“As a kid, I would watch football games on the television with my dad,” says Olivier Rousteing, who until November 2025 served as Balmain‘s creative director. “When we saw fans going to the Champs-Élysées to celebrate France winning, I would dream of being there someday.” Today the fashion designer, who grew up in Bordeaux but has long resided in Paris, avoids the boulevard’s dense crowds, and instead he explores the low-key 9th arrondissement for its rising art scene, shops for one-of-a-kind furniture and antiques at flea markets, and gets lost in the juxtaposition of “the city’s 18th-century influences” and contemporary art museums. “Paris is all about the tension between heritage and modernity,” says Rousteing, who knows never to take his adopted home for granted. “Now, living here as an adult, I have to remind myself, ‘Olivier, remember when you were a kid, you dreamed of living in Paris.’ ”
Flea Market Finds
On Sundays, Rousteing visits the “beautiful, vibrant” Marché d’Aligre for “the best organic fruit, fresh fish, and flowers,” he says. “It’s been going for more than 200 years, so it’s a real slice of old-school Parisian living.” He also meets friends at the flea market at Porte de Clignancourt. “You never know what you’re going to fall in love with. I once found a striking 19th-century golden eagle, which is now in my hallway.” For accessories, the designer is “obsessed” with vintage costume jeweler Dary’s on rue Saint-Honoré: “I love going there to browse for gifts. I’ve bought some lovely pieces for my mother.”
New traditions
Rousteing never tires of classic Parisian dining experiences like at Caviar Kaspia on Place de la Madeleine. But one of his haunts is the “cozy, hidden-away” Anahi, a small Argentinian steak restaurant in the Marais. He’s also loyal to Hotel Costes for dinner (“Going there with friends has become a tradition”) and the Ritz. “It’s my second home. I celebrate my birthday there. When I was younger, I visited with my grandmother, and going there reminds me of that special time.”
