French luxury brand Balmain, under creative director Olivier Rousteing, reached new audiences when his designs were embraced by prominent cultural figures such as the Kardashians, Michelle Obama and Barbie.
Rousteing and Balmain parted ways last fall after a 14-year relationship – his successor, Antonin Tron, is showing his first collection for the brand next month during Paris Fashion Week.
But Rousteing’s Balmain is still generating buzz.
When US figure skater Ilia Malinin performed his final skate at the Winter Olympics in Italy recently, he did so not in a spangly bodysuit, but in jeans from Balmain’s 2025 men’s Resort collection designed by Rousteing.
The dark jeans, which feature a white biker-print motif, retail for US$1,290 (approximately RM5,018).
Malinin, 21, wore the jeans at the Olympic figure skating exhibition gala. He paired them with a hoodie that had “fear” written upside down on it. The sweatshirt is merchandise sold by rapper NF, whose song Fear was the soundtrack for Malinin’s skate at the gala.
A representative for Malinin did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment about his attire.
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A Balmain spokesperson said in an email that the brand had not been involved in dressing Malinin.
“Truly honoured that Ilia worn Balmain,” she added.
Earlier in the Winter Games, millions watched Malinin, the winner of several national and international championships, fail to win an individual medal. His skate at the exhibition gala, a noncompetition event, offered an opportunity to change how people saw him.
“The reason I wanted to go back out there is, you know, give it a redemption skate,” Malinin said in an interview with NBC after his performance.
In other interviews, Malinin has recognised how fashion plays a role in his public perception.
He recently told Vogue that “being as unique as possible” is a goal when choosing attire and that, in the future, he is hoping to be able to design his own "costumes and clothes in general".
Dressed in a sweatshirt and jeans (rarefied as they might have been), Malinin looked less like the costumed athlete known as Quad God – a nickname nodding to his achievement as the only person to land the quadruple axel jump in competition – and more like an average 20-something.
And reminding people that he is not superhuman might have been the point.
“Something we go through as athletes,” he told NBC after the exhibition gala, adding, "Just all this constant voices, these attention, the pressure, everything, you know, forced upon you, and it’s very hard to deal with.”
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Malinin and his fellow US Olympic figure skaters Alysa Liu and Amber Glenn are among a generation of athletes whose attention to personal style is changing the look of the sport.
According to Johnny Weir, the US Olympic skater turned NBC skating commentator, events like the exhibition gala are settings in which skaters can lean into their personalities.
“In gala performances, skaters generally relax a bit more with their styling choices,” Weir said in an email.
“The gala is about entertainment, not medals, so it is a much more relaxed event and skaters can definitely get away with more risk.” – ©2026 The New York Times Company
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
