A surfer with a creative will to ride on the endless legacy of Parisian couture culture, but with a forward-thinking bent, Antonin Tron is creating his own indie space in this city’s conglomerate-rich scene. This season, Tron said a central inspiration was Arletty’s performance in the 1938 expressionist and borderline existentialist film. Hotel du Nord: This one features a particularly wondrous and strangely modern scene in which the actress undresses and dresses while co-star Louis Jouvet impassively plays with his camera. Arletty was also an important reference for Azzedine Alaïa – and here, in the same way but different, the actress led to Tron’s generation of ‘atmosphère’.
The simple-looking, but skillfully applied system of knotting strips of material to secure and drape them was a feature running through the collection. Tron used a form-fitting black sweater with lace-like relief and chiffon, a material he said was new to him, to create shadows and transparency against the shapes he dressed: in a season full of sheer parts, this stood out for its depth.
Tron’s asymmetrical, cut-out and often diagonally cut dresses in recycled pleated or jersey were as complex in construction as they seemed to sit effortlessly on the body (with the notable exception of the slightly overlong but expertly handled of the penultimate look). Cropped biker jackets and vegan leather trenches, cut higher and then tied at the back, accentuated the main soft bodycon offering along with handsome Christian Louboutin sandals. There were no bags yet, but Tron said that as he expands his fledgling business, he wants to add them to his mise-en-scene.
