Gigi Hadid is grateful for Olivier Rousteing's support "over the years".

Olivier Rousteing

Olivier Rousteing

The 21-year-old model opened the 31-year-old fashion designer's Balmain Autumn/Winter 2017 fashion show during Paris Fashion Week on Thursday (02.03.17), and the star has "so much love" for the entrepreneur for selecting her to represent the designer brand and for backing her throughout her career.

Alongside a picture of the golden-haired beauty ahead of the catwalk presentation, which she shared on her Instagram account and sees her adorn a black ensemble, black smokey eye make-up, a lip ring and her hair sleeked back, she wrote: "BALMAIN ARMY

Thank you, my friend, @olivier_rousteing for your support over the years and for having me open your show today !! So much love for you and this collection! @balmain xx (sic)."

The catwalk icon and fellow models who graced the runway didn't "need" to wear mascara, according to make-up artist Tom Pecheux, because the cosmetic products used were already very dark.

Speaking about the styling choices for the fashion extravaganza, the beauty expert told Allure magazine: "There's no need, the eye makeup's already so black."

And only a touch of lip balm was applied to their lips because the lip rings were worn to be the main focus.

Tom continued: "That's not make-up. It's a piece of jewellery created by Olivier, that's why we're only putting balm on the lips."

And the inspiration behind the models for Olivier's show was the heavy metal band Metallica and "the girlfriend of a hard rock singer".

Tom continued: "At the hair and make-up test, we were talking about the girlfriend of a hard rock singer and Metallica came up. So I think it was important to have metallic on the eyes."