\u201cFor me, the men\u2019s and the women\u2019s, they are kind of like one entity. I really want the men and women to be able to talk to each other.\u201d Antonin Tron was riffing as we riffled the rails of his first pre-spring collections for Balmain, including his first-ever menswear collection for the house. \u201cI don\u2019t necessarily think of them as a couple,\u201d he qualified: \u201cbut I think at Balmain the women are quite sexy and out there. And if I was to do something very different for men, it would be weird.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking at his rails simultaneously, that relationship was manifest in substance as well as spirit: \u201cWe have a lot of overcrossing material,\u201d Tron confirmed. The same embroidered surfaces, treated denim, and snakeskin jacquards traveled between the two wardrobes, but in womenswear their expression was differently calibrated. This was a more relaxed continuation of the luxuriously louche and wanton glamour of his last runway collection, which itself had been informed by the Californian desert. \u201cWith pre-collection I can explore a bit more the casual side of Balmain,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
That meant injecting a dose of dishevelment into Balmain\u2019s appetite for decoration. Sensuously draped dresses in snakeskin and beautiful,<\/p>\n