2.6 Josephine Baker: Superstar, War Hero, Activist and Balmain Muse

Blending two impressive heritages, the 2024 Balmain Resort Collections build upon the compelling legacy of Monsieur Balmain, melding his passion for American dynamism with the house’s mastery of French craftsmanship.  For this podcast, Olivier Rousteing discusses how his decorative motifs channel the bold style of the American cowboy and how his collections reflect the true history of the Wild West, with designs celebrating the long-ignored diversity of the frontier.   Rousteing walks us through the collections, explaining how they riff upon two distinct traditions, with the sharp cuts, impressive leatherwork and striking embellishments of Balmain’s latest designs looking to both mid-century couture salons and 19th-century frontier saloons.   As you listen to this episode, we invite you to click here to open a special webpage, which will allow you to scroll through images of each collection, as Olivier Rousteing explains the inspirations, details and presentations of his designs. CREDITS L’ATELIER BALMAIN EPISODE 3.1   GO WEST, BALMAIN! THE BALMAIN RESORT 2024 COLLECTIONS  Balmain Creative Director: Olivier Rousteing Episode Direction and Production: Seb Lascoux Balmain Historian: Julia Guillon Episode Coordination: Jeremy Mace Webpage Layout and Coordination: Léa Bouyssou Olivier Rousteing was interviewed by John Gilligan  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“My last runway surprised more than a few,” explains Olivier Rousteing. “Coverage of previous Balmain shows often focused on the fashion-week festivals and spectacles—but for our Fall 2023 Balmain Women’s designs, my team and I were determined to steer clear of the fireworks. Instead, we shone a single, perfectly directed spotlight upon the extraordinary possibilities offered to us whenever we celebrate this house’s rich heritage. We turned the volume way down, channeling the hushed atmosphere of Pierre Balmain’s intimate post-war couture salon presentations. By limiting the number of invitees, we allowed each guest the opportunity to better appreciate, close-up, just how our atelier’s impressive craftsmanship made possible the collection’s many surprising, fresh and modern spins on our founder’s signature silhouettes and this house’s most cherished codes. For this episode, Olivier Rousteing sits down once again with John Gilligan for a conversation about his Balmain Fall 2023 designs for men and women. Rousteing also explains the origins and inspirations for a special joint couture collection that he created in partnership with Beyoncé: The Beyoncé x Balmain Renaissance Collection. As you listen to this episode, we invite you to click here to open a special webpage, which will allow you to scroll through videos and images of each collection, as Olivier Rousteing explains the inspirations, details and presentations of his designs. CREDITS L’ATELIER BALMAIN EPISODE 2.7   OLIVIER ROUSTEING: MY BALMAIN FALL 2023 COLLECTIONS Balmain Creative Director: Olivier Rousteing Episode Direction and Production: Seb Lascoux Balmain Historian: Julia Guillon Episode Coordination: Jeremy Mace Webpage Layout and Coordination: Léa Bouyssou Olivier Rousteing was interviewed by John Gilligan  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For this episode, Vogue Writer and Editor Lynn Yaeger returns to explain why she is so inspired by the fascinating life of Josephine Baker.  Born into a life of poverty, segregation and racial violence in Saint Louis, Josephine Baker managed to escape what seemed to have been her destiny—eventually transforming herself, through determination and talent, into the glamorous toast of Europe. She starred in successful movies, performed on the stages of the most important theaters and released a string of musical hits—some of which are now French classics.  But, as Yaeger is very happy to let us know, Baker was so much more than a star. She was also a decorated war hero, bravely volunteering to work as a French spy during World War II. In later years, she would return to America to enlist in another battle: the Reverend Martin Luther King’s movement for civil rights.  Josephine Baker was also a great inspiration for Pierre Balmain, who dressed Baker for several of her most legendary mid-century performances. Today, the house of Balmain is celebrated for its love of building upon the impressive power that results when music and fashion are connected. And that singular passion for weaving the two arts together began many decades ago, with Pierre Balmain’s stunning creations for one of the house’s original muses, Josephine Baker. We invite you to click to open the episode’s special webpage, which will allow you to scroll through videos and images of Josephine Baker.CREDITS L’ATELIER BALMAIN EPISODE 2.6 JOSEPHINE BAKER: SUPERSTAR, WAR HERO, ACTIVIST AND BALMAIN MUSEBalmain Creative Director: Olivier RousteingEpisode Direction and Production: Seb LascouxBalmain Historian: Julia GuillonEpisode Coordination: Jeremy MaceWebpage Layout and Coordination: Léa BouyssouEpisode researched, written and presented by John GilliganSpecial Podcast Guest: Lynn Yaeger See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pierre Balmain’s early architectural training was clearly reflected in his distinctive mastery of haute couture’s volumes and strict tailoring. It also