A debut gets attention. A second collection has to build interest.
A debut has anticipation on its side. Everyone wants to see what the new creative director will do. By the second collection, that curiosity has been satisfied. The question changes: is there enough substance to build a wardrobe, or have we simply seen a good first show?
Antonin Tron has presented his second collection for Balmain at Paris Fashion Week. In his Autumn/Winter 2026 debut, the jacket inspired by a pilot’s uniform had rounded shoulders, generous sleeves and a defined waist. Balmain developed it in several materials, from leather to denim. Draping appeared across dresses, skirts, tops and leather pieces. Those choices begin to form a language because they can live in different products. Looking at the second show, I want to know how far that language can go. balmain.com
A recognisable jacket can attract attention. But if the house has to bring back almost the same jacket each season to be recognised, the code has already stopped evolving. Do the proportions change? Does the idea work on a lighter garment? Do the bags and shoes contribute to the silhouette, or merely accompany it? These questions are less immediate than “Do I like it?”, but much closer to what happens when a collection reaches a store.
I was thinking about this during a discussion with Giuseppe Mazzei: should a creative director be “tamed”? A business needs to sell; a creative director has also been hired to propose something that did not exist before. If you ask for novelty and then approve only what resembles yesterday’s bestsellers, creative freedom lasts until the first collection meeting. The result may look cautious. Often, it is simply stuck in the past.
I also thought of an Instagram reel I can no longer find. A marketer argued that marketing should have the final say on creative decisions. I do not know the full context of her remark, but the question stayed with me. Marketing brings essential information: it knows the customers, prices, channels and occasions for wearing a product. When it uses that information to remove everything surprising from a proposal, though, it produces banality with an excellent presentation. When creativity and marketing support each other, the wow effect becomes possible: a new idea that also finds a credible way into someone’s life.
Balmain offers a concrete example. In an interview with Vogue Business, CEO Matteo Sgarbossa says he asked Tron’s debut to engage with the house’s heritage, speak to existing customers and offer a clear vision to stores and wholesale partners. For the second show, he says he encouraged Tron to be bolder. Chief marketing officer Bruna Scognamiglio speaks of deepening the story begun in the first season. These were intentions expressed before the show, not results already proven. But they describe a collaboration in which each person brings a different kind of expertise to the table. www.vogue.com
The Sphynx bag is a useful product to follow over time. Introduced with the debut, its shape draws on a 1977 Pierre Balmain dress. The house offers it in two sizes and several finishes; Sgarbossa puts the mini’s entry price below €1,000. Balmain wants to expand leather goods in a business that, according to its CEO, had been heavily concentrated in ready-to-wear. A price that opens the door to more customers does not create desire on its own. We still need to see whether the shape, sizes and ways of carrying it hold up once the runway lights are gone. balmain.com
Another second season, shown a few days earlier in Milan, helps test the same idea. In her Fendi debut, documented by Vogue Runway, Maria Grazia Chiuri worked on a shared wardrobe and on accessories people already recognised, including the Peekaboo. For Spring/Summer 2027, the body becomes a more explicit part of the conversation: lingerie mixes with masculine and feminine pieces, and the proportions grow lighter. Placing looks from the two seasons side by side tells us more than choosing the most striking photograph from each. It shows where the idea moves and where it stays put.
I would start with one product family: bags, for instance. Balmain needs to establish a new shape; Fendi can bring familiar shapes back into circulation. They start from different positions, but the test is the same. Does the second collection offer convincing new ways to carry and want them? And will the products that reach stores deliver on that promise at a credible price?
To answer fully, we will need to see the collections in stores. A show reveals a direction; it cannot yet tell us which pieces a customer will try on, leave on the rack or come back for a week later. That is where the attention earned by a debut begins to turn into interest.
Visual comparison: Balmain Autumn/Winter 2026 and Balmain Spring/Summer 2027; Fendi Autumn/Winter 2026–27 and Fendi Spring/Summer 2027. The Fendi Autumn/Winter gallery published by Vogue Runway credits Umberto Fratini / Gorunway.com. The other materials can be viewed on the houses’ official channels.
Romina Tosi
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