.

Not content to simply rely on precious metals for adornments, Olivier Rousteing works closely with the Balmain craftsmen to create his runways’ many shimmering metallic moments.

The Renaissance Collection constantly surprises, as Beyoncé and Olivier Rousteing were intent on pushing the boundaries of couture—incorporating the surprising and astonishing materials, finishes and treatments that best reflected the audacious spirit of Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” album.