Designers

Anine Bing

Transformed Balmain from a fusty old couture has-been to the hottest thing going in his 10 seasons at the brand. Since his abrupt departure from the label in 2011, he's remained out of the headlines. But maybe not for long. Rumors suggest that Decarnin and his entire Balmain-era team are ensconced at the Paris label Faith Connexion, the president of which, Alexandre Allard, was involved in Balmain's mid-aughts renaissance... For Fall, the collection encompassed everything from double-breasted leather blazers with a sexy, off-the-shoulder cut to shredded, bleached, and otherwise mistreated jeans to tiny, little minidresses of the Balmain variety. But where Balmain was about injecting couture-level clothes with a rock-and-roll vibe, at Faith Connexion, the point is to treat your everyday kit in a couture-like manner. Shearling jackets, leather leggings, and cotton tees tagged to one-of-a-kind results by graffiti artists were among the successful examples of this process... Most of the time, though, the clothes remained as offhanded and cool as their streetwise starting points. The faded flannel shirts suspended from the waistbands of miniskirts or shorts, for instance, felt like something you've worn and tossed in the wash hundreds of times." Nicole Phelps, Style.com