BALMAIN

I feel a little bit sorry for Balmain’s little hands. Creating and crafting a haute-couture collection like the one that was presented by Balmain during the SS17 Paris Fashion Week requires thousands of hours of work and represents – in my opinion – art, craftmenship and pure perfection. And yet these hours of hard work on the collection were blown away as it was slightly overshadowed by Kim Kardashian’s presence in the front row and her revealing outfit.

Media, except for fashion oriented publications, mainly pointed out KK’s outfit and the fact that it left nothing to the wonders of imagination. They also pointed out the great friendship between KK and Olivier Rousteing, Balmain’s creative director.

Serious reports on the collection itself, on the beautiful product of inspiration and dedication, were fewer, for that simple reason that provocation sells better.

Some highly-publicized friendships may actually have the opposite effect of the contemplated one: media talk about shit and miss the real point, your work. But who cares, right? The media circus goes on and on, and that’s the explicit-implicit goal, meeting everyone’s interests – the creator’s, the house’s, the celebrity’s, each one feeding his or her own notoriety.

« He who sups with the devil should have a long spoon », goes the saying. In this case, I doubt that the spoon was long enough, seeing as the posteriority will most probably not remember the collection in itself but the Kardashian event instead and that the people who have the means to buy Balmain pieces will most probably not like the idea of being identified with KK.

(But thank God, at least KK’s outrageous outfit was Balmain).

October 7, 2016

Balmain dress – Compagnie Française de l’Orient et de la Chine belt – Weill fur jacket – Dior heels – Gucci handbag – Paul & Joe sunglasses – Vintage necklace – Canadian Hat hat