Introduction
Laurent Mercier is a designer whose Balmain appointment began in women’s ready-to-wear before expanding into couture. The ready-to-wear appointment was announced on 4 December 2001 for the Fall 2002 season while Oscar de la Renta still led haute couture.
Mercier became couturier in late 2002 and presented his only securely verified Balmain couture collection on 21 January 2003. Balmain later called it Balmasqué, although the title has not been recovered from a contemporary programme. The house cancelled the following couture presentation and ended the collaboration by mutual agreement on 10 June 2003.
Design ethos
Mercier’s Balmain work joined theatrical, corseted ready-to-wear to a masked couture presentation. The surviving record is too short and incomplete to support a broad house-wide philosophy or a two-year creative-director tenure.
Disclaimer
Career history
2001
Balmain appointed Laurent Mercier to women’s ready-to-wear in December 2001. He later became couturier, presented Spring–Summer 2003 and left by mutual agreement on 10 June 2003.
You’re in
When the archive opens, you’ll be among the first to know.
That’s all.
