Runway Rundown: Balmain & Alaïa F/W26 Are Ready For Their Close-Up
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
The post Runway Rundown: Balmain & Alaïa F/W26 Are Ready For Their Close-Up first appeared on MEGA.
Runway Rundown: Balmain & Alaïa F/W26 Are Ready For Their Close-Up
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