Monsieur, Where’s the party?
Image Credit: style.com
When Balmain’s Christophe Decarnin appeared on the runway at the end of his Spring collectionat Paris Fashion Week, it all made perfect sense to me. The low slung jeans, slashed at the knee, tux jacket over slouchy black T – this is a man, I thought, who designs for a scene he knows. The gigs, the clubs, the parties to which they will be worn. He knows what women want to wear to these places. He knows because he goes there himself. His aesthetic may be his lifestyle.
This is conjecture, but one thing’s for sure: Balmain Spring ’09 was the dream wardrobe for the bona fide rock chick. She’s coolest girl at the party – by a long way – and doesn’t she know it. The pieces dripped with insouciance, from the re-worked drummer boy jackets, bandage dresses with lashings of bling, tutu dresses toughened up with studded belts; distressed acid wash denim and sharp tuxedo jackets with exaggerated shoulders. The shoulders are the thing, and we’re not talking 80s shoulder pads here but re-structured peaks, like when you leave your jacket on a wire coat hanger. Each look was set off with the fiercest pair of glittering stud sandals, which no doubt will spawn a thousand imitations.
All dressed up and nowhere to go? I hope you’re in a £10,000 Balmain and have Christophe on speed dial, because that’s my kind of party.
Image Credit: style.com
Image Credit: style.com
Image Credit: style.com
