Mel and Dara Review Antonin Tron’s Bitchy Balmain Debut

After a very satisfying bibimbap break, we arrive on the street where Jean Seberg chases after Jean Paul Belmondo, who dies in the last scene of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless. Jean Jean Jean! No jeans on the runway, though. This season, Balmain’s newly appointed creative director showed a collection of sexy black leather and fierce cocktail dresses. Last season was a storm of creative director debuts, and this season it’s Antonin Tron’s turn to impress the industry. Let’s get into the pieces.

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DARA: Okay, Balmain.

MEL OTTENBERG: Balmain has a new designer and his name is Antonin Tron.

DARA: And he used to design at Atlein.

OTTENBERG: What do you think the reference was?

DARA: The reference was like hot, bitchy girl with a snatch-back and a braid.

OTTENBERG: It kind of felt like a throwback to the high-fashion indie sleaze era, which was also a pinnacle moment for Christophe Decarnin’s Balmain.

DARA: You know what I gagged on? We were on the street that’s in Breathless, and it was really cool to see Balmain show somewhere more rough—warehouse vibes. Balmain is usually in this giant, grandiose, glamour-pilled situation, and this was very stripped back, very low-key. I was like, “Okay, we’re experiencing something completely different here.”

OTTENBERG: It was kind of Blade Runner–y, an ’80s-does-’40s diva kind thing. Balmain definitely likes a shoulder.

DARA: Balmain always likes a shoulder.

OTTENBERG: But this is not Olivier Rousteing’s Balmain. She’s a different kind of bitch.

DARA: And she has polka-dot sheer tights, which is very fierce and French.

OTTENBERG: It was gold, it was black, it was velvet.

DARA: Who was there? You were sat next to Amanda Lear.

OTTENBERG: I did. She was showing me her Reels and I was like, this is amazing—the fact that Amanda Lear is talking to me about this right now.

DARA: You are a lucky, lucky person.