Balmain S/S 2009 Paris

[tigerrouge]

If this was under Dolce, Versace, or Cavalli..Most of the comments would say how this is trashy, unimaginative, and cheap.

I do think some of the collection looks like market stall clothes done by someone with technical skill, an ironic take on the 'trash aesthetic' to deliver something likeable and fun - though I'm sure it will retail at unfunny prices, so the joke's on whoever will pay that much money simply because everyone will know it's Balmain on their back.

But if you're not buying the stuff, and instead it gets people excited about how they could incorporate some of the ideas here into their own outfits, then this collection can't be that bad.

 

[Peregrina_RZ]

yeah, it looks like his 2 last collections, but i quite like it!


i can see this in lots of editorials!


(Is also great to see Raquel in Paris!)

 

[pucci_mama]

This is s***

I liked one look..maybe two..but can anyone imagine how this would look on normal people?

Crystals..Tu Tu

​

skirts?

Such a shame, I really expected more.

 

[Party_Vixen]

I am loving this collection. Those dresses are gorgeous .

 

[LagerfeldBoy]

seriously i really can't stop thinking about this collection! i mean the silhouette of the long dresses at the end are repetitive from past seasons but other than that theyre gorgeous. I realy love how he uses crystals on those jackets and dresses and everything in between. just makes the detials incredibly beautiful. Now those jackets are to die for! just gorgeous! aswell as the pants! just wow! so cool and just wow!

 

[silviegoeswild]

gah, can't wait for HQ's!

 

[Spike413]

I'll probably get a lot of flack for saying this because people are going to say that I'm insulting their intelligence to make an opinion based strictly on the clothing. But...

If this was under Dolce, Versace, or Cavalli..Most of the comments would say how this is trashy, unimaginative, and cheap.

I like this but it looks very Cavalli/Versace 2002-05. The mesh, the chiffon are Versace signatures and I'm not saying that noone can use them but he used them in a way that Versace has already done.

I feel exactly the same way, and I'm generally not the type to throw the whole "if this was/wasn't so and so everyone would love/hate it" argument. But with this stuff I think it really applies.

This is all stuff that Cavalli, Versace and Dolce and Gabbana have done time and again, and they've been ripped to shreds for being tacky, tasteless, vulgar and cheap looking. Why is it any different here?

I think a lot of people, and I've been guilty of this before as well, suffer from conditioned responses. If this collection was shown in NY it would be a boring, predictable and cliched look at rock and roll party girls. If it was shown in Milan it would be utterly trashy and demeaning to show women with hems that graze their crotch. Since it's shown in Paris (and worn by Paris Vogue's own resident icon Carine Roitfeld) it's fabulous, cool and edgy.

Granted, it's all about how it's worn by the customer, but we're not looking at a customer put their own spin on it right now. We're looking at it in it's purest form, as the designer wanted us to see it.

And I'm not trying to insult the taste of those who like it, if you like it then fine. I can understand the appeal of clothes like this. They're fun. But I just don't see the difference between this tacky crap and all of the other tacky crap I've seen in my lifetime.

 

[coolasfcuk1010]

Some pieces are cool but some are a blend of Cavalli circa 04 and Herve Ledger.

 

[chessmess]

This is s***

I liked one look..maybe two..but can anyone imagine how this would look on normal people?

Crystals..Tu Tu skirts?

Such a shame, I really expected more.

balmain is not for normal people haha
its for glamazons

 

[chessmess]

I feel exactly the same way, and I'm generally not the type to throw the whole "if this was/wasn't so and so everyone would love/hate it" argument. But with this stuff I think it really applies.

This is all stuff that Cavalli, Versace and Dolce and Gabbana have done time and again, and they've been ripped to shreds for being tacky, tasteless, vulgar and cheap looking. Why is it any different here?

I think a lot of people, and I've been guilty of this before as well, suffer from conditioned responses. If this collection was shown in NY it would be a boring, predictable and cliched look at rock and roll party girls. If it was shown in Milan it would be utterly trashy and demeaning to show women with hems that graze their crotch. Since it's shown in Paris (and worn by Paris Vogue's own resident icon Carine Roitfeld) it's fabulous, cool and edgy.

Granted, it's all about how it's worn by the customer, but we're not looking at a customer put their own spin on it right now. We're looking at it in it's purest form, as the designer wanted us to see it.

And I'm not trying to insult the taste of those who like it, if you like it then fine. I can understand the appeal of clothes like this. They're fun. But I just don't see the difference between this tacky crap and all of the other tacky crap I've seen in my lifetime.

but i also think decarin does the tacky much better then the others
they try to be taken seriously but decarin is designing for glamazon french party goers (presumbly sexuallt oriented women). hes alsmost like gianni because he knows who he is designing for and hes not trying to make it seem like its classier then it is. The pricepoitn si quite rediuclous for the clothes but he knows his customer very well..
i also feel like he always injects a sort of subversive punk aspect

 

[Deleted member 7575]

I feel exactly the same way, and I'm generally not the type to throw the whole "if this was/wasn't so and so everyone would love/hate it" argument. But with this stuff I think it really applies.

This is all stuff that Cavalli, Versace and Dolce and Gabbana have done time and again, and they've been ripped to shreds for being tacky, tasteless, vulgar and cheap looking. Why is it any different here?

I think a lot of people, and I've been guilty of this before as well, suffer from conditioned responses. If this collection was shown in NY it would be a boring, predictable and cliched look at rock and roll party girls. If it was shown in Milan it would be utterly trashy and demeaning to show women with hems that graze their crotch. Since it's shown in Paris (and worn by Paris Vogue's own resident icon Carine Roitfeld) it's fabulous, cool and edgy.

