WATCH: Follow a Quest to Discover Balmain’s 1945 Collection, Starring Caren Jepkemei

What is Olivier Rousteing’s defiant response to a world turned upside down? The Balmain kingpin’s gift to 2021, is this: graphic intensity, strong silhouette and heritage made new.

Step up the Balmain 1945 bag collection, named for the year the house was founded and featuring a striking labyrinth pattern, first introduced in the early 1970s. Playing with scale, Rousteing has revived and modernised this graphic, originally inspired by Pierre Balmain’s love of the mazes found in France’s most beautiful Renaissance gardens.

In ivory and black, the maze pattern creates a distinctive new visual signature for the house. In Rousteing’s hands, the archive pattern is both dynamic and versatile. With his signature energy and enthusiasm, Rousteing has splashed it on clothes and bags for a vibrant total-look.

Those 1945 bags – new but instantly recognisable – come in four styles. The double-chain shoulder bag glints with gold hardware, the cross-body style is chic and wearable, the envelope clutch thrills with glamour and the stylish tote promises practicality. The finishing touch? Metal clasps stamped with the PB moniker, (‘P’ for Pierre and Paris, ‘B’ for Balmain) which have been treated with a special galvanising technique, so they look timeless as opposed to newly minted.

For Rousteing, it was important to draw a line back to the founding principles of the house. As Europe emerged from the devastation of WWII, Pierre Balmain, established himself in the vanguard of the new Paris fashion establishment. Alongside Dior and Givenchy, his audacious silhouettes would reassert the French capital as the epicentre of fashion.

Rousteing continues this tradition, with his distinctive, instantly recognisable style. Past, present and future come together in his designs. 1945 is now.

You can shop the Balmain 1945 bag collection here.

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Balmain 1945 x 10 Magazine