We spoke to Olivier Rousteing one week before the Met Gala, and as expected, Balmain’s Creative Director has been busy. Not only has he been designing the house’s next pre-collection and custom fits for the biggest fashion night of the year, but he’s spent the past 18 months working closely with Johnnie Walker Vault on a selection of four (one for each season of the year) $20,000 dollar bespoke whiskies.
Chatting to Rousting, who’s high energy and running on“adrenaline,” you’d never guess that the past few years haven’t been an easy run. In 2021, Rousteing’s home fireplace exploded, leaving him with severe burns and facing a long and gruelling recovery process. But, as would be expected from Balmain’s prodigy—Rousteing was appointed creative director of the house at an embryonic 25-years-old—he’s come back stronger.
In the interview below, Rousteing talks the Met, how the fire informed the Johnnie Walker collaboration, and why he’s no longer “the Balmain baby.”
The Met Gala is next Monday! What can we expect from you?
The Met Gala for me is one of the most iconic moments in the year because you can express your creativity in such an endless way. It's all about the night, but it's also all about the history of the story of fashion because you know that what you do at that time, people might remember in a hundred years, because it's going to be exposed in the Metropolitan Museum. The Met is not something that you do only for the first Monday of May, but you do for the history of fashion. The theme is obviously really me, because I'm a black designer, and I'm obviously known for my tailoring. It's the best time of the year when I can enjoy dressing people and the excitement of the dresses and of the suiting. Trying to top last year [Tyla’s skin-tight sand dress] is gonna be really difficult.
In what ways did your approach to couture inform the Johnnie Walker collaboration?
Creating a blend is like creating a collection, it's about the balance, it's about the detail, the precision, it's about the emotion. Creating whisky is even more emotional than a collection for some reason because when you wear something, it gives you confidence or it gives you an attitude. When you drink, it gives you an emotion. [On the bottle] we worked with Baccarat. I wanted to drape the bottle in metal gold, which for me was like draping my mannequin.
I read that the whisky bottle’s wing stopper reflects your recovery after the fire. Can you speak more about that?
I think those wings are like I'm rising from the ashes like a phoenix. I think those wings mean freedom. There is one sentence that is really part of the house and anchored in the house, it’s “let's keep walking”, and I was like, “let's keep walking until we can fly.” It's a part of a moment of my life where maybe I was scared to not fly again because when you get burned on 70% of your body, you don't know how you're gonna come back. But if you get the resilience and acceptance, you can be stronger.
What’s next for Balmain?
The spring collection is going to be a new era. I'm building a new era around me right now because I have written incredible, incredible chapters that I would say have been built like a book for the house. But right now I'm thinking about writing a second book. After 14 years, almost 15 years of my career, I think it's time for me to keep creating for the brand that I love, but building a new era. I started with my last fall winter show, where we could see the change, and I think this September will be really anchoring and making clear what's going to be the new DNA of Balmain. I think from sexy, I will go to sensuality. I was known for the Balmain army. Now, it's not an army anymore, it's softened. It's not about protection anymore. It's about more, I would say, softness. I've grown up, you know? I started at 25, I'm 39 now. I was the Balmain baby. Now Balmain is my baby, right? I've grown up and I’ve got more confidence in myself. You will see that I don't need to scream to be heard. That's what I would say. I feel good today, less need to to convince.
Johnnie Walker Vault x Olivier Rousteing Couture Expression will pre-launch at Harrods from 5th May, including the full collection of decanters numbered ‘1’. The collection launches globally from 26th May with only 25 bottles of each season available worldwide.
Featured image via Johnnie Walker Vault©
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