Olivier Rousteing Turned Surviving a Fire Into a Scent

It was exactly a week after Olivier Rousteing dressed Tyla at the Met Gala in a Balmain sand dress, which was molded to her body so carefully (with ceramics and foam) she couldn’t walk up the stairs or sit. “This is the funniest story that ever happened to me at the Met Gala,” says Rousteing, who has been dressing women for the event for a decade. He points to a video of him cutting the dress so Tyla can sit. The cutting of the dress was unplanned. Kris Jenner (who is “like a mom” to Rousteing) said to him, “Come on honey, don’t cut this dress.” Eva Chen of Instagram started recording. The Internet had a field day.

While videos of the dress were going viral, Rousteing was already back in Paris working on his next big thing: Balmain Beauty. It’s a rainy day in Paris when I meet him. I lean in for a hug and he smells exactly as I’d imagined: intense, musky, and woodsy, a scent from his new collection of fragrances. Sitting across from me with his shoulder-length box braids, chiseled jawline, porcelain-smooth skin, and signature dramatic shoulder pads even more prominent than I’d anticipated, Rousteing is eager to dive into this new era of Balmain.

Rousteing became the brand’s creative director in 2011 at 25 years old, and for over a decade, he has carried Balmain’s history while uniquely shaping the couture brand into a vision of his own. When it was time to introduce beauty to the house, he took it very seriously, so seriously that he went to school for perfumery to train his nose and learn more about the world of fragrance. “I think we need to understand the process of creating instead of just saying ‘I like it’ or ‘I don’t like it.’ I didn’t have the words to say why I didn’t like something,” he says. Comparing the process to designing clothes, he adds, “I know why I don’t like a shoulder pad because I know how to work my shoulder pads.”

When you think of Balmain and beauty, the first thing that comes to mind is probably not fragrance. “Everyone was expecting us to do makeup, obviously,” he says. “It’s the Balmain girl. You expect that there’s going to be lipstick, contouring, foundation, eyelashes, everything.” But for him, introducing fragrance first sets the tone for the Balmain Beauty brand. He wants the scents to exude confidence so a person and their presence (and scent) speak in a room before they do.

The fragrances, Les Éternels de Balmain, are a collection of eight unisex perfumes, including Rouge, a scent Rousteing calls “addictive,” made with notes of lily and magnolia; Bleu Infiniti, a crisp, earthy fragrance meant to transport you to your vacation hideaway; and Bronze, a fragrance inspired initially by Pierre Balmain’s time spent traveling in Africa but reimagined to be inspired by Roustieng’s own healing journey after his 2020 fireplace accident. Even the details of the bottle — a structured shape with signature black and gold labels over the bold colors — are not random. They’re an ode to the original bottle, created by Pierre Balmain in 1946.

Here, Rousteing tells us about his personal beauty experience and how it’s reflected in the fragrances, the scent he wears to meet with Beyoncé (she’s already approved it), what’s next for Balmain Beauty, and more.

When you think of your childhood in France, what are the first beauty memories that come to mind? 

It would be my mom wearing Guerlain. When I was a kid, she would hug me when I went to sleep and I’d feel comforted by her. I didn’t know it when I was a kid, but my grandmother wore Balmain fragrances. When she found out I was going to Balmain, the first thing she said was “Are you going to do the fragrances?” For her, Balmain was a house fragrance.

But I never felt beautiful when I was a kid because I had no designers or models who looked like me. There was Naomi Campbell, but I couldn’t identify with her as a kid, so I always thought beauty was just one kind of cliché, which was difficult.

In an interview, you said France can sometimes have an allegiance to the past. You had to go back to the past a lot when creating these fragrances; tell me what inspiration you took from Mr. Balmain and how you wanted to make that your own.

After the Second World War, Mr. Pierre Balmain created a house in 1945. It was audacious and daring, and it was new at the time. This is something that I am: audacious and daring. He also created a community of incredible women. He was dressing Josephine Baker, Brigitte Bardot, Dalida, Audrey Hepburn. He had this Balmain girl, which I have today in a different generation.

It’s been over a decade since you started at Balmain; you came to the brand in your 20s and are now, at 38, a completely different person. Tell me how your perception of beauty has changed.

When I started at Balmain, I just decided I was going to change the game. I was the first French Black designer at a French luxury house, and no one wanted to mention my origin, which was hard for me because I wanted to talk about it. No one wanted to mention the lack of diversity in the fashion system. I felt lonely somehow. At the time, beauty was just too cliché. I started to see beauty in many ways, not only in different skin tones but also in shapes, like the women I have dressed for the last decade. There isn’t one kind of beauty; that is important to me.

