With the arrival of Antonin Tron as Balmain’s creative director, following Olivier Rousteing’s fourteen years at the helm, the fashion house is inaugurating a new chapter that looks to its origins to rewrite the present. Tron declared from the outset his intention to reread the legacy of the fashion house, founded in 1945 by Pierre Balmain, by delving into its archives and rediscovering the powerful and sophisticated glamour that made it famous even in Hollywood.
His approach, which he calls “minimal opulence,” results in a calibrated synthesis of classic elegance and contemporary sensuality. Silhouettes remain structured but become lighter, more restrained and measured; materials and details suggest energy and movement without excess. Compared to the exuberant and overtly baroque aesthetics of the Rousteing era, Tron proposes a more restrained language, while retaining some of the maison’s iconic codes, such as animalier, reworked in
subtler key.
These assumptions find concrete expression on the runway. In fact, the Fall Winter 2026 collection alternates dresses with sinuous but essential shapes with rigorous suits in dark tones; leather total looks stand side by side with straight-cut suits. There is no shortage of more eccentric touches: satin shirts with side bow train, lace inserts, imposing shoulders and skinny pants. Marked straps and emphasized waists run through the entire collection, while glamour emerges in touches of glitter scattered with measure among the garments.
Animalier, as anticipated by Tron, returns but in a more disciplined form: pencil skirts, sheath dresses and oversize jackets reinterpret it without excess, harmoniously integrating it into the palette dominated by black, brown and olive green.
The result is a decidedly quieter collection than Rousteing’s baroque style, which focuses on a strong but disciplined and structured sensuality. A new beginning, then, for Balmain: the fashion house retains its aesthetic codes, but presents itself with a more accessible image, both stylistically and, consequently, commercially.
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