The French luxury brand Balmain, under the creative director Olivier Rousteing, reached new audiences when his designs were embraced by prominent cultural figures like the Kardashians, Michelle Obama and Barbie.
Mr. Rousteing and Balmain parted ways last fall after a 14-year relationship — his successor, Antonin Tron, is showing his first collection for the brand next month during Paris Fashion Week. But Mr. Rousteing’s Balmain is still generating buzz.
When the American figure skater Ilia Malinin performed his final skate at the Winter Olympics in Italy on Saturday, he did so not in a spangly body suit, but in jeans from Balmain’s 2025 men’s resort collection designed by Mr. Rousteing. The dark jeans, which feature a white biker-print motif, retail for $1,290.
Mr. Malinin, 21, wore the jeans at the Olympic figure skating exhibition gala. He paired them with a hoodie that had “fear” written upside down on it. The sweatshirt is merchandise sold by the rapper NF, whose song “Fear” was the soundtrack for Mr. Malinin’s skate at the gala.
A representative for Mr. Malinin did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment about his attire. A Balmain spokeswoman said in an email that the brand had not been involved in dressing Mr. Malinin. “Truly honored that Ilia worn Balmain,” she added.
Earlier in the Winter Games, millions watched Mr. Malinin, the winner of several national and international championships, fail to win an individual medal. His skate at the exhibition gala, a noncompetition event, offered an opportunity to change how people saw him.
“The reason I wanted to go back out there is, you know, give it a redemption skate,” Mr. Malinin said in an interview with NBC after his performance.
In other interviews, Mr. Malinin has recognized how fashion plays a role in his public perception. He recently told Vogue that “being as unique as possible” is a goal when choosing attire and that, in the future, he is hoping “to be able to design my own costumes and clothes in general.”
Dressed in a sweatshirt and jeans (rarefied as they might have been), Mr. Malinin looked less like the costumed athlete known as Quad God — a nickname nodding to his achievement as the only person to land the quadruple axel jump in competition — and more like an average 20-something. And reminding people that he is not superhuman might have been the point.
“Something we go through as athletes,” he told NBC after the exhibition gala, is “just all this constant voices, these attention, the pressure, everything, you know, forced upon you, and it’s very hard to deal with.”
Mr. Malinin and his fellow American Olympic figure skaters Alysa Liu and Amber Glenn are among a generation of athletes whose attention to personal style is changing the look of the sport. According to Johnny Weir, the American Olympic skater turned NBC skating commentator, events like the exhibition gala are settings in which skaters can lean into their personalities.
“In gala performances, skaters generally relax a bit more with their styling choices,” Mr. Weir said in an email. “The gala is about entertainment, not medals, so it is a much more relaxed event and skaters can definitely get away with more risk.”
Yola Mzizi is a reporter for the Styles section and a member of the 2025-2026 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their careers.
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