launch an exuberant unisex collection—Puma x
Balmain Created with Cara Delevingne—that includes
silky red-and-blue boxing shorts, color-blocked
bomber jackets, hoodies, leggings, and distressed
striped tees—sportswear that might be saddled with
the moniker “athleisure” since it is deeply practical,
but that also evinces an inimitable, unmistakable
Balmain flair that transcends that plebeian category.
When Puma approached Delevingne about
collaborating on a line with a designer, she knew
immediately whom she wanted to work with and why.
“I was sure Olivier and I had the same kind of vision,”
she says. Rousteing knew it too: His response was “a
big yes! Cara creates her own rules—she is not just
trying to please the fashion crowd.”
If you think about it, the two have a lot in common:
a profound commitment to diversity, a desire to forge
their own paths, and a new way of looking at (and
shaking up) that fashion crowd. The collection—35
pieces that will be sold in Puma stores and other retail
outlets and a capsule of six
special pieces available in Balmain
boutiques—is organized
around a boxing theme. Both
Rousteing and Delevingne are
avid boxers, obsessed with the
notion that the greatest battles
are the ones you fight with
yourself. (Rousteing’s challenges
and successes are chronicled in
the upcoming documentary
Wonder Boy; when Delevingne saw
an early screening, she cried.)
Rousteing, who arrived for this interview straight
from sparring, wearing an anonymous tank top, black
Balmain track pants, and a dazzling gold Rolex, along
with other bracelets (a Cartier Clou, a backstage
band from the first Balmain menswear show, an evil-eye
charm given to him by a friend), says he envisions
the clothes as bringing a little bit of his France—Paris!
Balmain!—to the world of sport. To that end there are,
in addition to the souped-up classics, a glamorous
black, blue, and red silk kimono that plays off the robe
a boxer wears, along with a slinky dress with decisive
shoulder pads that Delevingne thinks projects “energy,
strength, and sexiness.” Classic Puma sneakers morph
into ranger boots for those chic soldiers enlisted in the
Balmain army—a posse as fashionable as they are
fearless. Rousteing and Delevingne even rejiggered the
classic Puma symbol by doubling the fun: “We imagined
two cats together instead of just one,” Rousteing says.
The collection’s video campaign likewise revolves
around the ring, except that the pugilists, save for
Delevingne, are not conventional models but rather a
roster of fierce young people—dancers, artists,
activists, refugees, survivors—who have looked their
own serious issues in the face and triumphed. “We
have 10 characters in the campaign, and all of them
have something important to say to the world,”
Rousteing says
proudly. “That is
also why we wanted
to create a kind of fight—
because we need to
fight for freedom, and to be who we want to be.”
The collaborators are thrilled that the Balmain
sensibility, filtered through the cool lens of Puma, will
be available to a wider public. “I never wore designer
clothes as a teenager, so being able to make these at a
good price point is my favorite part,” Delevingne
says. Admittedly, she’s not a teen anymore—she’s now
a working actor and a world-class supermodel. So
would she wear this Puma stuff in real life? “Of course!”
she says. “It’s 100% how I dress—the tanks, the tees:
supercomfortable, great for travel!” In fact, she confesses,
“I already stole some pieces.” @
“We wanted to
create a kind of
f ight,” Rousteing
says, “because
we need to fight
for freedom”
PERSONAL
TRAINER
PUMA X BALMAIN
CREATED WITH
CARA DELEVINGNE
CELL STELLAR
SNEAKER, $400;
PUMA.COM.
VLIFE
56 NOVEMBER 2019 VOGUE.COM
LIAM GOODMAN
