Balmain Fashion Label Profile
Female: One of the great and legendary Paris fashion centers—the House of
Balmain was founded by the king of French fashion and one of the best
known dress designers in the world.

The House of Balmain was established by one of the most sophisticated
and elegant man around—Pierre Balmain in 1945. He began working for
fashion designer Edward Molyneux before opening his own iconic fashion
house. His background in architecture was a big influence on his designs
and once quoted that dress making is the architecture of movement. He
created elegance by using simplicity.

The Balmain hay day was in the 1950’s when his couture house vibe with
Cristine Dior. He created all his end designs and his clients were many of
the famous actresses including Eva Gardner, Bridgette Bardot and Carol
Baker; who in 1964 made a quick visit to the House of Balmain to collect
a dress for her film premier. The dress even then was supposedly insured
for $100,000.

During the 70’s, Pierre Balmain would often give special previews of
some of his outstanding creations where he himself would introduce and
describe a representative selection from his showing, featuring
sophisticated and refined outfits. His collections would feature different
materials such as crepe, furs and silk chiffon, and a variation of pastel
colors, pinstripes and colors for evening wear that were dark and romantic.

Balmain died in Paris at the age of sixty-eight and the fashion house was
now ran by Danish designer Erick Mortenson who was described as
Balmain’s right-hand man.

His funeral on July 5th 1982 was attended by many including the head of
another fashion house Pierre Cardin. Mortenson kept with the house’s
traditions and develop an update on Pierre’s styles.

Dominican designer Oscar de los Rento took over control in 1993.
However in 2002, the veteran designer conjured an opulent Russian winter
in his last haute couture collection for Balmain, marking the end of a
successful ten-year stint of the French house.

Friends and admirers stand out in force for the farewell as models paraded
the catwalk in stunning outfits such as the white velvet frock coat that
crawled with hundreds of hand embroidered leaves and roses. The most
stunning however, was a gold feather—top head with a bronze fortune
included chiffon skirt that was one with a delicate gold tiara.

The challenge for Balamain then was to find a replacement who can match
his extensive contact’s list. Young Singapore born designer Andrew Genn
was then hired by Balmain to replace De Los Rento.

Having studied at Central Saint Martin’s in London, Genn presented his
fast ready-to-wear collection for Balmain in 1998. Colors were either
black or scarlet red with trouser suits and skirts below the knees being
favorites of his collection.

Today the house is led by designer Kristoff—whose vision is more
modern and edgy. In 2006—designs glowed featuring golf leaf and ballets
trousers, dazzling silver and gold metallic dresses, and shirts and toga
dresses slashed at the back.

The show’s rock and roll aspirations also came into the equation with
tattered t-shirts, baggy hair and trousers and Lenny Kravitz in the front
row.

For a fashion house that’s made an impact, Balmain now has fans that
include Anne Hathaway and took to the red carpet in a glamorous black
dress with a twist of glitter around the waist.

Jennifer Connelly and Kate Winslet both turned up to their film premiers
in Balmain dresses; as did Gwyneth Paltrow for her UK premier of
Ironman, but not only that, she appeared again in Balmain at a charity
event where she was to honored.

Throughout the years Balmain has gone from elegance super feminine to a
little more chic and modern to cater for the changing times. But even with
the changes over the years, one thing’s for sure, Balmain will always be
one of the legendary design giants.