The Soft Power of Balmain

Olivier Rousteing unveils a new era for the house, one where fluidity and femininity stand as strong as structure.

By Josie NeJame

There are runway shows that present clothing and then there are those rare moments when fashion feels like it’s summoning something ancient. That was the atmosphere as I took my seat for McQueen’s Spring/Summer 2026 show in Paris. The set felt like the beginning of a ritual. You know the one that you see in movies that begins with a towering maypole-like structure made from nearly 8,000 meters of hessian ribbon and wild foliage, created sustainably but radiating something older, more ceremonial, like a village altar waiting for a flame? 

Before the first look appeared, Seán McGirr’s words pulsed through the space like a low warning: What happens when we stop tempering instinct and allow desire to take over? It lingered like heat on skin.

The Intercontinental Grand Hotel in Paris holds stories in its walls, and on this night, it welcomed another chapter in Balmain’s history. Opened in 1862 under the commission of Napoleon III, it has long been one of the city’s most glamorous landmarks, hosting royalty, celebrities, and historic events. That legacy continued as Olivier Rousteing, who just received FIT’s 2025 Couture Council award for Artistry of Fashion presented his Spring/Summer 2026 collection before a room filled with longtime supporters, loyal clients, celebrities, and social media figures who have followed him from the very beginning. Fourteen years ago, Olivier held his first Balmain défilé in the Grand Hotel. It was a statement of continuity. A reminder that Balmain is not only about innovation, but about the threads that bind past to present.

This season also marked a milestone, Balmain’s 80th anniversary. A legacy that began in 1945 with Pierre Balmain’s “New French Style” continues today with Rousteing, who has both honored and redefined it for a new generation. His collection felt like a celebration of that history, while still looking firmly ahead into a new era for Olivier’s Balmain army.

Rousteing called this collection Continuum, and the word could not be more fitting. It is both a declaration and a philosophy. It’s an uninterrupted thread that carries forward his aesthetic, while staying faithful to the legacy of Pierre Balmain. He envisioned the concept as an endless horizon on a beach, recalling his childhood when seashells became his first materials of imagination, when he believed that anything was possible. That horizon of possibility became the guiding spirit of Spring/Summer 2026: lightness, fluidity, femininity, and freedom. For Olivier it was free from constraints, free from prejudice, and free to express his truest self. 

This season, Olivier showed us a softer Balmain.  It showed proof that strength and softness are not opposites but equals. Relaxed silhouettes carried the same authority as the maison’s iconic tailoring. Air flowed through fabrics that moved like water: satin, muslin, georgette, and crêpe, balanced by the sun-kissed touch and softness of suede, nappa, and airy knits in linen and cotton. Shapes felt liberating yet intentional. Think parachute pants, sarouel pieces, cocoon knits, bomber jackets reimagined from vintage trunks. Drapery swayed, pleats shifted with each step, and even deconstruction played its part: trench coats became capes, sleeves unraveled into boleros, towels transformed into tunics.

Among the most striking moments of the collection was his interpretation of bustiers and the female form.  This time he imagined it sculpted from raw amethyst. It was more than a garment; it was a piece of art, organic and earthly, carefully constructed with resin but evoking the untouched beauty of natural stone. In Balmain’s showroom, he even unveiled a shoe built from real amethyst, merging couture with geology, fashion with nature’s raw power. I confessed that amethyst has always been the stone I’m drawn to, for the way it speaks of wisdom and protection. He laughed knowingly and admitted that he keeps many pieces of amethyst around his home. To see it reimagined here more than embellishment gave a new perspective.  It was a meditation on strength, serenity, and the possibility of fashion as both armor and offering.

The details told stories of wanderlust and memory. Standout shell dresses shimmered under the runway lights, reflective of the ocean’s call. They carried an escapist wish we could all share. That sometimes, we long for a break, to lay by the sea, surrounded by nature’s raw materials and the reminder to breathe. Crochet, tassels, and endless fringes recalled the free-spirited sensuality of bohemian voyagers. Shells appeared throughout appliquéd on dresses, dangling from accessories, re-cast on sandals. There was a dusting of sand across surfaces, an echo of the shoreline that inspired him, and a direct nod to Rousteing’s Met Gala 2024 collaboration with Tyla, where he famously used sand as couture itself. This season, sand returned not only as texture but as textile, applied with the same ingenuity to clothing and shoes. It was proof again that Olivier can transform even the most elemental material into luxury.

Accessories continued this dialogue of transformation. The house’s signature Sync and Ébène bags were reborn with the same elements as the clothes, crochet textures, sweeping fringes, and seaside charms. Footwear was equally poetic: sandals adorned with shells, dune inspired pumps, and winter boots reinvented with a daring hollowed heel. A slim architectural bar that balanced fragility with strength, just as this collection did.

This season’s message of softness, fluidity, and freedom also speaks directly to Florida’s own sense of luxury living. The collection’s light fabrics, sensual drapes, and sun-kissed warmth feel perfectly attuned to Floridians. The pieces were made to move with the breeze, embrace the heat, and capture the effortless elegance of life by the water. And really, who’s already planning their spring and summer? I know, I am. 

What resonated most, however, was not a single dress or accessory but the emotion woven through it all. This was more than fashion, it was Olivier’s own growth, a mirror of resilience and reinvention. His Spring /Summer collection became a metaphor for constancy in change, a belief that we can evolve without losing ourselves, that softness can be power, and that beauty is most enduring when it is born of memory, freedom, and love.

And so, in the very space where he first began, Rousteing reminded us that Balmain’s story is still being written. Olivier closed the circle only to open another horizon. It was a celebration of history, a vision of the present, and a dream of what is still to come. Balmain, forever moving forward, forever in motion, forever in continuum.