Chaos and disorder: Two words that you’d hardly associate with Antonin Tron or his label, Atlein. This, after all, is a designer who takes nano-millimeter precision with his cutting and draping, resulting in a look that beautifully works the tension that can arise between control and release. Yet here we are with his excellent spring 2022 collection. There’s an exhilarating sense of Tron abandoning himself to new impulses; a loosening up, both literally and figuratively.
How else does one explain the likes of a pin-sharp jacket tailored in an upcycled wool-mohair, its sleeves casually scissored off, the threads left to fray and trail? Or the hallucinogenic tees—the swirling patterns the result, Tron says, of working with “a tie-dye master from Germany, a rave-y guy, who I found online”—that might pop from beneath zip-up corset-like belts made out of old wetsuits. There are more of his elegant, exquisite lingerie tops, their draping inspired by a vintage Vionnet dress—Tron’s draping amplified by the French lace it’s edged with. These are worn with tough, riveted carpenter jeans cut from vegan leather, or a narrow skirt whose strictness is unraveled by the panel which trails off to the side, like a sensual, deep sigh.
At a preview for these collection images, which were photographed at the Collection de Minéraux de Sorbonne Université, Tron readily agreed with the idea that things had taken a disorderly turn in the Atlein universe—though really he feels like he is just tapping into the prevailing reality of where we are right now. “I think it just feels like this idea of a directional collection or show…it is not how the world is anymore,” he said. “This collection could be broken down into so many stories…and that’s how women are dressing now. I am bringing a bit more chaos into Atlein, because all the rules have collapsed.” That’s been the prevailing story of the season, and the commonality between the best collections, Tron’s included: The designers who’ve turned their back on the old ways, the accepted truths, the received wisdom—all of them acknowledging that the center isn’t holding anymore. That’s what’s powering their creativity.
Yet there’s also something more personal about this latest from Tron: A deeper dive into his own past. Before studying fashion in Antwerp, he read literature at the Sorbonne, and that’s when he discovered the university’s impressive collection of minerals, whose glorious, hypnotic, hard-to-believe-they’re-from-the-earth hues inspired spring’s color palette. He felt an immediate connection to the place because of his grandfather, who instilled in him at a very early age a love of nature and the natural world.
That love informs so much of what Tron does today—and what he stands for. Despite finding fertile ground in acknowledging—drawing on, even—an unraveling system, one thing has remained constant: His commitment to being as sustainable as he can. At one point during that preview, a sinuous floral dress appeared, dark shaded areas cutting the delicacy of the blooms. Turned out it was something he had already shown during a previous season, except with one crucial difference: The dress had been entirely floral. He decided to repurpose it by bleaching it, then dyeing it black. It looked terrific. And it underscored that when—like Tron—you have method, you can also relish the madness.
