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"   Christophe Decarnin with Carmen Kass in September. Photo: Getty Image  The only really shocking thing about this morning&amp;#039;s announcement that Christophe Decarnin is no longer the creative director of Balmain is how long it took the house to release a statement. Decarnin&amp;#039;s absence at the end of Balmain&amp;#039;s AW11 show in Paris last month was the only thing that took people&amp;#039;s minds off of John Galliano for a few hours. Within minutes, rumors swirled that the designer was in a mental institution recovering from a nervous breakdown, though the house swore he was just exhausted and resting. Either way, he was spotted out and about in Paris that same evening, right around the time everyone decided that stylist Melanie Ward had designed the fall collection. This morning, the house released a statement noting, &amp;quot;the end of its collaboration with Creative Director Christophe Decarnin.&amp;quot; Click through to read the whole thing.  &amp;quot;Alain Hivelin, CEO of Pierre Balmain, noted that `since 1945, the house of Pierre Balmain has been one of the leading French and international luxury brands. Christophe Decarnin&amp;#039;s work with the house&amp;#039;s design team contributed to the success that the brand has enjoyed in recent years.&amp;#039; Christophe Decarnin joined Balmain in 2005 as a designer. He was named Creative Director for the house&amp;#039;s women&amp;#039;s ready-to-wear collection in November 2007.  Before joining Balmain, Decarnin worked seven years as the head designer of women&amp;#039;s ready-to-wear for Paco Rabanne and consulted for several Parisian fashion brands.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/fashion/news/a6202/christophe-decarnin-leaves-balmain-18800/>