Granted, it's all about how it's worn by the customer, but we're not looking at a customer put their own spin on it right now. We're looking at it in it's purest form, as the designer wanted us to see it.

And I'm not trying to insult the taste of those who like it, if you like it then fine. I can understand the appeal of clothes like this. They're fun. But I just don't see the difference between this tacky crap and all of the other tacky crap I've seen in my lifetime.

I'd say it's a little smarter than cavalli and dolce. I get the feeling he's purposely indulging conventions of bad taste to the extent that lot of the clothes look so ugly, it wouldn't fit into the world of someone like Beyonce or Jennifer Lopez. It's so extreme it becomes ironic, I can appreciate that. The shoulders and the colors really push it over the edge and into the unusual.

 

[chessmess]

^yeah you would never see cavalli doing shoulders like that.

 

[wheneveriwakeup]

It's very brash and trashy... kinda fun...!
I see potential in the jckts. mostly...
They'll be a big hit with all the editors...
Suits their 'uniform' quite well, I think...

 

[leyla m.]

reality is that balmain is not stocked in many stores worldwide and those who stock balmain would at most buy a couple of the most expensive pieces of the runway. be it harrods or not... and most of the times, pieces will even stay over.
the majority of the showroom pieces (yes even balmain) is quite plain and bland. super commercial and at a more understandable pricepoint.
again, i think the general public always thinks that runways are targeted at them and if they dont like it and if, on top of that, it is retailing for over 8000£ then it is considered crap, trashy, etc/
decarnin for sure has a cool touch of giving pieces a rock like theme but he is pushing it for my liking.
the jackets here are gorgeous the more i look at them, but in the real world stores who will buy these pieces will probably sell one in Moscow and maybe one in the middle east (Kuwait or Dubai... to a non local, maybe). the padding is way too outrageous... even if you have 10.000 £ to spare

 

[DuTTyRoCK112]

I feel exactly the same way, and I'm generally not the type to throw the whole "if this was/wasn't so and so everyone would love/hate it" argument. But with this stuff I think it really applies.

This is all stuff that Cavalli, Versace and Dolce and Gabbana have done time and again, and they've been ripped to shreds for being tacky, tasteless, vulgar and cheap looking. Why is it any different here?

I think a lot of people, and I've been guilty of this before as well, suffer from conditioned responses. If this collection was shown in NY it would be a boring, predictable and cliched look at rock and roll party girls. If it was shown in Milan it would be utterly trashy and demeaning to show women with hems that graze their crotch. Since it's shown in Paris (and worn by Paris Vogue's own resident icon Carine Roitfeld) it's fabulous, cool and edgy.

I really don't see Cavalli, Versace or D&G in any of this, or in Decarnin's work period, save for the surface elements of crystals and animal prints. The difference to me is the silhouette, and it's enough of a difference to draw a distinct line between what Milan shows, and what we see here.

And in instances where silhouette does match, the detail and the styling of the garments are completely different. Decarnin has a way of working a dress that in my opinion, is sort of a young Tom Ford. Cavalli may load on the prints and the ruching, but he has never made a lace cut-out dress with zippers and crystal shoulder pads (I'm thinking of Kate Moss in Balmain on the cover of Purple), he simply does not reference glam and rock & roll in the same way. And that is the beauty of Balmain to me, the understanding of glam and rock in an imperfect, off center way.

 

[LostInNJ]

I quite like a lot of this. I can understand how some people see Versace and Dolce in these clothes, but I think because of how it is presented and the legacy of the brand, it gives off a different vibe. The fact that someone as chic, and as far as I am concerned never tacky, as Emmanuelle Alt wears this stuff and makes it look great only adds to the collections appeal.

Also, I think everyone looks at the collections differently. Some look for themselves, others look as buyers, some are dressing celebrities...I personally look at a collection from an editorial standpoint. What will look great in a magazine, so I think that also accounts a lot for the criticism.

 

[papa_levante]

Balmain clothing always cinches the waist. I love that element of the outfit because the rest of it revolves around where it'll flatter the body.

 

[adorefaith]

i understand this versace/cavalli conversation going on....i wonder too if editors like carine and emmanuelle had not made this stuff 'cool' if it would just be passed off as another tacky glitzy mess...

having said that i think i'm guilty of the association because i can't help but see the paris vogue women when i look at these clothes now...and i think that automatically gives them an edge and takes away some of the tacky factor. although, having said that, there's still a LOT of things i don't like here....all the body hugging mini-dresses and the long dresses with all the slits...i don't care who wears them....i still don't like them...

i think the shoes are fabulous and the blazers/jackets are the highlight of this collection.. there are a lot of pieces you can isolate and mix and match with other things (which i think is what happens when the editors zone in on a particular jacket, pair of pants etc anyway) which i think are fabulous....and those sort of military inspired jackets are incredible.. i can already see emmanuelle having a field day with those.

on #33... the first is for Carine, and the second for Emmanuelle!

i thought exactly this about these 2 outfits as soon as i saw them on getty..

 

[helmut.newton]

The first part of this was pretty brilliant. Very Paris Vogue/Emanuelle Alt/Carine Roitfeld etc etc

But the ending was pretty embarrassing. He really needs to work on his evening wear because it looks ugly and tacky and overdone.

What's with his neo-80's obsession as of late? First the glam-rock of David Bowie as inspiration for Fall 2008 and now this.

Let's just say, it would take a very bold woman to pull these looks off!

 

[2Nova]

I AM BEYOND crazy about it!
absolutely stunning and breathtakingly beautiful!