GROUP DYNAMICS: Olivier Rousteing is feeling political. His fall campaign for Balmain, slated to break in a range of July issues starting with Love and American Vogue, makes a statement about diversity. Mario Sorrenti photographed models Ysaunny Brito, Cara Delevingne, Jourdan Dunn, Issa Lish, Binx Walton and Ford newcomer Kayla Scott lounging around in Rousteing’s intricate designs as if at some ultraglamorous pajama party.
Katie Grand did the art direction and styling; Paul Hanlon the hair, and Lucia Pieroni the makeup.
The advertising marks a change from spring, when Rousteing went the celebrity route with his friend Rihanna. Insistent about speaking to his generation, the designer, 28, said showing “the beauty of different ethnicities” reflects the reality of modern cities like Paris and his own boundary-breaking situation: being “a black boy in a really important French house.”