Every house is built on foundations, and for Balmain’s new Creative Director Antonin Tron, the foundations of his Balmain are to be found in 1945 when Pierre Balmain established his maison in Paris at a time of profound social and cultural change. Drawing on Balmain’s origins isn’t an exercise in nostalgia for the past, but one of finding contemporary relevance and reality in the archives as emblematic of a living, breathing present.

Antonin Tron was also inspired by Pierre Balmain’s iconic use of animal prints, which he celebrates (and subverts) by rendering tiger, leopard, and crocodile, as well as feathers, with intricate hand embroideries and light, airy organzas and the soft, supple leathers.

Antonin Tron’s first collection sets out his vision and states his ambition: embracing a corporeal dynamism; a more pragmatic and everyday vision of glamour, which feels lighter, freer and easier to move in; and, an honouring of the house’s haute couture beginnings, with him emphasizing artisanal craft and developing new iterations of the most luxurious fabrics, which are designed to be sumptuous but not overbearingly so. Satin, velvet, shearling, jacquard cloque, leather and lace, come in a nocturnal colour palette of black hues, as well as shades of purple and green which evoke a natural richness.

The interplay of construction made lighter, and draping made more fluid, is important, as is the emphasis on the strength of sensuality, and the sensuality of strength. Antonin Tron is passionate about the strong-shouldered dark elegance and prowling sexuality of the heroines of 1940s film noir as well as their spiritual sisters of the neo-noir movies of the 1980s.