pushed him to partner with leading architects of his day on the construction of impressive structures, most notably Villa Balmain, the designer's extraordinary retreat on the Isle of Elba.For Miami’s Art Week, Cuban artist Alexandre Arrechea has created “Hexagon Garden” in collaboration with LITO, a reimagined vision of Pierre Balmain’s beloved island get-away, with Arrechea transporting that sleek mid-century residence to a fascinating new location, set deep within the metaverse.As Arrechea explains, inside his new, dreamlike universe, he’s played with important house symbols—bees and gems—as Villa Balmain’s bees carry a singularly precious pollen—dazzling gems—from the surrounding lush grounds into the artist’s hexagon gardens—honeycombs—that Arrechea has placed around and within the villa’s sleek walls. Ultimately, the bees create compelling shimmering variations on the architectural masks that Arrechea has explored in previous works.We invite you to click to open the episode’s special webpage, which will allow you to scroll through videos and images of Villa Balmain and Alexandre Arrechea’s creations, powered by LITO Hi-Rnd© Technology.CREDITS L’ATELIER BALMAIN EPISODE 2.5VILLA BALMAIN: BEES, GEMS AND HEXAGON GARDENBalmain Creative Director: Olivier RousteingEpisode Direction and Production: Seb LascouxBalmain Historian: Julia GuillonEpisode Coordination: Jeremy MaceWebpage Layout and Coordination: Léa BouyssouEpisode researched, written and presented by John Gilligan See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As we wrap up our series of in-depth conversations with Olivier Rousteing about his ten years of guiding Balmain, John Gilligan sits down again with Rousteing to talk about the Creative Director’s favorite house moments of the past decade. From a beautiful classical ballet at the Paris Opera House to two incredible weekends at Coachella, Rousteing walks us through his inspirations, motivations and creations, helping us to better understand some of Balmain’s most notable one-of-a-kind collaborations, events and messages.  We invite you to click to open the episode’s special webpage, which will allow you to scroll through videos and images of the images and videos that Olivier Rousteing will be discussing during this episode. CREDITS L’ATELIER BALMAIN EPISODE 2.4THE ROUSTEING ERA: THE KEY MOMENTSBalmain Creative Director: Olivier RousteingEpisode Direction and Production: Seb LascouxBalmain Historian: Julia GuillonEpisode Coordination: Jeremy MaceWebpage Layout and Coordination: Léa BouyssouEpisode researched, written and presented by John Gilligan See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For Olivier Rousteing, a house campaign marks the final creative moment of the season’s collection. And Rousteing is continually searching out surprising, engaging, and entertaining tools—new visions, new platforms—that he can rely on to ensure that each of his campaigns leaves a memorable impression. In this third episode of l’Atelier Balmain’s second season, we continue our series of conversations with Balmain’s creative director about his ten years of guiding the house, with Rousteing focusing on his favorite Balmain campaigns of the past decade, sharing the inspirations, challenges and stories behind his most successful campaigns. We invite you to click to open the episode’s special webpage, which will allow you to scroll through videos and images of the images and videos that Olivier Rousteing will be discussing during this episode.  CREDITS L’ATELIER BALMAIN EPISODE 2.3THE ROUSTEING ERA: THE KEY CAMPAIGNSBalmain Creative Director: Olivier RousteingEpisode Direction and Production: Seb LascouxBalmain Historian: Julia GuillonEpisode Coordination: Jeremy MaceWebpage Layout and Coordination: Léa BouyssouEpisode researched, written and presented by John Gilligan See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For this episode of the Balmain podcast, we continue our series of conversations with Creative Director Olivier Rousteing, who explains the inspirations, designs and presentations that help set apart his favorite runways—as well as the challenges that he and his team had to overcome during the last ten years of Paris fashion weeks. We invite you to click to open the episode’s special webpage, which will allow you to scroll through videos and images of the collections and runways that Olivier Rousteing will be discussing during this episode.CREDITS L’ATELIER BALMAIN EPISODE 2.2THE ROUSTEING ERA: THE KEY RUNWAYS Balmain Creative Director: Olivier RousteingEpisode Direction and Production: Seb LascouxBalmain Historian: Julia GuillonEpisode Coordination: Jeremy MaceWebpage Layout and Coordination: Léa BouyssouEpisode researched, written and presented by John Gilligan See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last season’s podcast focused on some of the legendary moments, designs, images and personalities associated with Pierre Balmain and his legendary “New French Style”— highlighting how Monsieur Balmain’s unique and fresh designs helped to usher in the postwar era’s golden age of Paris couture. With this first episode of season two of the podcast, we begin an in-depth, four-part exploration of today’s Balmain, as Olivier Rousteing, the house’s creative director, continues to build upon the rich heritage of the house, while always adding his own modern, inclusive