Olivier Rousteing designs capsule collection inspired by Netflix's "Stranger Things" series
Loud colours, bold pattern combinations, oversize silhouettes: for the autumn, Parisian label Balmain has revisited the unique style of the 1980s, embodied in the looks of the characters living in the Upside Down, the portal to another dimension featured in the "Stranger Things" series. Olivier Rousteing, Balmain’s creative director since 2011 and a great fan of the US TV series, has co-designed a unisex capsule collection, consisting of 12 items including clothes and accessories, with streaming platform Netflix, which first broadcast the series in summer 2016.
“I was born in 1985, and the four seasons of "Stranger Things” are set in the USA between 1983 and 1986,” said Rousteing in a press release. “Although the style is nowhere near what we used to wear when I went to secondary school in Bordeaux, [...] how can you not to be awed by all these incredible looks?” he added.
After unveiling his haute couture collection for French label Jean Paul Gaultier, fashion’s enfant terrible Rousteing is keen to democratise the world of luxury by building bridges with pop culture and 1980s style.
Rousteing likes to say he has been “hypnotized by the pop mood of the [1980s],” and has infused the capsule collection with retro leopard and zebra prints and polka dots. The series’ red logo crops up in the collection’s items, which include leggings, broad-shouldered shirts and a pair of straight-cut men’s jeans with rolled-up hems. Prices range from €590 for a striped turtleneck top, to €1,290 for a pleated white skirt.
Balmain’s B-Court sneakers are featured in a calf leather version embellished with the multi-coloured no-signal symbol that cathode tube TVs used to display when they had no reception. The collection also includes an iPhone 13 case looking for all the world like a retro music cassette. For these accessories, prices range from €350 for the smartphone case to €995 for the sneakers.
Balmain dropped the collaboration on Sunday November 6, a special day for die-hard fans of the series created by brothers Matt and Ross Duffer. In the first episode, young Will Byers disappears without trace on the evening of November 6 1983, in the town of Hawkins, Indiana. Fans now refer to this date as “Stranger Things Day”. Winter footwear brand Moon Boot, owned by Italy’s Tecnica group also unveiled a “Stranger Things” collaboration on the same day.
Other fashion industry names that have been won over by the 1980s vibe of “Stranger Things”, launching collaborations with the sci-fi/horror series beloved by Millennials, are Nike, with a sneakers model, H&M, with a summer capsule collection launched in 2019, and board sports brand Quiksilver, which dropped a swimwear collection this spring for the release of the series’ fourth season.
The Balmain limited-edition capsule collection is available at the label’s Parisian flagship, at 374 rue Saint Honoré, at the Melrose Place store in Los Angeles, and on the Balmain e-shop.
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