Maluma continues expanding his resume and once again is venturing into the fashion industry. The Colombian singer partnered with Balmain to release a limited-edition collaboration that includes ready-to-wear clothing and sneakers. The superstar has chosen the “Miami Vice” vibe as his inspiration. While the creative director of the French luxury fashion house, Olivier Rousteing, used his passion for music to put together the pieces.
“For me, fashion could never exist without music,” said Rousteing. “So he was just the perfect match.” According to WWD, Rousteing revealed that Maluma’s music had been one of his go-tos for dancing. Both creatives met four years ago at Paris Fashion Week, but it wasn’t until summer 2020 when they collaborated to create Maluma’s look for the MTV VMAs. “From that, we just exchanged texts and were like, ‘Why don’t we work together? Because your aesthetic and your vision of music can really combine with my fashion world,’” Rousteing said.
Apart from garments the collaboration, also includes a curated playlist available on Apple Music. Rousteing spent his days listening to Maluma’s album Papi Juancho and replaying one of his favorite tracks, “Hawài,” featuring The Weeknd .
The publication reported that the design process involved many virtual meetings and WhatsApp messages. The selection of textures, colors, and fabrics was chosen after sending samples from the French atelier to Colombia. “Working with Olivier and the entire Balmain team was an amazing creative journey for me,” Maluma told WWD in an email. “It’s been one of my goals to work with a respected fashion house on a collection, but this journey was more exciting as Olivier pushed me to design with him, and that process was like making music — connecting the dots to create an energy for the fans.”
Maluma also revealed how he found inspiration for this collection. “The colors and styles of this collaboration were influenced by my fifth album ‘Papi Juancho,’ which had an edgy style influenced by the ‘Miami Vice’ vibe. Colors and comfort when I made this album during the pandemic was extremely important to me because I couldn’t be on tour at the time to perform my songs, but I wanted colors to give them great energy,” he explained.
According to Rousteing, Maluma is bringing a lot to the Balmain table. “I know that sometimes in the typical fashion world, when you say French or luxury, sometimes it feels like, ‘do you want to bring music to that kind of French house that is from 1945?’ And, I think the reason why I did that is because basically, the house is so French, and so from 1945, that for me is such an important moment to be at Balmain as a witness of the time,” he said. “Maluma, more than him being an incredible singer, I think he’s bringing a lot to the fashion community with his joy and his happiness and the fact that he’s always playing his style from different kinds of houses from around the world, mixing different cultures as well. So I think for Balmain, which is a French brand from Paris, I think the collaboration with Maluma is obviously giving to Balmain and pushing the aesthetic more internationally.”
Although Rousteing has visited Miami only a couple of times in his life, according to WWD, the designer grew up “obsessed” with the “Miami Vice” tailoring and the city’s glamour. The creatives decided to keep the collection casual and offer fans and fashion enthusiasts printed T-shirts in bright neon colors, plus other essential pieces like a hoodie, track jacket, and a blazer set. “I love obviously black-and-white stripes because it reminds me of that ‘Miami Vice’ feeling. And the striped T-shirts and shorts are obviously what I’m wearing all summer,” Rousteing said.
“Maluma is one of the few men that I worked with that when you talk about bright colors, he would never say ‘no,’ because he loves that because it’s part of his aesthetic and this is something really enjoyable for a designer,” the fashion designer added.
Rousteing mission at the fashion house is to continue modernizing it. “As a kid, I didn’t know the name of Balmain. So I want my little cousin, who is ten years old, to grow up thinking Balmain is one of the biggest French houses. Thanks to music, I can make the new generation know the name of Balmain,” Rousteing said. “So I think it’s really important because music has such an incredible reach demographically, of crowd and strong community, that this is the key of the success of many fashion houses to bring the name to different generations and not just being close to Avenue Montaigne.”
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