A rich and compelling fashion story, yet to be fully told.

That’s how Balmain chief executive officer Matteo Sgarbossa describes the French house as it marks its 80th anniversary, an occasion to elaborate on the legacy of Pierre Balmain, a proponent of optimistic and architectural fashions in the post-war period whose fans included Gertrude Stein, the Duchess of Windsor and Queen Sirikit of Thailand.

He also described an opportunity for the maison, still a relatively small player on the luxury scene, to leverage its agility and its track record of audacity, with current creative director Olivier Rousteing carrying the torch for bold fashion statements and social change, too.

“We have this privilege of being able to take risks, things that giant brands cannot do because they have much more to lose than us,” Sgarbossa said in an interview, describing a level of brand perception that eclipses Balmain’s size, which market sources estimate at around 300 million euros.

“There is a lot of unlocked potential and we have all the right ingredients,” he said. “We have the brand, we have a very creative designer, and now we have a fantastic team that we have been building over the past 14 months… The fact of being a small brand helps in being agile and able to accelerate faster. So I really spy a lot of potential.”

Sgarbossa arrived at the management helm of Balmain in May 2024 from Givenchy, having also worked at Gucci, Mango and Benetton earlier in his career.

Since then he’s made key hires in merchandising, communications, retail and client relations, along with several new zone presidents and a reinforced design studio for leather goods, seen as a high-potential category.

Moreover, he’s instilling a corporate culture based on empowerment and innovative thinking.

“We are a bold brand, so it’s indeed in our identity to be courageous,” Sgarbossa said. “I want this as well to be the culture inside the company with people allowed to take risks.

“Since we can be disruptive, and we can be innovative, they have really to think outside the box, and not feel scared of taking risks… I really believe that only this approach can yield good ideas and different ways of doing things. If we do things in the same way as all the other brands, we will be not successful. We need to find our own way,” he stressed.

Balmain kicked off its anniversary festivities with an immersive exhibition in New York earlier this month, and will follow up with a documentary by French journalist Loic Prigent — “It will be full of funny and untold anecdotes at the house,” Sgarbossa promised — plus a slate of in-store events, some one-to-one, others one-to-few “to tell the story in a more intimate way.”

In addition, Balmain will introduce a new program dubbed “The Circle” that will bring together prominent women from various industries for events around the values of the maison.

The next Balmain fashion show on Oct. 1 during Paris Fashion Week will offer another moment to celebrate the milestone, with Rousteing presenting a women’s collection connected to the legacy of the house and with his new, more streamlined design approach.

“The best way to celebrate this anniversary is by using it as a pivot in the strategy for the years to come, to start telling this story, not only as specific moments, but more as momentum re-emphasizing how incredible our heritage and legacy is,” Sgarbossa said.

Balmain is also unique in being privately held since 2016, having as its owner Mayhoola, the Qatar-based parent of Valentino and Pal Zileri.

Having previously worked at Europe’s most prominent fashion and luxury groups — LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton and Kering — Sgarbossa described a different approach to brand development and stewardship at Mayhoola.

He described a “blend of a family spirit” and entrepreneurship.

“There are not many layers in the organization, and so we really can make things happen very quickly,” he said. “There are absolutely no internal politics, which is again something very remarkable.”

He credits Mayhoola chairman and CEO Rachid Mohammed Rachid, who empowers his top executives by “giving them the space and the freedom to create an impact. But you also feel his presence as a kind of a guide. He is a very visionary and wise man, and he’s really the soul of our group.”

When Sgarbossa arrived at Balmain last year, one of the first things he did was visit the archive.

“It was clear that a new direction was needed at the brand, but at the same time, it’s very important to remember where we come from,” he said. “I found a lot of great inspiration, and also felt a great sense of responsibility when you have so much behind you — 80 years of style, innovation and creativity.”

He described the company as “80 years young” in terms of the attitude of the brand, and the zeal of its employees, “but with 80 years of wisdom, that’s something really that we can feel,” he said. “The history of the house is affecting our attitude because we feel this elegance coming from 80 years of the story.”

