Olivier Rousteing Wants To See Your Selfies

Oliver Rousteing has made his mark as one of fashion's reigning social media stars, so it should prove no surprise that he is eagerly anticipating the influx of pictures, posts and status updates that the launch of his inaugural Balmain X H&M collection is poised to precipitate.

"H&M really understands how important social media is to me. We created the new hashtag, #H&MBalmaination, to stand for this new H&M Balmain world," he told us, ahead of the launch on November 5. "I'm already checking the hashtag all the time. I'm the boss of this hashtag and I can't wait to see people taking selfies of what they've bought from the collection."

Following the lead of many of his H&M designer predecessors, Rousteing chose to reimagine his Balmain greatest hits to create a collection that is peppered with his distinctive signature elements. "When Balmain said yes to the collaboration, I already knew exactly what I wanted to do," he confirmed. "I know exactly what people love about Balmain, and so it was really easy for me to think what I wanted the collection to look like."

Quality was another key aspect. "Craftmanship is really important to Balmain, and we really pushed H&M and challenged them to create something truly special," he added.

Rousteing is both proud and unabashedly excited about the resulting collection. "The global reach of H&M is incredible. I can't measure it. But what I can measure is my excitement. I feel like a new person."