Oliver Rousteing X Nike: The Ultimate In Sports-Luxe

Balmain creative director Olivier Rousteing yesterday unveiled a secret collaboration with athletics giant Nike on his Instagram account.

Sportswear might not be the most obvious choice of theme?for the French powerhouse, which usually adorns its?garments with heavy sequins, tassels, lace, and beading, but the collection is inspired?by Rousteing’s childhood love of soccer and so is very much a football-inspired assemblage, mixed with Balmain elements of course.

Football Nouveau from NIKELAB on Vimeo.

The collection, captured by renowned photographer?Nick Knight, has?a coherent black and gold colour palette, and amalgamates chic cut-away leotards with matching (albeit not very functional) stilettoes, accessories and jumpsuits for women. The menswear range follows?a similar pattern, offering?Roshe-style trainers, jog-wear, gold varsity-style jackets and shorts, all emblazed with a large signature gold tick, of course. Crusaders of Rousteing’s campaign include global soccer star-turned-fashion muse Cristiano Ronaldo, Irish model Dudely O’Shaugnessy, former Victoria Secret Angel, Cindy Bruna, and Angolan beauty Maria Borges.

Rousteing is actively changing how the fashion world uses social media, opting to release the entire X Nike collection to his 3.4 million followers on Instagram. He released his?Balmain X H&M collection last year on Instagram also. Speaking to Glamour, the creative director exemplified how the power of Instagram cannot be mistaken:

?Those regrams and likes translate into sales. At the last show, buyers were requesting the dresses the girls wore to the after-party; they saw them on Instagram and wanted to get them. Before, people were buying clothes because they wanted to look like a magazine editorial. Now they go with the iPhone and show Instagram. It’s changing fashion completely.?

The collection, which aims to set new heights for “sports-luxe”, is currently on pre-order through the Nike website and will be available?from?June 2.