Balmain Pre-Fall 2025 Ad Campaign

Review of Balmain Pre-Fall 2025 Ad Campaign by Art Directors Ezra Petronio & Lana Petrusevych and Photographer Winter Vandenbrink with model Olivia Petronella Palermo

Balmain’s Pre-Fall 2025 campaign invites us into a Paris reframed—one not of static postcard romance, but of motion, grit, and sharp silhouettes caught in the in-between moments of the city’s pulse. Captured by photographer Winter Vandenbrink, the images channel a voyeuristic realism that balances elegance with edge. Under Ezra Petronio and Lana Petrusevych’s direction, the campaign captures the house’s iconography—baroque embellishment, military tailoring, and exaggerated hardware—reimagined for a modern-day flâneur. The collection is styled and shot as if eavesdropping on Paris: fleeting, raw, and elegantly indifferent.

The imagery traces a Balmain woman moving through the urban terrain—crosswalks, traffic islands, sidelong glances—shot with a voyeuristic air that echoes surveillance more than spectacle. From a leopard-clad silhouette bisected by a cab window to a shadowy stroll in stilettos and flared denim, the campaign stages a choreography of street style and luxury, as if the garments themselves are simply passing through. The styling heightens this tension: precise tailoring softened by slouchy knits, baroque gold chains hanging loose over breezy dresses, and stiletto boots that read both combat and couture.

There’s a confident duality at play, with Petronio and Petrusevych juxtaposing maximalist house signatures against a backdrop of realism. This approach keeps the campaign dynamic, but also walks a delicate line—at times veering close to editorial pastiche. The images aim for spontaneity, yet their precision styling and controlled lighting suggest a tightly constructed vision of “off-duty glamour.” The campaign’s unposed posture is effective in refreshing the brand’s codes, though its cinematic detachment may distance some viewers seeking narrative cohesion or emotional anchoring.

Still, Rousteing’s Balmain thrives on contradiction, and this campaign is no exception. It’s a careful balancing act between spectacle and subtlety, heritage and immediacy—a brand that strides confidently into traffic while never quite letting go of its velvet rope. The Balmain woman, it seems, doesn’t just stop traffic—she walks through it like it’s her runway, gold chains swaying, boots hitting the asphalt in time with a city that never waits.