Come December, the rocker house of Balmain will be cranking out their "Pierre Balmain" diffusion line as promised. Which is a good thing because if they didn't come through on their word, I was going to sue them for "breach of contract" or "irreparable emotional damage" or whatever that 1-800-CALL-A-LAWYER would advice me to do. I take my safety-pinned, cigarette burnt, tar coated clothing very seriously!
After scouring the fashion-nets, here's some things I love and some things I'm throwing a stink eye to:
Pros:
* 90% cheaper than the regular line; pieces will range from t-shirts starting at $175 to evening wear at $1300 max.
* Equal gender opportunity; MEN. WILL. GET. SOME. LOVIN!!! AMEN!
* Judging from these preview pics, they're staying true to the Balmain aesthetic.
Cons:
* Christophe Decarnin's replacement, Olivier Rousteing WONT be heading this "project." Instead, it'll be outsourced to some minimum wage interns design team.
* $175 t-shirts!!???
I guess the price point is fine and workable but Olivier not overseeing this line is not. Supposedly he's too busy working up his first real collections (his cruise collection was awesome, but fall/winter and spring/summer is really where it's at) as Balmain's new creative director. I kinda get that he's focusing on that jazz bc he's still new & has to get good with the Wintour, but if we have Lagerfeld who is 900 years old and is farting out side-projects left and right harder than a Kardashian speed-dialing the paparazzi, I don't see why Olivier can't at least bless this diffusion line. Smells rancid to me. But it won't stop me from trying to get my hands on something- that is, if/only there's something worth oogling about.
image via racked
