Power Play: Exaggerated Hoops and the Balmain Braid

The Smiths made for a much-buzzed-about sound track at the Balmain show this afternoon, but backstage, hairstylist Sam McKnight was referencing the iconic style of a different 1980s musician altogether. “The starting point was actually Sade, only done in a much more Balmain sort of way” he said, referring to the singer’s signature pulled-back hair and large gold hoop earrings, which designer Olivier Rousteing cast in opulent silver and reworked to exaggerated proportions. As for the braids, “they’re very simple,” said McKnight, who blew the hair dry while working it with his hands and then sprayed it with Pantene Classic hairspray for texture before plaiting it into a slightly messy flyaway style. Of leaving the thin black hair bands visible—one at the end of the braid and another at the base of the neck, “we’re almost making a thing out of it,” he said, before uttering a word that’s been gaining momentum early on in Paris: “It’s a little bit grungy. But the new grunge is healthy,” he continued, “and these clothes are so high-octane that you need to wear them with hair that looks lived-in.”