Balmain Men's Imagines Life in Color for Fall 2024
Olivier Rousteing looked to the sapeurs’s vivid style codes, as well as a century’s worth of African-American music, for his sartorial start.
For Fall 2024, Balmain’s Olivier Rousteing was inspired by the sapeurs, whose dandy closets mixed French tailoring with vivid African patterns under the the strict ten commandments of the Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Elégantes. Since the 1960s, the kaleidoscopic style trope has gone on to dominate the streets of Kinshasa, Paris and Harlem — and now, it’s become the latest descriptor for Balmain menswear.
Simultaneously, Rousteing’s runway riffs on 100 years of African-American music — specifically that of Tony Jackson, whose sleeve-garters inform those in the collection, and composer Tin-Pan Alley, who is credited for establishing the pianist’s uniform in the early 20th century. Durags, as well as silver and gold grills, nod to hip-hop’s climb to music’s fore, too.
Balmain collaborated with Prince Gyasi, a Ghanaian visual artist and the eyes behind the House’s Petit-Prince Fall 2022 campaign. In practice, Rousteing selected a number of “hyperchromatic masterpieces” that Gyasi shot in Accra, Ghana, where he’s from, and he reimagined his colorful images on a plethora of formal ensembles.
“When Olivier called me to propose working together on this collaboration, there was absolutely no need to think it over,” Gyasi said in a statement. “I was immediately on board. From our many conversations over the years, I’ve grown to realize that Olivier and I share a deep connection and a common vision. Perhaps that’s ultimately due to the fact that, no matter how successful we may ultimately be, both Olivier and I seem destined to always remain outsiders.”
Ultimately, Rousteing looks to a host of global influences to build the wardrobe for next season’s Balmain Man: a stylecaster capable of bringing all the outsiders to the in-crowd.
See Balmain’s Fall/Winter 2024 menswear collection in the gallery above, and stay tuned to Hypebeast for more coverage from the season.