and distinctive outlook—overseeing the “Renewed French Style” that sets apart 21st-Century Balmain. In this and each of the upcoming episodes, Rousteing discusses key Balmain moments from the past ten years, explaining the inspirations behind his favorite house collections, campaigns and special events—as well as the challenges that he faced in making each of them happen. This episode begins with a special tenth-anniversary message for Rousteing from Beyoncé. It was delivered during the latest Balmain Festival, which took place inside an ephemeral festival village, set on an island in the middle of Paris’ Seine River. The celebration combined two days of concerts, a runway presentation of the house’s latest designs and a special retrospective, where some of the most famous models of the past 25 years wore beautiful re-editions of key Olivier Rousteing creations from the past decade. Rousteing talks to us about Beyonce’s emotional message, the festival, the show, the retrospective and the influences behind the Balmain Spring 2022 collection that was premiered on the runway. We invite you to click to the episode’s webpage, in order to see videos and images of the designs and presentations that Rousteing will be discussing during this episode. CREDITS L’ATELIER BALMAIN EPISODE 2.1THE ROUSTEING ERA: “HELLO OLIVIER, IT’S BEYONCE”Special Guest Audio: BeyoncéBalmain Creative Director: Olivier RousteingEpisode Direction and Production: Seb LascouxBalmain Historian: Julia GuillonEpisode Coordination: Jeremy MaceEpisode researched, written and presented by John Gilligan See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pierre Balmain’s designs were key ingredients in some of the twentieth century’s most important fashion shootings. Month after month, season after season, the house’s couture creations were worn by beautiful models in incredible locations, captured by talented photographers and published by the leading magazines. Since this episode is centered on some of the mid-century’s most iconic fashion images, you may want to click on the webpage link to view the incredible photographs that our expert guests are describing. One of this podcast’s fashion authorities is Susanna Brown, who joins us for a second time. Brown, a photography curator and art historian, has overseen some of the most impressive photography exhibitions in recent years, including a 2012 exhibit on Cecil Beaton, a 2014 exhibit on Horst and the acclaimed 2019 show on Tim Walker—all first shown at London’s Victoria And Albert (V&A) Museum. In Episode Six , Susanna Brown spoke with us about the photographer Horst and she returns today to talk about other celebrated fashion photographers of the twentieth century and walks us through some of their most notable creations. Lynn Yaeger, the CFDA-award winning journalist who is known for her unique ability to mix an incredible design knowledge with often-amusing and always thought-provoking takes on class, politics, society and history also joins us on this episode.CREDITS L’ATELIER BALMAIN EPISODE EIGHTIncredible Beauties, Legendary Photographers And Iconic ImagesBalmain Creative Director: Olivier RousteingSpecial Podcast Guests: Susanna Brown and Lynn YaegerEpisode Direction and Production: Seb LascouxBalmain Historian: Julia GuillonEpisode Coordination: Alya NazaralyResearch Assistance: Pénélope André and Yasmine Ban AbdallahDigital Coordination/Graphic Identity: Jeremy MaceEpisode researched, written and presented by John Gilligan To explore further:Pierre Balmain: My Years and Seasons, (Doubleday, 1965) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A key person behind the rapid early growth of Balmain and smooth operations of the legendary flagship at 44 François Premier was Ginette Spanier. Spanier was the first person to be named as Balmain’s Directrice, (the Director of the house), and she remained in that position for almost thirty years. While her name may not be familiar to many today, she was a well-known personality during her time at Balmain—due not only to her superb management of the house’s rapid growth, but also to her amazing life story. It’s an incredible history that—just as the announcer of the popular television series “This Is Your Life” notes in the snippet we use to begin this episode—can be summed up as one of “fun, fear and fate.” Because Ginette Spanier was not only a genius at management—she was also a war hero. Spanier’s extraordinary history, told in a trio of best-selling autobiographies, is composed of a series of startling changes and her perfect adaptation to each of them. She began life as a rich Parisian. But, after her upper-class family moved to London, her parents lost their fortune during the Great Depression. Suddenly needing to work, Spanier transformed herself into a Fortnum and Mason salesgirl, rubbing shoulders with royals, artists and aristocrats of the time. And then, after moving back to Paris to live with her new French husband in 1939, she was forced to spend the years of the Nazi occupation on the run, sheltered by brave résistants, as she and her husband—both Jewish—fled the Germans and their Vichy collaborators. Immediately after the liberation of Paris, she joined the Allied forces, helping to recruit, train and organize needed support staff for the American army, as it headed east toward Berlin. After the Nazis were finally defeated, Spanier worked to create and manage the team of translators that assisted in the prosecution of the some of the modern era’s most horrific war criminals, during the historic judgement at Nuremberg.  