Fragrance house

Pierre Balmain

Pierre Balmain founded his Paris couture house in 1945 and presented its first haute couture collection on September 18 that year. Its early design language, known as Pierre Balmain’s postwar “New French Style,” combined structured silhouettes, rich embroidery, cinched waists and sophisticated construction. After Balmain’s death in 1982, the house worked with successive designers, including Oscar de la Renta, whose 1990s collections drew on its Jolie Madame aesthetic. Alain Hivelin took over and reorganized Balmain from 1995, while Christophe Decarnin joined in 2005 and relaunched the brand. Olivier Rousteing became artistic director in 2011, shaping its public identity through a combination of Parisian couture and tailoring, celebrity-facing and digital-era presentation, and more inclusive casting. Rousteing stepped down on November 5, 2025, after 14 years, and Balmain appointed Antonin Tron on November 12. The succession marked a public creative transition from Rousteing’s celebrity-driven era toward Tron’s structured minimalism and sculptural drape. Balmain’s fragrance history includes Elysées 64-83, Vent Vert, Jolie Madame, Miss Balmain, Ivoire and Ébène. Vent Vert, first created in 1947, is identified as a pioneering classic green fragrance and a perfumery icon. In 2024, the house’s all-gender luxury fragrance collection Les Éternels launched under a 2022 license agreement with The Estée Lauder Companies.