With new creative director Olivier Rousteing settling in after replacing Christophe Decarnin, Balmain has announced the licensing of a secondary ready-to-wear line, Pierre Balmain. What's more, according to the WWD report, the debut is set for September and may even happen right here in New York -- indicating the New York market is evolving in importance for the Paris-based label.
While Rousteing focuses on the primary Balmain collections, he will simply oversee the Pierre Balmain women's and men's collections, being produced by a separate design studio under Italian company Ittierre SpA.
Under Decarnin, the Paris-based fashion house enjoyed wild popularity, even at wildly high prices, and his departure was said to have been the result of disagreements with management -- perhaps over the expansion of the brand to a secondary, likely-lower-priced line such as this.
