Balmain AW 2016 and his precious warriors

I’ve read many reviews on the latest Balmain AW 2016 ready-to-wear collection and almost all of them start with mentions of Gigi, Jourdan, Kendall, Karlie, Rosie, Joan: the models queens of socials.

Right! But I find that approach too simplistic and definitely not enough.

What is the real meaning of this choice that goes well beyond the spectacle in which fashion has recently and often slipped? No media phenomenon! Well, maybe one, but that’s not the only thing about it!!

It’s above all the ability to focus on the whole woman… Contemporary and modern. Strong and confident. It is not a coincidence that the artistic director Olivier Rousteing, in a recent interview, explained that he mainly works for the new generation, for modernity, luxury, quality and diversity.

In this context we may talk for sure about Gigi! Jourdan! Karlie! Joan! Rosie! Kim who inspires them all, but also of Claudia and Naomi with which the advertising campaign was taken and that has inspired the collection.

Balmain AW 2016 add pastel colors to the baroque recipe

Rose quartz and serenity. Delicate combinations that frame and enhance the typical Balmain forms and inspirations. The recipe of the clothes that are covered with a Baroque style adds an unusual and reassuring ingredient: the pastel colour that subtley dampens the glamorous flair of the most eye-catching look.

There is the total one colour look from head to toe and then the small variations that combine the colours of the palette with each other, adding to pale pink and powder blue, beige shoes, as a small hint of the total look that is coming next .

 Architecture made by Balmain AW 2016

There are pieces of clothing where the link with other disciplines is more pronounced. And it’s the case of the padded bubble skirts framing or creating natural curves, the squared shoulder- jackets and metal belts that define the silhouette working on the volume of the body and bringing attention there where it needs to be brought: the waist that thins and exalts femininity.

Just like in the worlds of architecture and art with all their opulence, the gold, the wealth of details and ornaments, so it’s the same in fashion with these fringe dresses, pearled embroidered, tassels and all of the rococo-inspired decorations on velvet, fine-knitted silk tapestries and ruffles – very beautiful and elegant – on shirts and ‘cowboy’ trousers.

An imagination that speaks of luxury, but is also a familiar look to those of us who can visualise those oppulent Italian and French mansions from the late seventeenthand early eighteenth centuries.

And Balmain today is perhaps this: French, Italian, American, Asian and much more.

photo credits Vogue Runaway

collage ILGI