Balmain Will Make You Feel Your Fullest, Freakiest Fantasy

Balmain's creative director Olivier Rousteing made his dreams — and ours — come true for his spring 2019 couture runway, in more ways than one. For starters, the show was held in the soon-to-be-open Balmain flagship. And, judging by the Instagram feed of Duckie Thot, who walked the runway, the collection's stark white and sterling silver tones motifs coincidentally happened to reflect a snowy day in Paris. What kind of sorcery is this?

We'll try to tell you. Rousteing dealt in a minimal color palette, not unlike the setting of a highly curated dream sequence. That in itself is a bold choice, but keep things fresh, Rousteing added in accented pops of cool pastel wash here and there — in powder blue, teal, dusty rose, and lilac — as if painting a watercolor of a springtime Parisian cityscape with only the finest paintbrush. Nothing too fussy, but totally elegant. The beauty looks were mostly celestial, frostbitten alien, and lots of skin was exposed to show off the garments' shape and delicate movement. In terms of shapes: suits were severely cut to resemble benevolent angels who might have been boardroom sharks on earth, and gowns ranged from tiers of regal ruffles to silken bows so grand, you'd think they were concealing the world's rarest Tiffany diamonds.

Elsewhere, there are: offset headpieces; dresses with jutting angular cuts to casually expose a full breast, because why not; orblike attachments to slim skirting; and a consistent motif of Japanese-style fans throughout, juuuust in case you need to cool off from shimmying about as the undeniably most beautiful belle of the ball. (Which I can only imagine is the fantasy wearing these clothes will make you feel in your spirit.) It's all designed to make the models, and Rousteing's vision, and you, dear viewer, feel totally unreal, as if floating across high, heavenly wires talking to angels and aliens, save the fact that we're seeing it right here and now, so, suddenly, we want to take every look from REM cycle to daytime. Imagine showing up to a business meeting or somesuch other appointment, like, sorry I'm late, don't mind me, I'm an apparition in the flesh.

A selection of looks from Balmain's spring 2019 couture runway, below.