Olivier Rousteing Talks Cindy Crawford, Kardashians and Jenners



WWD caught up with Olivier Rousteing Tuesday night when he made one of his frequent stops in Los Angeles to receive an Image Maker award from Marie Claire. “When you’re a kid, you dream of L.A. When you’re a designer, you dream of L.A., even coming from Paris,” he said.

WWD: You mentioned that Cindy Crawford giving you the award is a dream come true.
Olivier Rousteing:
Cindy was my dream when I was a kid. You know when you dream of the model that’s going to give you the feeling of, “What is fashion?” We shot our campaign two years ago with her and Steven Klein. She was my dream and today she is my friend.

WWD: You often dress the Kardashians and Jenners. What is it like working with them?
O.R.:
I think it’s amazing. They’re all sisters, but they have such different personalities. For designers, it’s amazing to dress different shapes, different kinds of personalities. I think that is fashion. For the Kardashians, it’s different models. For me, I love dressing diversity. And obviously, in the family, there is so much diversity as well that I love and that I enjoy.

WWD: How do you decide who you want to work with?
O.R.:
There is never a strategy in my mind. I just dress people who I love and I never dress people that I don’t like. A lot of people say, “You dress famous people and it’s all about [being] famous.” It’s not true. There are so many people who are famous, but there are few people that I dress, if you think about it. I just dress people that my heart belongs to and they are my friends.

WWD: How are you feeling going into your upcoming menswear show?
O.R.:
I feel really, really confident. At the beginning, I was like, “I’m leaving all my team in Paris and I have a show in, like six days.” But at the same time I work so hard. I didn’t go out for New Year’s Eve. I didn’t leave for Christmas. I just worked hard to make sure that I can be here tonight. Balmain is going to be really, really close to L.A. in a few months for so many reasons. So… I can’t tell you more.”

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