In Paris, two maisons at very different crossroads found common ground. Both Balmain and Alaïa presented their F/W26 collections with a request for the audience: lean in and look longer. Their latest craft required a closer gaze for full appreciation. They were right.
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Balmain
It was Antonin Tron’s debut. He opened with a flight jacket in matte lambskin—a nod to Danielle Décuré, the pioneering Air France pilot whose uniform Pierre Balmain designed in the seventies. From there, he reached into the maison’s archives, drawing from the founder’s work in the forties when he first emerged as a couturier.
The rounded shoulders and pencil skirts of film noir heroines appeared throughout the collection, appearing both restrained and sensual. The house’s signature animalier prints also returned, rendered in precise caviar beads. One black coat was entirely covered in hand-cut leather feathers, while a croc-effect look was assembled from a mosaic of leather panels.
Tron arrives after a decade of exuberance. Now that he is airborne, he can read the atmosphere and decide where to steer Balmain next.
Alaïa
For his final show at Alaïa, Pieter Mulier did something almost perverse by today’s standards: he stripped everything away. “Reduce, reduce” was his philosophy. There were no bags and no jewelry—just garments on the runway.
The opening jersey dresses felt like a remembrance of Azzedine himself, the man who essentially invented bodycon. However, Mulier also made space for the other side of Alaïa through perfectly cut velvet pantsuits and double-breasted coats that followed the body’s lines seamlessly.
Mulier admitted to doubting whether such strictness would be enough for the fashion world. But the fit of those matte jumpsuits and the way the knitted skirts cascaded proved that it was plenty. It was a humble farewell—at least until his next chapter at Versace.
Though the lineups differed, both Balmain and Alaïa sent the same message: at its best, fashion is still about the work.
Photos: BALMAIN & ALAÏA
Frequently Asked Questions
Antonin Tron made his debut as creative director of Balmain with the F/W26 collection, opening with a matte lambskin flight jacket — a reference to Danielle Décuré, the pioneering Air France pilot whose uniform Pierre Balmain designed in the 1970s. The collection drew from the maison’s 1940s archives, featuring rounded shoulders, pencil skirts, animalier prints in caviar beads, hand-cut leather feathers, and croc-effect leather mosaic pieces.
Pieter Mulier’s farewell collection at Alaïa F/W26 was defined by radical restraint — no bags, no jewelry, just garments. His philosophy was to reduce everything to its essence, resulting in jersey dresses that recalled Azzedine Alaïa’s bodycon origins, alongside velvet pantsuits, double-breasted coats, matte jumpsuits, and cascading knitted skirts. The collection was described as a humble farewell before his next chapter at Versace.
Despite being at very different creative crossroads — Balmain welcoming a new creative director and Alaïa bidding farewell to one — both F/W26 collections shared a central conviction: that fashion is ultimately about the quality and intention of the work itself. Both Antonin Tron and Pieter Mulier asked audiences to look more closely rather than more loudly, prioritizing construction and craft over spectacle.
Danielle Décuré was a pioneering Air France pilot for whom Pierre Balmain designed a uniform in the 1970s. By opening his debut Balmain collection with a matte lambskin flight jacket referencing her uniform, Antonin Tron signaled his intention to root his creative vision in the maison’s archival history — positioning himself as a designer interested in the house’s legacy rather than a clean break from it.
After his final collection at Alaïa F/W26, Pieter Mulier is set to move to Versace as its next creative director. His farewell Alaïa show was widely read as a deliberately stripped-back statement — a demonstration that mastery of fit and construction alone is sufficient — ahead of his transition to one of fashion’s most maximalist houses.
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