So… it’s clear that Spanier did not come with the typical background that one might expect for a Director of a French luxury haute couture house. As Directrice of Balmain for almost 30 years, Spanier oversaw the everyday workings of Balmain—skillfully managing all members of the team and working closely with Pierre Balmain to make key decisions on collections and strategy. She also oversaw the house’s daily shows and its large team of in-house haute-couture models, known as the Balmain Cabine. To best understand how Paris’ post-war model and show system worked, the podcast is joined once again by the award-winning fashion journalist Lynn Yaeger. And of course, Lynn was happy to share some amazing (and sometimes quite scandalous) tales with us.Learn more on Balmain.comCREDITS L’ATELIER BALMAIN EPISODE SEVENFun, Fear and Fate Fun, Fear and Fate: Ginette Spanier and Mid-Century BalmainBalmain Creative Director: Olivier RousteingAudio: This Is Your Life, 09.02.1972: Courtesy of Ralph Edwards Productions, TIYL Productions & FremantleSpecial Podcast Guest: Lynn YaegerEpisode Direction and Production: Seb LascouxBalmain Historian: Julia GuillonEpisode Coordination: Alya NazaralyResearch Assistance: Pénélope André and Yasmine Ban AbdallahDigital Coordination/Graphic Identity: Jeremy MaceEpisode researched, written and presented by John Gilligan To explore further:Pierre Balmain: My Years and Seasons, (Doubleday, 1965)Ginette Spanier: It Isn’t All Mink (Collins, 1959 and V&A Publishing, 2017)Ginette Spanier: And Now It’s Sables (R. Hale, 1970)Ginette Spanier: Long Road To Freedom (R. Hale, 1976)See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This Episode’s Music:PRALINE SUNG BY JEAN SABLONBalmain’s Creative Director, Olivier Rousteing, makes it very clear—collection after collection—that he believes that fashion can never be separated from music. Inspired by Rousteing, each l’Atelier Balmain podcast carefully selects artists and music that reflect and strengthen the story being told. During this episode, Lynn Yaeger managed to give her own distinctive spin to the translated lyrics of an early 1950’s French hit song about one of Balmain’s biggest stars: Praline. Paris has had many beautiful women (and men) working as in-house models—but there are few who ever managed to become as famous as Praline. And we can’t think of any other couture showroom model who ever had a hit song written about them! This 1951 tune was written by Eddie Constantine and sung by Jean Sablon. The melody is introduced with an astounded spoken reaction — “wait, you don’t know who Praline is?” — and then Jean Sablon breaks into a song that follows the Praline through one of her day as Balmain’s star model, beginning with her morning stroll down the Champs Elysées, following her through a tough day of shows , (while she always manages to keep looking perfectly put together), and finally, although she’s tired, she is persuaded to go out at night and ends up falling in love with the singer. That singer ends his tune by letting his listeners know that he is now the lucky guy who’s engaged to Praline. Et la vie est jolie! Sur les Champs ElyséesSes cheveux tout bouclésElle est fraîche et jolie,C'est Praline regardez-la marcherElle a l'air de danserSur le coup de midi c'est PralineElle est toujours bien habilléeOn dirait qu'elle est richeBien chapeautée, chaussée, gantée,Elle a même un canicheCar elle est mannequinDu velours au satinElle pass' la journée, c'est PralineUne robe du soir, le manteau rayé noir,La robe de mariée, c'est PralineHuit heur's tout' seule et fatiguéeElle rentre chez elleDemain il faut recommencerElle oublie qu'elle est belleSur les Champs ElyséesDes Messieurs distinguésFeraient bien des folies pour PralineEll' fait " non " gentimentEll' ne veut qu'un amant" Et ce s'ra pour la vie " dit PralineLe soir où je l'ai rencontréeEll' m'a fait un sourire et puisOn est aller danserAprès... j'peux pas vous l'direDepuis tout a changé nous sommes fiancésEt la vie est jolie Ah! PralineOn va se marier c'est banal à pleurerMais c'est moi qui souris à PralineA ma PralineOn the Champs ElyséesHer hair all in curlsShe is fresh and prettyIt's Praline watch her walkShe seems to dance And at noon it's PralineShe is always well dressedLooks like she's richNice hat, heels, gloves,She even has a poodleBecause she is a model From velvet to satinShe spends the day,it's PralineAn evening dress,the black striped coat,The wedding dressIt’s Praline Eight hours all alone and tiredShe returns homeTomorrow we have to start againShe forgets that she is beautiful On the Champs ElyséesDistinguished GentlemenWould do crazy things for PralineShe says "no" nicely She only wants a true love"one that will be for life"said Praline The night I met herShe gave me a smileand then We went dancingAfter ... I can't tell you Since then, everything has changedwe are engagedAnd life is prettyah! PralineWe are going to get married,it's expected to cryBut me I smile at PralineTo my Praline℗ 1951 Parlophone / Warner Music France, a Warner Music Group CompanyComposer: Bob AstorComposer: Eddie ConstantineWriter: Francois Jacques Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.