All too much? Designers check out

Although Alain Hivelin, Balmain’s owner, told press that Decarnin is suffering from exhaustion, speculation quickly turned to something darker—a mental breakdown due to drug use.

Hint Mag said that the designer has checked into a psychiatric hospital following a breakdown two months back. ‘Decarnin is said to have disappeared one day in mid-January. Soon after, according to our source, it was announced to employees that he would not be returning,’ Hint wrote.

Balmain spokespersons called the rumours ‘completely untrue’, saying that Decarnin ‘by doctor’s orders needs rest, and that is the only reason he was not present at the show.’

They also denied that brand consultant Melanie Ward, rather than Decarnin, oversaw the newest collection’s design. ‘But in the last weeks, he hasn’t been involved 100%--or as much as he would like,’ the spokesperson told the Daily Beast. (Even so, the New York Times’s T Magazine credited ‘Christophe Decarnin and Melanie Ward’ as co-designers in their round-up of Balmain reviews.)

The rash of designer crises—for in the tight Paris fashion community, two counts as a rash—has reporters and executives murmuring about the high cost to designers of mounting pressure to create. For Dior, Galliano produced four ready-to-wear and two couture collections per year, on top of two seasonal shows for his eponymous label.

Decarnin, for his part, had to grapple with sudden fame and its withdrawal when fashion favoured, then didn’t, his strong-shouldered, bling-heavy designs.

Could these be the reapings of trend overdrive? Have designers become casualties of the next-newest-now ethos spurred by reactive and well-funded high street brand