BALMAIN recently showcased their pre-fall 2024 collection, which explores Olivier Rousteing and Pierre Balmain’s fondness for the city of Miami alongside the brand’s longstanding heritage with plays on celebrated designs from the fashion house’s archive.
The collection is significantly influenced by Miami, with the fashion house’s founder often visiting the city and returning to Paris with a newly inspired creative capacity.
The pre-fall 2024 capsule demonstrates various South Beach pastels and distinguishable Caribbean iconography — such as flamingos and palm trees — and inspiration deriving from details of Pierre Balmain’s mid-century couture presentations.
Rousteing admires Pierre Balmain’s integration of graphic stripes, genius plays on op-art illusions and harlequin prints. Due to this and to complement Miami’s art-deco pastels and florals, Rousteing takes inspiration from the founder’s geometric experiments, bringing to it his own takes on monochromatic juxtapositions, specifically his 2013 Balmain Resort Collection.
The collection further demonstrates the thematics of an endless summer, as seen through captivating contrasts and spins on various swimwear.
Balmain’s precise tailoring is notable in the collection with graphic plays, tropical embellishments and Floridian florals paired with the perfect linings and silhouettes inherent to the house’s New French Styles and Jolie Madame tailoring.
Aside from the pre-fall 2024 collection paying homage to Pierre Balmain and the house’s extensive archive, another powerful message is that of joy, a concept Rousteing believes we all could do with a little more of.
Miami as a vacation destination could be seen as a physical geographical representation of happiness and freedom — with its compelling beaches and sunny streets — emotions both the founder and the current creative director have experienced while visiting the multicultural city.
by Nicole Pereira