Balmain's Olivier Rousteing Reveals His Inspiration for H&M Collaboration

The buzzed-about collaboration will be in stores and online on Nov. 5.

ByABC News
November 4, 2015, 8:25 AM
Balmain creative director Olivier Rousteing spoke to ABC News' Mara Schiavocampo about his much-anticipated collaboration with H&M.
Balmain creative director Olivier Rousteing spoke to ABC News' Mara Schiavocampo about his much-anticipated collaboration with H&M.
Kaitlyn Folmer/ABC

— -- Ten years ago Olivier Rousteing was waiting in line to buy clothes from the latest H&M collaborations. Now, the 30-year-old designer is the creative force behind one of the clothing chain’s most buzzed-about collaborations.

Rousteing is the creative director for the luxury brand Balmain. Under his leadership, the brand’s intricately-crafted creations –- often beaded, bejeweled, embroidered and roped –- have become a red carpet staple.

“I think she's a warrior of the modern world,” Rousteing told ABC News’ Mara Schiavocampo of the woman he imagined while designing his H&M collection. “She's strong. She's powerful. She’s confident.”

Balmain creative director Olivier Rousteing spoke to ABC News' Mara Schiavocampo about his much-anticipated collaboration with H&M.

One of Rousteing’s muses for his designs is his good friend, Kim Kardashian, a friend whom he says “pushed” him in his fashion.

“We had, like, this connection straight away,” he said of the fashionista and reality TV star. “So she pushed me a lot in my vision of fashion.”

Rousteing says his real beginning in fashion came when he was a kid and used clothes to create an identity. The designer was adopted from a French orphanage.

“It’s why I love fashion, because when you don’t know your parents and you don’t know where you come from, you need to identify yourself to something,” he said.

Balmain creative director Olivier Rousteing spoke to ABC News' Mara Schiavocampo about his much-anticipated collaboration with H&M.

Rousteing’s collaboration with H&M, Balmain x H&M, will go on sale in stores and online Thursday, Nov. 5.

The designer says he sees the collection, one of the chain’s most-anticipated, as a way to reach a broader audience.

“It’s a piece of my dream,” he said. “At the end of the day I wanted to make sure that these people that always follow me and love me, but can’t afford this Balmain dream that I’m building, they can actually get a piece of this dream now.”