I had another shift in my life when I got burned. When I got into my accident, I was crying when I took off my bandages. I remember my doctor asking, “Why are you crying?” I was like, “Because I will never be the same.” Four years after my accident, I realize that what I call imperfection today can be perfection tomorrow. What I call weakness today can be strength tomorrow. I think my beauty is all the healing and imperfections you carry.

Your burn accident inspired one of the fragrances, too, which is as personal and emotional as it gets. Let’s get even more personal; that’s what scent is about, right? There are eight fragrances in Les Éternels de Balmain. If you were going on a date, tell me which one you’d wear and why.

If it’s a serious date, I’d wear Carbone because I think that scent is the introduction to who I am. If I go on a date where I want to flirt, I would go with Rouge. When you wear it, it just makes you want to connect with someone else.

You’re going to a fitting with Beyoncé, which one are you wearing? 

Oh, I did it already. I wore Carbone.

Tell me about it.

It was January 2023, when I was doing Renaissance Couture with her because we launched a couture collection together. I flew from Paris to L.A. and arrived at the studio. She hugged me and said, “You smell so good.” I immediately thought to myself, I got a winner.

You said you would close your eyes to envision a scent during this process and listen to a lot of music. What was your playlist like?

I listened to Mozart, and I listened to Beyoncé. I also listened to a lot of Prince. I could go from Drake to Andrea Bocelli to Céline Dion. It’s a schizophrenic playlist.

I want to go back to you talking about perfection post-accident. You’ve had an obsession with perfection for quite some time now, but it seems like it’s evolving.

My strength at Balmain has been that I started young; again, my weakness is because I was young. Today, I’m almost in my 40s. I am more mature in understanding that imperfection can be perfection and that the word perfection doesn’t exist at all. It’s just a fake word.

Finally coming to that realization is beautiful. I can tell you lean more into what you want to do now — like changing your look last year. Let’s discuss that.

I did change my look. There’s some glue, there’s some extensions, this is my look.

You have different braids almost every month. What made you want to switch it up and start wearing braids? 

I started last July, and I was bored of myself somehow. I was bored of the look that I’d had for so many years, and I wanted to play. It’s a moment of my life where I feel more free. I’m talking a lot about freedom right now because we have the luxury to feel free in this world for who we are. I don’t want anybody to put me down because I want to be free. I got really bad comments about my long hair. If people don’t like my hair’s length, it’s fine and I’m okay.

I remember when you first revealed it on Instagram, your caption said, “Be you, be free.” 

Yeah, because people are so stuck in this one direction. Social media is sometimes very dangerous; I’ve been judged and criticized often, but I live my life as if there is no tomorrow. If today is my last day and if I want to have long hair, it’s fine.

You mentioned social media and how it can be dangerous. Ironically enough, when you came to Balmain, you were one of the first creative directors at a brand to really take social media and allow it to help you define the brand. What is your relationship now with social media?

I am up and down, to be honest. I enjoy it a lot, but when you’re down, social media is not the place that will bring you up. Mentally, you’re like, Oh, my God, I’m judged. Should I close my Instagram? I have 10 million followers, and most of them are really kind. After my accident, they were nice when I posted my pictures. Of course, you have some haters when you get long hair, but I don’t care. I see a lot of kindness in people now, and I enjoy my Instagram more than I did a couple of years ago.

That’s good. Are you on TikTok?
I am.

What’s your FYP like? 

I stopped it right after my accident because when I was on TikTok it was COVID time, so I was dancing with my tank top and doing all my things.

You were just living your best life, huh? 

Living my best life. When I got burnt, I couldn’t show my body at all. I went into hiding, and TikTok was the biggest struggle because I couldn’t do moves. I was hiding my skin, and that’s why I stopped using TikTok.

Can we talk about your skin for a second? It looks amazing, and this jawline is beyond chiseled. What’s the beauty routine and your beauty secrets? 

After my accident, I went to a wellness-centered spa in the south of Spain, SHA, where I learned to eat well and drink juice. I drank carrots, ginger, blueberries, and apples every morning and took a carotene supplement. I moisturize my skin every three hours. My assistant said it’s getting crazy.

Wait, every three hours you put moisturizer on your skin?

I go to the bathroom, hide, and just do my thing. I love all-natural products. I was going to the north of Italy, close to Austria, and I got incredible creams from the mountains. I’m really into natural creams, and that’s what I do. Sleep, too. I go to sleep early, usually.

What’s next for Balmain Beauty? 

Makeup, for sure.

What does your dream Balmain makeup product look like?

If you’re going to put something on your face, I want to make sure it has skin care, too. Because of my accident, I want to ensure that any product you use from Balmain has a moisturizing, nonirritating, almost healing effect.

What makes a good product is something that makes you feel beautiful. With my last show, I cast incredible ladies over 50 and in their 60s; that’s beautiful to me.

The world is waiting, Olivier. We can’t wait to continue to see how you interpret beauty.