Held in the opulent Palais Garnier, the opera house in the heart of Paris, this afternoon's SS18 Balmain show was a celebration of dreams becoming reality, as creative director Olivier Rousteing reminisced on his childhood ambitions. In the show notes – or rather, "a note to me, twenty-two years ago" – Rousteing explained to his younger self: "This sense of awe that you’re feeling, as you walk into Garnier’s dazzling opera house, won’t be just a one-time thing. Of course, the intensity will diminish over the years, but I can tell you – twenty-two years after this moment – that this same émerveillement will hit you each and every time you return. Yes, right now you might just be a ten-year-old kid from the provinces, wrapping up your first visit to the capital with a night at the opera but this is destined to become a guiding memory for you, crystallising into another symbol of the future that you dream about – just like those music posters plastered across your bedroom walls and all those fashion editorials that you keep tearing out of magazines."