Black Fashion Execs: Olivier Rousteing & His Transformation of Balmain
The 38 year old Balmain creative director has brought revolutionary-level change to the luxury house since he took on the role over a decade ago.
Olivier Rousteing, born an orphan in Bordeaux, was only 25 when he became the Creative Director at Balmain in 2011. He had only been at the brand for two years as a designer on the women’s ready-to-wear team before his successor, Christophe Decarnin, departed and he was given the top job. Prior to joining Balmain, he spent several years as a designer at Roberto Cavalli in Italy. Some might say that handing the keys to the kingdom of a globally known fashion house to someone that young would be entirely too risky, but it paid off more than any of the executives at the time could have imagined.
Digital Marketing Prowess
One of the benefits of having someone very young as the creative leader of a company is they usually have a pulse on what’s cool and popular. The year after he was named creative director was the year Facebook acquired Instagram. The app hadn’t hit their 100m user milestone just yet but already had massive awareness. Olivier was unwavering in his belief that a social media presence could drastically change a fashion brand. He has a love for communicating and connecting with people, and he wanted to leverage this because he saw the future in digital marketing. It was a way to connect with consumers that magazines could never do. He made a video twelve years ago officially announcing that Balmain would be creating an account on Facebook and Instagram and briefly discussed what the public should expect to see.
The other reason this worked so well is because everything he did from a social media standpoint was genuine. He genuinely loves dressing his friends so the pictures he posted on the company account or his personal account (which now boasts 10m+ followers) of himself and celebrities he knew well didn’t feel staged. He genuinely wanted to communicate with anyone who considered themselves as part of the fashion community and used the comments on posts as a feedback loop. And he genuinely wanted to be vulnerable to people because he thought the public wanted to get to know the designers behind the brand, and he was spot on. Balmain is now seen as the pioneer for social media marketing and branding within luxury fashion.
Customer Centricity
Part of Olivier’s success came from putting the customer first. With his focus on the women’s line when he first started, he wanted to make sure the clothes he designed and the overall buying experience was inviting. Powerful and sexy (but not in a promiscuous way) was a theme tightly attached to the buyer’s persona. He often talks about making sure he’s pleasing himself and his customers over pleasing “the front row,” a nod to the people who attend fashion shows and how their opinions shouldn’t be the priority. He also understood that their customer base had a fairly wide age range regardless of how they attained buying power, so he made sure not to over index too heavy into one age group.
Reviving the Past
Olivier never set out to fully upend the style of Balmain and instead wanted to put a modern twist into the heritage of the luxury house. Last year he reintroduced Balmain’s fragrance line with eight scents called “Les Éternals de Balmain” in partnership with Estée Lauder. They had discontinued all of their fragrances back in 2016 and had yet to re-enter the market. “[I’m bringing] back the legacy of Monsieur Balmain, because he was a pioneer in fragrance in 1945 and 1960. I’m bringing my origins as well because I’m half Ethiopian, half Somalian, so there’s a lot of Africa in this collection.1” He also took it one step further and enrolled in fragrance school so that he could have a strong understanding of everything about fragrance making.
The timing was also perfect given that the fragrance communities of TikTok and other platforms have blown up, fueling the growth of the overall category. Fragrances tend to be a great opportunity to rope in younger consumers into specific brands given their lower price point in comparison to clothing.
Growth of the Business
Of course I can’t mention all of these things without talking about the financial impact. Under Olivier’s leadership, overall revenue is up sevenfold. Their menswear line, which he introduced, now makes up 40% of their revenue. The company went from 40 people to now over 600 and they were able to grow their retail presence significantly including a NYC flagship that opened in 2016. During his tenure he also created partnerships with Beats by Dre, Nike, Puma, Porsche and Beyoncé. He’s also credited with introducing the brand’s first accessory line.
There are some unsubstantiated rumors floating around that Olivier might be leaving soon. He’s blown past the average tenure of creative directors, and it’s never a bad thing to pursue different opportunities to continue to grow one’s career. He’s also seen a lot of CEO turnover and we know leadership changes can always cause a personnel shakeup at every level. But regardless if he stays or goes, he has more than cemented his legacy at Balmain and within fashion.
Dove Cameron, Beyoncé, and Olivier Rousteing’s Mom Love This Balmain Beauty Scent by Arden Fanning Andrews, Vogue.com, August 27 2024