Fashion designer. Stéphane Rolland is born in Paris, France. Is raised in Cannes and Nice. Spends teens in Argentina and the West Indies. A creative flair with a passion for cinema, fashion and theatre are detected as an early age. In 1984, aged 18, returns to Paris and enrolls 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). In 1986, aged 20, begins an internship at Cristobal Balenciaga fashion house, then located at 10 Avenue George V. Nine months into his internship, Stéphane Rolland is assigned an artistic manager for Balenciaga menswear, making him the youngest artistic manager in Paris at the time. In 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. In 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. In 1997, aged 31, headhunted by Jean-Louis Scherrer as haute couture artistic director. A golden opportunity eclipsing and eventually displacing his previous enterprise, making him the youngest of 20 official couturiers and fulfilling 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). In 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.