J Lo & Olivier Rousteing For Paper Magazine

Singer J Lo and Balmain Fashion Designer Olivier Rousteing cover the September issue of Paper magazine shot by Nicolas Moore. Inside they chat about what luxury means to them, racism in the fashion world, social media and more! Check out their steamy photos as J Lo models the Fall 2015 collection and what they had to say inside….hits newsstands August 31, 2015.

So what does luxury mean to you both outside of fashion?

Rousteing: My luxury today is feeling free. It’s freedom. I think it’s the most priceless thing. And I’ll tell you the truth: if you ask me, “What about Balmain is luxury?” it’s not the amount of dresses that I did that cost more than $20,000. For me, luxury is feeling free to express who I am and what I want to do. That’s luxury for me.

Lopez: Everyone has their own definition of luxury. For me, sometimes it means the quiet moments away from the business of my life, when I get to spend time with my children and my family. And I agree with Olivier: freedom of choice is a true luxury. We are lucky to have it

We’re having this moment now where we have Insta Girls and social media is a huge part of fashion. What do you think is going to happen next? Do you think we’ll find the next big designer on Instagram?

Rousteing: Yeah. People get bored of what is fake. So I think Instagram is like a big, real TV in a way. A real social, digital story where, when you wake up, you’re going to see my reality, I can see his reality, I can see your reality. I think after Instagram, people will go for even more reality. Because from Instagram, which I think is the real story, we’re going to go to another app that’s going to be even more real. You always want to know more and more and more.

One of the things you’ve brought up before is racism in the industry. Balmain is one of the few luxury houses that cast diverse models. Why don’t luxury houses cast more black or Asian models?

Rousteing: Because they’re not living in the real world. You asked me why we need celebrities in fashion, which I think was really smart. Celebrities come from music. I think the music system is way more open-minded and way more diverse. Fashion people sometimes forget that, except for the front row that you’re going to get at your show, there’s an entire world that loves fashion. So it’s important for me and for Balmain to show the diversity because it’s also about the luxury of communication. And you don’t communicate for just 10 people in the room during a show; you communicate to an entire world.

And your muses are always these beautiful, sexy women who are also very strong.

Rousteing: Yeah. For me, Balmain is almost feminist. It’s about the power of girls and women in the world. And that’s why I love Jennifer. All the muses that have inspired me are really strong and they sometimes fight against the world to show their own rules, which I think Jennifer did throughout her career and she’s still doing it. You see many stars today try to look like her. She imposes her own rules. And when I think, “What is the Balmain girl?” it’s this. It’s a woman who knows what she wants and is going to express it.

Lopez: The concept of a fearless, strong woman who radiates confidence inside and out is an inspiring idea. It’s a great thing for young girls and women to see Balmain’s muses illustrated by these ideas of strength and beauty. For them it’s about a woman who creates her own destiny and forges her own future.