Among other fundamentals for Sgarbossa was to understand Balmain’s current clientele, and the wider one it could also reach.

“Because obviously the ambition for the brand is to become bigger,” he said, without giving any specific revenue target. “Mayhoola is investing more on the medium- and long-term to really unlock the full potential of its brands. For sure, we have still a lot to do, and there is a huge margin for growth.”

At present, Balmain counts 50 stores in the world, of which 11 are shops-in-shop. Fifteen locations are in Europe, Middle East and Africa, 18 in Asia-Pacific, and 17 in the U.S., its number-one market.

“We now have an important goal to grow in Europe. Obviously, being a French maison, this needs to be one of our priorities in terms of market developments,” he said. “And then we have an Asia-Pacific where we are relatively small. We are not overexposed in China. However, this is the market where the brand awareness is the lowest, so here is opportunity to start telling our story.”

(The only market where the brand has a markedly different expression is the Middle East, where the previous owner allowed another company to register the Balmain Men trademark, and it’s used in a logo-heavy way. Sgarbossa said he’s confident clients in the region are becoming well informed about the Paris maison, its heritage and craftsmanship, so “they will easily be able to understand and distinguish what is authentic Balmain from Paris and what is not.”)

Sixty percent of Balmain’s revenues stream from direct channels, and the balance from wholesale.

“The ambition is to still grow retail, because it’s what will really allow us to tell this story to our clients and to reconnect with them,” Sgarbossa said. “But for a size of brand like ours, wholesale will always be an important channel.”

Indeed, he forecast that specialty stores that truly know their clients will survive the current doldrums and regain prominence.

Today, womenswear represents roughly 75 percent of the Balmain business, and the balance men’s. As soon as he arrived at the house, Sgarbossa paused menswear shows as Rousteing recalibrated, streamlined and widened his womenswear fashion statement, working with well-known stylist Marie-Amélie Sauvé and ramping up daywear and knitwear elements.

Accessories are also a priority, with the accent on new lines like Anthem, hinged on a squishy top-handle style cinched with a chunky belt. Sgarbossa cited strong consumer response, with more than half of accessory sales credited to the new lines.

“This is very encouraging, because by definition, this is the category that relies the most on carryover styles,” he said.

Balmain is also widening wearing occasions for its accessories and ready-to-wear and — at a time of widespread “greed-flation” at many luxury brands — it introduced a handbag at 750 euros and a T-shirt at 250 euros in an effort to offer more access points to the brand.

Last year the brand also re-entered the beauty category with Les Éternels de Balmain, a collection of eight fragrances produced under license by the Estée Lauder Cos. — a brand extension that raised its visibility and offered a more attainable purchase than a heavily embellished jacket or dress.

“We believe that is a great advantage to be able to offer our clients a bit of everything, across all categories, and perfume is a perfect add-on item to sell and is performing better than what we had in mind.”

Sgarbossa also cited strong initial consumer reaction to Rousteing’s latest collections, which offered some softer, simpler styles with controlled doses of zing.

“All the new parts of the collection, a bit less loud, more daily, more wearable, more see-now, buy-now, is performing very well,” he said. “Since one month and a half, 70 percent of our business is done with new clients, which is a high ratio, much higher than the one that we used to have. So we are succeeding in recruiting new clients.”

The executive lauded Rousteing for his “transformative” work with the brand, bringing it more attention and cultural relevance, especially by being at the forefront in embracing diversity and inclusion, and leveraging the power of social media and celebrities. (He also boasts 9.8 million followers on his personal Instagram, dwarfing most other designers.)

Rousteing also created an identifiable silhouette for Balmain, hinged on such elements as strong shoulders, a cinched waist, gold buttons and military inspirations.

“He shaped the brand in a very, very strong way, and what surprises me the most is that he has still a lot of energy for this new chapter that we are writing together, of repositioning the brand,” Sgarbossa said. “Olivier is the first one being very happy in reconnecting with the story of the brand, which is much bigger than both of us.”