Olivier Rousteing is clocking out of a culture-shifting 14-years at Balmain

After 14 years with the luxury fashion house, Olivier Rousteing, the brand’s first Black creative director, is leaving Balmain.

After 16 years with Balmain, and 14 years serving as its creative director, Olivier Rousteing is saying goodbye to the house he helped revive and redefine for an entire generation.

“Today marks the end of my Balmain era,” Rousteing wrote on Instagram. “Sixteen years ago, I began this Balmain adventure without knowing what the future would hold. What an extraordinary story it has been — a love story, a life story.” 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Olivier Rousteing (@olivier_rousteing)

Rousteing, who was adopted from an orphanage in Bordeaux at five months old, became the first Black designer to lead a major French luxury house. His Somali and Ethiopian roots, combined with his French upbringing, shaped a perspective that dared to bring culture, color, and community into spaces that often prided themselves on exclusion.

When he took the creative director seat at Balmain at 24 years old, the brand was barely on life support, on a path to becoming a relic in the fashion world. But Rousteing’s daring approach to fashion breathed new life into not only the fashion house but also the luxury space. 

“I left my fashion school after six months,” he previously told Vogue. “I fought because I had no school or background behind me, just determination and desire. I came to Paris, and it’s now 10 years since I’ve been creative director at Balmain. It’s always a battle against yourself.”

Rousteing turned Balmain into a movement. He introduced the world to his “Balmain Army,” a glamorous battalion that included Beyoncé, Rihanna, Iman, Naomi Campbell and more. His signature was easy to spot: skin-tight silhouettes, cinched waists, military-style jackets, bold shoulders, and an abundance of gold embellishment. But what made it magic was that he didn’t just design for models on runways. He designed for the culture.

“For me, it’s been very important to use clothes to talk about subjects such as diversity and ‘pop’—pop culture, population,” he continued in the 2021 interview. “When I started my Instagram in 2013, I had a meeting with my president, who asked, ‘What are you doing? Luxury on Instagram is impossible. It’s cheap.”

Becoming one of the most followed designers on social media, Rousteing leveraged social media as his digital runway and harnessed the power of digital influence long before influencer culture emerged. His cultural impact was cemented in 2015 when Balmain x H&M’s collaboration sold out in minutes, fueling full-on brawls in some of the retailer’s locations as fans fought to get their hands on pieces from the collection. 

Rousteing didn’t just design stunning looks. He defined an era. He championed diversity before it became a buzzword, bringing pop culture into the polished halls of haute couture and demonstrating to the world that a Black orphan could make Parisian fashion his own playground. He even expanded Balmain into couture again and launched Balmain Beauty—proving his vision went beyond the runway.

“I arrived at 24 with my eyes wide open and the determination to persevere, always,” Rousteing continued in his statement, thanking everyone who has supported him along the way. “Today, I leave the House of Balmain with my eyes still wide open — open to the future and to the beautiful adventures ahead, adventures in which all of you will have a place.” 

Though it’s hard to imagine Balmain without Rousteing, we’re ready to support the trailblazing designer as he steps into “a new era, a new beginning, a new story.”