Since relaunching Balmain last season, designer Christophe Decarnin has scored his share of red-carpet coups—a freshly cropped Audrey Tautou in a short white number at the Cannes premiere of The DaVinci Code being the most notable. So it s no surprise that his focused sophomore effort concentrated primarily on abbreviated party frocks of the sort favored by young Hollywood. His olive, white, or black strapless, one-shoulder, and halter styles continued to inch up the legs, and he also laid on the hardware for spring. Gold chains dripped from one shift, brass studs decorated chain-mail hems, and coils of silver sequins snaked around the neck. "I was going for an armor look," said the designer, whose predilection for such materials may have come from a late-nineties stint at Paco Rabanne. Arching bell sleeves and lantern cuffs, meanwhile, were inspired by Balmain s eighties archives. It s hard to see what the show s metallic leather dhotis and tattered and deconstructed tees—some with panels of sequins, others held together with safety pins— have to do with the house s legacy. But will those same starlets soon be wearing them? You bet.
