Today, WWD confirms the year-long rumor that Christophe Decarnin will extend his designs for Balmain to menswear, with a presentation at men's Fashion Week this January in Paris, officially making him a part of the growing list of womenswear designers turning to the men.
While Christophe has certainly proven himself to be a designer customers love (it's not everyone that can command a $1,400 price tag for a pair of jeans), we're compelled to weigh both sides:
- Could a designer best known for slashed skirts, metallics, ass-grazing hemlines and a look Cathy Horyn so aptly summarized as "elegant trash" appropriate translate his general aesthetic to menswear? Because a work-appropriate suit could only really include zebra print if it was somehow worked into the lining, and where's the fun in that?
- Are $20,000 suits (because you know that's what they'll cost) really a good idea right now anyway?
- Or will the line be the perfect complement to his womenswear, meant for the boy that parties between LA and Rome, who DJ's and maybe paints to explain his living, making bejeweled tees and motorcycle jackets right at home in his Cavalli closet?
And most importantly, will it make it past a season? We all know Balmain men's will get all the editorial support in the world, but what about the real world?
Guess he could surprise us all and make sharp, super-fitted, classic clothes - but then, why pay for that name tag?
