Balmain’s Olivier Rousteing Rips The Curtain Off Of Misconceptions With New Netflix Doc ‘Wonder Boy’
Jul
6,
2021
Olivier Rousteing has led Balmain with his discerning eye for fashion, while trailblazing desings and breaking barries. Wonder Boy pulls back the curtain on what makes this engimatic man really tick.
Olivier Rousteing, delivers glamour and glitz aplenty, from runway shows to cameos by fans of the house like Kim Kardashian West and Jennifer Lopez. But Wonder Boy steps away from the glamour of fashion as Oliver lets filmmakers into his search to find his birth parents. The documentary is out now on Netflix, and provides an intimate look into the designer, that sets this fashion film apart, from its counter-parts. Wonder Boy takes us on a journey as Oliver searches to uncover the story of how he came to be adopted, poignantly capturing the ache he feels about never knowing his biological mother and the tears that flow when he finally learns a few details: that his biological dad was Ethiopian and his mom Somalian, and that she became pregnant with Rousteing at age 14. The film, directed by Anissa Bonnefont, who had final cut — presents a deeply personal portrait of a man whose introduction to the fashion scene was as a wünderkind, taking the lead at Balmain in 2011 when he was only 24 years old.
In the years of his rise to the top of the fashion industry Olivier has become a star himself with the help of Instagram, where he often posts playful selfies for 6.6 million followers. The out designer is also one of only three Black men to ever head a French fashion house. (Balmain, founded in 1945 by legendary designer Pierre Balmain, is today owned by Mayhoola for Investments, a Qatari investment fund that also owns Valentino.)
In the meantine, Oliver is prepping for Cannes while setting his sights on what the next ten years of his life will look like.
