Usher unleashed a photographer’s battle at Balmain on Friday, as he appeared at Paris Fashion Week alongside towering model Cindy Bruna. <br /><br />The designer, Olivier Rousteing said of the typically glamazon-filled fashion collection, that it was a celebration of his personal journey. Here are some highlights of ready-to-wear shows for fall-winter 2020.<br /><br />An orphan from posh Bordeaux, where doors were closed to him because of his race, Rousteing said he explored how those same doors suddenly flung open when he became a top designer in Paris.<br /><br />“I learned from an early age that certain classes, clubs and cliques were closed off to someone who looked like me,” he said.<br /><br />“Many of the codes of a world that was once beyond my reach are key parts of this collection... (that) adapts those symbols of upper-class exclusion and twists them.“<br /><br />In that vein, in the display, he delivered a street-cred makeover to traditional styles — such as silk scarf patterns, classic equestrian looks and the signature harlequin crisscross patterns — ones executed in cognacs and intense blues on rich fabrics such as jersey.<br /><br />The bourgeois harlequin motif adorned billowing African-style capes, and equestrian leather waders looked like stripper boots.<br /><br />Rousteing’s passion was evident in the pure exuberance. The show opening included a dozen models in exactly the same look — a chic double-breasted wool coat with the house DNA of six gold buttons. It evoked the mood of an urban gang. <br /><br />There were plenty of hits. A loose pastel brown leather pantsuit hybrid subverted the cinched-waist silhouette of house founder Pierre Balmain’s Jolie Madame look. Instead of a belt there was a clutch bag on its front, resembling a fanny pack. With its thick leather ruffles, it was surely the collection’s best look.<br /><br />Alas, Rousteing’s exuberance was also what was wrong with the collection, which strayed at times into overkill.<br /><br />Follow STYLE on:<br />https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style<br />https://www.facebook.com/scmpstyle<br />https://www.instagram.com/scmp_style<br />https://www.twitter.com/scmp_style<br />https://www.youtube.com/c/SCMPStyle<br />https://www.dailymotion.com/scmp_style
