The "collaboration" of the year - the umpteenth collection between a fashion designer and a High Street retailer, in this case Balmain x H&M - will reach its climax this week when the designs will finally be available in the shops (on 5th November).
In a way this has been a long marketing process: as you may remember, the hashtag #HMBalmaination first appeared on the social media in May when they started building the hype about this project.
The collection - promoted by a music-style video starring Kendall Jenner and the "Balmain Army" riding a futuristic subway and being challenged to a dance-off - was launched with a catwalk show/party that took place in New York in October. The show featured the faces of the collaborations' campaign - Jourdan Dunn, Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid, among the others - and a surprise performance by the Backstreet Boys (or maybe "Backstreet Men" considering their ages...).
The collection lookbook appeared three weeks before the official sale date and Balmain's Creative Director Olivier Rousteing announced in interviews that he would like people to share on the social media their own pictures as they queue, try on the pieces and pay for them. When it will be sold out, the designer claims he will (obviously) celebrate with a selfie. Though perfectly understandable from a commercial point of view, this marketing strategy - the sort of stuff the Insta-generation is made of - actually reveals that this collaboration is more about fake hysteria than real fashion.
The actual collection has indeed become almost secondary to the parties and the appearances of Rousteing and his "Army" of glamorously gorgeous but vapid friends.
Apart from looking like Dynasty-meets-MC Hammer-meets Versace collages, the garments included in this collaboration (featuring over 100 pieces for both men and women) are slightly remixed versions of designs seen on Balmain's past runways (the pearl jackets show a direct link with pieces from the A/W 2012 collection; the heavily embellished sequin looks in jewel tones and ruched skirts are borrowed from the A/W 2013 collection; the tightly woven dresses and harem trousers point towards the A/W 2014 designs).
Balmain's topoi are all there, from the big-shoulders to the heavily embellished motifs and the high-waisted belts, while one fuchsia costumy dress looks like inspired by those sets of kitsch Christmas baubles you often see on retailers à la Alibaba.
Maybe the best investment pieces would be some of the menswear looks, at least they would be more wearable and, trend-wise, they would also guarantee to the consumer a longer fashion life.
Most of these designs are considered as cheaper (if you're a Balmain's client they are cheaper; if you're an H&M customer, they will be extremely expensive as the more elaborate designs are priced between $4-500) versions of the original designs, so there is not much exclusivity about them.
As it happened with previous designs made for other collaborations, these pieces are supposed to prove fashion is being democratised, the biggest lie of the industry, since it essentially means selling us ordinary people a cheap copy of something more expensive (genuine "democratisation" would mean that everybody could afford something like a high quality luxurious cashmere jumper and would not set a division between a cashmere wearing elite and a crowd of pariahs wearing the same look but replicated in acrylic or polyester...).
Yet this is all part of a specific business strategy: appointed creative director of Balmain in 2011 after Christophe Decarnin left the French house among whispers of a nervous breakdown (by the way, whatever happened to him?), Rousteing has maybe spent more time connecting with his digital fashion fans than working at the drawing desk.
Extremely active on Instagram, he boasts many models and celebrities amongst his followers and is currently hoping this collaboration will transform his "army" into a proper worldwide "nation" of devoted and loyal fans. Young and hip Rousteing was therefore the perfect designer for this latest collaboration since he has perfectly grasped the importance of the social media.
These supposedly "made in Fashion Heaven" matches between a luxury house and a High Street retailer, may indeed represent an instant money injection for the designer involved, but they do not generate a lot of money.
These collaborations are usually launched to create media revenue, that is a mere buzz: they boost the perception of specific brands, attract consumers to H&M stores and turn shopping into a party event that starts when fashion fans queue round the block on launch day.
So when you sit down and seriously try to dissect the current Balmainia generated by this collaboration, you feel like laughing a lot: Rousteing may look unbearably cool and fabulous posing next to some supermodel friends, yet this immensely hyped collection is not about quality and originality, but about celebrity friends trying to convince ordinary people to buy Balmain's knock-offs (it's a shame they opted to include elaborate looks in the collection and didn't think about featuring in it the visually striking yet basic neon pink raincoats donned in the video by the twin dancers the members of the Balmain Army meet on the underground, as they would have been instant hits with consumers... View this photo).
Of course the collection will sell out, after all it is nothing more than an elaborate marketing ploy, and a rather successful exercise in crossing the line between fine fashion and trashy kitsch, representing fashion consuming itself rather than the industry generating something new and desperately creative.
Let's not be so negative, though, and look at the great sides of this collection: finally all those consumers who want to dare dressing like a Christmas ornament can do so and transform themselves into pure Instagram candy in the process. Looks like these fashion collaborations can be very rewarding after all...
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