Store Balmain

Product range. Backless maxi dresses and multicolour mini dresses, double-breasted blazers with padded shoulders, and suede wedge sandals are among Balmain's womenswear staples. Menswear collections always feature crew neck tank tops, hooded leather biker jackets, and slim-fit destroyed jeans.

Originality. Olivier Rousteing, who's now Balmain's Creative Director, indulges in repeating himself over and over again. Elaborate geometric patterns in art nouveau style, deep plunge dresses, mini skirts, and high-rise wide-leg pants with slits on front are indispensable items of all Balmain's collections. However, one has to pay due respect to Balmain's menswear collections that do appear more ingenious.

Chic. On the one hand, in the world where Scandi style minimalism reigns supreme, Balmain look irrelevant, if not old-fashioned, on the other hand, Kardashian sisters and others celebrities of their caliber accept nothing less than Balmain. So, it comes as no surprise that the 2015 Balmain x H&M collaboration proved the most commerically successful of all designer collaborations by the Swedish fast-fashion powerhouse.

Pricing. Just as one would expect from a luxury label.

Corporate history highlights. Pierre Balmain, the fashion house founder, was born in a small alpine village in the Savoie region of France in 1914. He was born to a family that run a drapery business and a fashion boutique, which certainty influenced Pierre's choice of career. In 1993, he left the fashionable resort he was living for Paris to study architecture but ended up learning the craft of tailoring as an assistant to Lucien Lelong, working shoulder to shoulder with Christian Dior and Hubert de Givenchy. BIn 1945, he founded his namesake fashion house. His trademark opulent nipped-in dresses richly embroidered with glass beads and sequins struck a nostalgic chord with many people who missed the pre-war luxury. He was especially fond of designing for film and theater with dozens of high-profile projects to his credit as well as off-screen dresses for Brigitte Bardot, Marlene Dietrich, and Katharine Hepburn.

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