SPRING-SUMMER 2027
By Antonin Tron
Antonin Tron’s Spring-Summer 2027 Balmain is shaped by two very different impulses. What results is grown-up chic borne out of the maison’s haute couture origins, and Antonin Tron’s own contemporary iteration of glamour; a little glossier, a little tougher, and with a sensuality which feels cinematic, enigmatic, and ultimately empowering.
Antonin Tron continues to find inspiration in the innovations of the maison founder Pierre Balmain. He was particularly drawn to Monsieur Balmain’s love of extravagant animalia prints, and the extreme draping which evokes mid-century elegance, and which was so alluring to Hollywood at that time. And as always, he references Balmain’s rich history of couture craft, the beading and the embroidery---and how they can magically illuminate clothing.
Antonin Tron’s silhouettes deify the body for Spring-Summer 2027 in distinct ways. A sinuous line caresses it with draped dresses, in knit, jacquard, or a floral print on silk which looks as though it was imagined in a Los Angeles fever dream; psychedelia, with its sense of liberation and hallucination, and which inspired so many artists and performers, was a strong reference point for Antonin Tron. The lingerie influences—bra tops, corset seaming, and satin suspender skirts worn with diaphanous silk lamé printed jacquard shirts—were inspired by photographs taken backstage at one of Pierre Balmain’s show, where models, dressed and undressed, were caught in a kinetic rush. “These images are from Paris of the 1950s, but they could be today,” says Tron. “Their sense of fragility, and strength, feels amazingly modern.”
The other silhouette focus is on tailoring: The house-classic 1970s pilot jacket, an icon of femininity and feminism, and which starred in Antonin Tron’s Balmain debut, is now reimagined as eel-skin blousons, or soft, oversized satin or snake-print coats. Louche Californian rock idol tab-front pants—in snake-print, eel- skin, and satin—are worn long and lean with filmy knits or sharp-shouldered blazers; Tron’s sly wink to a different era of Balmain, that of Christophe Decarnin.
Colors evoke the electric palette of West Coast skies at dawn and dusk: Gleaming ivory; deep black; mineral gray, and sundown shades of copper, gold, orange and pale yellow. Shoes—high wedge sandals and mules—have sculpted heels with the look of agate, jasper, and fossilized marble, invoking thegeology of California and the work of artist/theorist Roger Callinois. The Sphynx bag, meanwhile, comes in the form of a soft clutch with thin handles: a piece that is as understated as it is luxurious.
The location of this season’s Balmain show, Hotel de Maisons in the 7eme, is another link to the maison’s past, being the one-time home of Karl Lagerfeld, who worked for Balmain in the ‘50s. Yet by showing Spring-Summer 2027 there, it’s also the place where Antonin Tron’s vision of Balmain’s future unfolds.
CREDITS
Antonin Tron gives his heartfelt thanks to
Set Design: Faraguna
Direction and Production: Without Production
Music: Studio Frédéric Sanchez
Styling: Agata Belcen
Casting: Julia Lange
Hair: Karim Belghiran
Makeup: Karin Westerlund
Nails: Cam Tran
And to the ateliers and teams who helped make this collection happen.
