Balmain, the fashion brand that famously sells t-shirts for $1,600, is adapting to the rougher economic climate, launching a more affordable line called Pierre Balmain next spring. Officially announced this Paris fashion week, the new line gets a preview in a just-released short film directed by Inez and Vinoodh that follows Pierre Balmain-clad model Abbey Lee Kershaw and her band, Our Mountain, across New York.
Judging from the campaign, the new label will stay true to Balmain’s signature rock’n’roll feel established by former designer Christophe Decarnin, despite its creative direction taking place outside the fashion house: the entire production will be overseen by Italian licensee Ittierre SpA — which already has similar agreements with lines like Just Cavalli — and not by Balmain’s new designer Olivier Rousteing.
