Olivier Rousteing is bringing fragrance back to the brand with the Les Éternels de Balmain collection
Balmain’s Olivier Rousteing has been playing with time. For the Met Gala in May, he created an exquisite sculpted gown made from sand for Dazed cover star Tyla. Accessorised with a blown-glass sand timer, it evoked the terrifyingly fast passing of time and was undoubtedly one of the best looks of the night. Also made of sand that night was a large perfume-shaped accessory that Rousteing carried while on the famous museum steps. The bottle was designed to tease and remained a mystery – until now. Balmain is officially launching a new line of fragrances that plays with the concept of eternity, resurrecting the past and looking forward to the future.
Les Éternels de Balmain is a collection of eight luxury, all-gender fragrances that build on the house’s rich history, combining Pierre Balmain’s legacy with Rousteing’s modern influence. As slick and glamorous as his fashion collections, the fragrances are from four scent families – musk, amber, floral and woody – and include four old scents that have been resurrected from the Balmain archives.
Balmain first launched fragrance in 1946, with the Elysées 64-83 perfume, named for Pierre Balmain’s telephone number and created by female nose Germaine Cellier. A year later, the fresh “green” Vent Vert was released. It was game-changing for the fragrance category, which had previously been dominated by heavy scents. Vent Vert is one of the fragrances that Rousteing handpicked to be resurrected and reinvented for today, alongside Ivorie (first released in 1979), Ébène (1983), and Carbone (2010). And it’s not just the scents themselves that pay tribute to the past; the bottle and packaging of the new fragrances are also reinterpreted from archival designs, including Balmain’s first flacon created in 1946 and the 1970s brand motif.
Alongside building on and paying homage to the brand’s long history, Rousteing also brings his personal identity and story to the collection. Two of the new scents, Sel d’Ambre and Bronze, play with the concept and smell of fire – a painful and meaningful subject for the designer after he was in a serious accident in 2020. “It was a really difficult moment for me,” he told WWD. These fragrances, then, were about healing. “It was like a phoenix rising from your own ashes. This one really has a sense of rebirth. It was really like a therapy to create fragrances,” he said. “Because it’s all about travelling in your mind, dreaming, escape and finding your own peace and who you are.”
This fragrance collection is the first launch from Balmain Beauty, which was formed with Estée Lauder Companies in 2022 after the beauty side of the business had laid dormant since 2017. The line will be available to buy from September 2, and although it’s only fragrance for now, there are plans to expand beauty into other categories in the future. With this launch and future offerings, it’s very important to Rousteing that the products are fuelled by respect, love and unity, and that they celebrate individual beauty.
“Balmain Beauty gives you the freedom to live your truth, free and powerful. Beauty is about being yourself and having the confidence to embrace who you are,” he says. “Fashion cannot exist without beauty, and beauty cannot exist without fashion. Beauty is part of your silhouette, of who you are, just like the way you dress. I want to represent all the beauties of the world and welcome everyone without exceptions.”