Continuum: Nearly 15 years after being chosen as Balmain’s creative director, Olivier Rousteing has spoken through his favorite medium, creating garments for an endless, idyllic seaside world that was born from the daydream of his own childhood.
Recalling moments of his time spent on the beach in his childhood on the Alantic coast Rousteing entered a dream-like space, imagining an endless span of sand and sea; the ultimate inspiration for Balmain’s SS26 coastal collection, Continuum.
One might say that coastal fashion is a superficial and overdone concept, and to be honest, that was my first thought when analyzing Rousteing’s work of the season. However, upon a deeper dive, I can see intricate connections between the history of Bordeaux, Balmain, and human communication- which is where I feel called to enjoy it.
A seasonal switch doesn’t hold Rousteing back from expanding upon his previous collection. In Continuum, he allows elements from the last season to bleed into the next, and even calls further back to the media-breaking sand dress he designed for Tyla at the 2024 Met Gala in a re-imagined top. The Latin title of the collection itself, Rousteing thinks, “conveys a powerful sense of affirmation and conquest, a resonance that transcends time” – a clever nod dually to his own impact as Creative Director, and the deep-rooted inspiration his childhood experience brings him as a designer.
The collection is a glossary to the moments where Rousteing’s urge to feel free in expressing beauty ignited. On the beach in Bordeaux, he “dreamed of creating clothes from seashells, believing anything was possible”. Above all, Rousteing claimed that to him, the beach is his childhood source of pure joy and lightness, and that this feeling feeds his vision of beauty as a designer.
He shares that this image of beauty forms Balmain’s message as one that is powerfully liberating: “free from constraints, free from prejudice, and free to express our truest selves”. Through his years at Balmain, Rousteing has changed the original visual components Balmain was known for. A nipped waist and power-shoulders, paired with complicated beaded overlays, is no longer the primary aesthetic image of Balmain. Instead, Rousteing has drifted from this image and has indulged in a contemporary flow. Although he has retained the feminine and bold feeling his garments give women that is at Balmain’s core DNA, it is safe to say a new era of Balmain has begun.
Continuum seems to be a capstone on Rousteing’s time at Balmain, which opens this question: how might his buildup to next season encapsulate Rousteing’s legacy at Balmain for his true 15-year reunion next season? – Alex Dmitruk
Balmain Spring Summer 2026 at Paris Fashion Week
