The synergy between Olivier Rousteing – creative director of Balmain – and the musician Héloïse Letissier, better known as Christine and the Queens, is unexpected but certainly evident. Both were born in France in the latter half of the 1980s – Rousteing in Bordeaux in 1985, Letissier in Nantes in 1988 – each growing up in suburban surroundings and vicariously experiencing the era’s outré fashions and extreme, emotional music. And, in turn, each has revisited those through their work: Letissier’s poetic, electronic output – labelled by the artist herself as freakpop – draws on the syncopated rhythms and melodies of the 1980s, with lyrics sometimes reminiscent of the decade’s larger-than – life ballads. Rousteing likes embroidery, strident colour, strong shoulders – all present at his Spring/Summer 2021 show, where Letissier was in the audience for the first time.
Letissier originally rechristened herself Christine and the Queens during a visit to London in 2010, going on to pursue a career in music after her intended path of theatre faltered. The name came from a troupe of drag queens she bonded with on that trip, although she has always been a solo artist. Christine became her alter ego, a kind of personal ‘queer’
