With his model good looks, celebrity friends and Instagram fame, Olivier Rousteing is not your traditional fashion designer. But his brand of bling has made Balmain a household name, so who cares about tradition?
A gorgeous July day in Paris, the haute couture shows are in full swing and the Four Seasons hotel is in glamour lockdown. A motorcade of buffed, black, presidential-scale cars lines the kerb outside its street entrance, currently occupied by two women in red-carpet hair and makeup who have paused at the exit for a prolonged session with a selfie stick. Inside, a chandelier the size of a meteorite twinkles above a vast expanse of black and white marble floor, the airy space punctuated by urns crowded with triffid-sized white gladioli, reed slender and supermodel height.
In other words, the scene is perfectly set for the entrance of Olivier Rousteing, Balmain’s creative director and Paris fashion’s most glamorous frontman. Except, of course, he isn’t here yet, because I am 10 minutes early and he – like any self-respecting rock star – will be 20 minutes late. The restaurant is mostly empty, the diners having spilled out into the courtyard for post-lunch cigarettes and espresso, so I sip a Diet Coke served with elaborate ceremony by a waitress in a cocktail dress, and wait.
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