It's Bamainia!

Now, you already know that I could not let Paris Fashion Week Spring 2012 pass by without me blogging about my 2 all time favourite shows - Balmain and Lanvin. Here goes:









Despite my great love for Balmain, I was quite worried about the brand after the sudden departure in February of our patron saint, Christophe Decarnin. I'm glad to say that the Balmain ship is super steady under the guidance of the new Creative Director, 25-year-old Olivier Rousteing.

He did work under Decarnin for 2 years, so as you can see above, the Balmain Spring 2012 collection retained the flair and rock-and-roll edge we love it so much for. Skinny jeans, elaborately embroided pieces, skin-tight sihouettes, rhine-stone covered suits, and super short hemlines were the order of the day.

It's great to see that Rousteing gave us a bit of Decarnin's signature, but with his own vision and style. I have a feeling that the Balmainia we've come to expect over the past couple of years will only continue to rise.









"Power you can buy in a bank. I prefer strength."

These were Alber Elbaz's words after the Lanvin Spring 2012 showing, and boy do those words encapsulate the entire collection. This time, Alber took us in a slightly different direction - still the beautiful Lanvin Dress, but he added a lot more tops and bottoms. Not only did he do that, he also showed a sexier side of Lanvin. Daywear mixed with much more debonair, dressier pieces - with slits in all the right places. And the snakes coiled across some of the dresses and down some of the pants - fire! J'adore!

Labels: balmain, lanvin, pfw

posted by Zinhle Zee Mncube @ 4:55 PM