Fashion Season: in Paris with Olivier Rousteing from Balmain

Paris Fashion Week is an opportunity to turn the spotlight onto the work that goes into organizing fashion shows and the various métiers involved. For the third installment of CNN’s series, Fashion Season, which is available on FashionMag.com, we are taken backstage with Olivier Rousteing, artistic director of Balmain.

At 28 years old, Rousteing looks like a model and says that Rihanna is his muse. "Christophe (Decarnin, his predecessor, ed) was of another generation: he loved muses and icons. He was more into Kate Moss, and rock n’ roll and the Sex Pistols. What I loved about him was all the sex appeal he introduced to the house. But my generation is more hip hop, more pop," says Rousteing. 

A contemporary designer with contemporary inspirations, he has mastered social networks. With more than 500,000 followers on Instagram, his profile features selfies with the Kardashian sisters and Rihanna.

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The report follows Rousteing into his atelier, where the collection is being finalized. Very musical, Olivier Rousteing admits: "My first collection focused on travel. All my inspiration today comes from, just, waking up in the morning, watching MTV, and not be inspired by clothes really, but being inspired by energy."