1966
Stéphane Rolland is born in Paris, France. Is raised in Cannes and Nice. Spends teens in Argentina and West Indies. A creative flair with passion for cinema, fashion and theatre is detected as an early age.
1984
Aged 18 ; returns to Paris and enrols at the Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne, a fashion school belonging to the Fédération Française de la Couture (the French trade union governing high fashion).
1986
Aged 20 ; begins internship at Cristobal Balenciaga fashion house, then located at 10 Avenue George V. Nine months into his internship, Stéphane Rolland is assigned artistic manager for Balenciaga menswear, making him the youngest artistic manager in Paris at the time.
1991
He launches eponymous design company. Achieves 6-year licence agreement with Pierre Balmain to provide luxury uniform to design for 170 companies worldwide, such as Eurostar and in 1993, for the Cannes film festival for 5 consecutive years.
1994
Aged 28 ; launches Stéphane Rolland Ready to Wear line, stocked worldwide. Rolland’s dramatic aestetic and elaborate finishing wins admiration among his supportive clientele and encouragement to start designing couture.
1997
Aged 31 ; headhunted by Jean-Louis Scherrer as haute couture artistic director. A golden opportunity eclipsing and eventually displacing his previous entreprise, making him the youngest of 20 official couturiers and fullfilling his vision of the couture experience.
2004
A commission to design costumes for Amadeus, the renowned French play starring Jean Piat (as Salieri) and Lorant Deutsch (as Mozart), sees Rolland nominated twice for Best Costumes at the prestigious Les Molières (France’s national theatre awards).
2007
Aged 40 ; launches eponymous fashion house, Stéphane Rolland Haute Couture, at 10 Avenue George V, the very address at which his career with Balenciaga began 20 years earlier. His brand is instantly acknowledged by the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, making him an official couturier member.
Haute Couture is a French label protected by law. Each house that belongs to this label must follow specific rules among which :
Renowned for citing modern art and architecture as inspiration, Stéphane Rolland tacles space and light with breathtaking energy and astute sensitivity creating exclusive products that are part of a modern, luxurious and global lifestyle.
Proficient artist Stéphane Rolland reveals his creativity through a wide range of mediums such as sculpture, photography, paintings and of course fashion : his main means of expression.
Ten years since its launch it has become clear that manipulating movement is a key component of the Stéphane Rolland brand DNA; each collection to date showing how Stéphane Rolland indulges his passion for bringing fabric to life with kinetic dynamism.
With Paris’s most savvy craftsmen and visual artists embedding new and sophisticated materials into state of art manufactured garments, Stéphane Rolland brings a visionary twist to a 150-year old industry.
Stéphane Rolland genuinely modern aestectic results in complex silhouettes yet always immaculate, consistently graphic and sculptural that adapt to the active lifestyle of the modern woman.
Architecture is one of the main inspiration of Stéphane Rolland.
“To buid the structure of a gown, we have to start with the fundations. It is the backbone that hangs the body”.
One of the most inspiring sculptures by Stéphane Rolland in his constant quest for movement and the taking of space is La Victoire de Samothrace. She embodies for the fashion designer her quest for freedom, femininity and extreme sensuality.
The captivating darkness of Francisco Goya and the rigor of the Spanish Court under Velazquez further reinforced the expression of Stéphane Rolland’s drawings.
Starting from a deep black ink stroke, Stéphane Rolland’s goal is to reveal the identity of a woman melting sensuality to Cartesianism, fragility to strength.
From this stroke starts the movement and then wings of gazar, bubbles of taffeta and waves of organza turn around the body like sculptures and sign the identity of the designer.
