Christophe Decarnin for Balmain

[FogUponLA]

^ Balmain menswear?! What would that be like?....rhinestoned jockstraps worn with cropped band jackets?? eughhh

 

[style_expert]

Balmain is definitely launching menswear for FW09...I've already seen some preview pictures actually. Fortunately it doesn't look as trashy as some of the womenswear (no embroidery or leopard print so far) but IMO it's far from brilliant. I think they'll do a showroom presentation during fweek..

 

[bc collector]

I wonder: if these clothes are not trashy, what, on earth, can ever be?

I'm also slightly annoyed by the comparison with Ghesquiere's Balenciaga: I can't help noticing a certain grade of derivativeness from the silhouette and proportions Balenciaga was launching circa 2001-2002.

Prices are just beyond comment (applying a similar strategy at Nina Ricci hasn't proved to be particularly successful so far)

But nothing really matters once you surf the wave of this celebrity-driven (sub)culture and the attention of French Vogue.

Will it last?

 

[JuiceMajor]

he is definitely getting his big break. i see more and more celeb wearing balmain!

 

[albertli1984]

balmain homme give me, pls.

 

[alyshalee]

I do love Balmain, although i also think that the collections are kinda repetitive. anyone else think so?

 

[LolaSvelt]

Only with the past three collections. He used to be so promising. I don't know if it's the PR team stifling his vision by telling him to churn out the same boring dresses every season because it's lucrative, but it's getting boring now.

 

[Dkammern]

^^decarnin is an 80s darling. it has nothing to do with it being the trend of the past few seasons (after all, he is pretty much to blame for it).
he has a very focused vision of what the house should stand for, and where he is taking it.
he is the one and only for glam up (expensive) disco dressing. could he use other references for that? some 90s severeness? perhaps!
we'll see what happens with time

 

[mikeijames]

^so very true. trends come and go. and it's critical that designers ebb and flow with those trends to keep their houses relevant. but the best designers manage to do that without ever losing their core and without ever sacrificing their signatures. christophe decarnin has managed to do that. there's no one in this forum who'd argue that those pantsuits he put down the runway aren't something new for him, but they're so clearly done the balmain way. i mean, it's in black leather with shoulder pads, but pop a theory basic under it and most girls could wear it to work.

other designers dalliances with trend aren't nearly as successful and other designers tries at FORMING trend don't even come close.

style.com

 

[andrealiceagan]

Christophe Decarnin Is Out at Balmain

Christophe Decarnin Is Out at Balmain4/6/11 at 09:25 am

Photo: Francois Guillot/AFP/Getty Images
Christophe Decarnin is no longer the head designer at Balmain, the label announced in a press release early this morning. Decarnin was absent from the label's fall 2011 show and may not have been around at all as early as the beginning of this year, Cathy Horyn reports in the Times. Sources also say he was barely in communication with the label's CEO.

Horyn thinks that Decarnin — who was rumored to be in a mental hospital at the time of the Balmain show — "hit some kind of personal impasse and lost control of the label."

Balmain’s success in the Decarnin years was based on a relatively simple formula of impeccably tailored jackets, tough pants, T-shirts and sexy beaded dresses — all for staggering sums — and Mr. Decarnin may have felt stuck in recent months about his direction. Designers are indeed under a lot of pressure, some of it self-imposed, to create relevant collections. Shy and introverted, with a label that had its admirers and critics, Mr. Decarnin may have been more vulnerable than others to that pressure.


Decarnin's replacement is likely to be someone from within the house, possibly stylist and Helmut Lang alum Melanie Ward, who came on three weeks before the fall 2011 show. Ward replaced Emmanuelle Alt, who had to give up her consulting and styling gig to take over French Vogue.

http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2011/04/christophe_decarnin_is_out_at.html

 

[Fatalefashion]

It's the end of Fashion! Karl soon in 2012, John Galliano, Alexander... 'What the hell is going on? In the fashion world? SAAAD

 

[eugenius]

Erm, I wouldn't necessarily claim "the end of fashion" with Decarnin's absensce..Galliano, McQueen, Lagerfeld: perhaps..But certainly not this overhyped nimrod.

So he's out @ Balmain..To that, I say "And stay out!"

 

[ChristianThomas]

The end of fashion? please, that's way to dramatic. It's a new beginning

 

[disco54]

I always thought Decarnin was a nut job , who knew he literally would go mad !

 

[ultramarine]

Any comments on Decarnin's departure from Balmain sre taken place in a separate thread titled "Balmain Christophe Decarnin parting ways".

This thread is going to remain exclusively to comment on Decarnin's period at Balmain, thank you.

If you would like to comment on his leaving, please go to:

http://forums.thefashionspot.com/f60/balmain-christophe-decarnin-parting-ways-132357.html

http://forums.thefashionspot.com/f60/balmain-christophe-decarnin-parting-ways-132357.html