Well, here we are then. We’re back, I guess. Runway shows! (Thank you for the major, major New York Public Library moment, Mr. Jacobs.) Street style! (What can tell you? I am still shuffling about in an ancient pair of Gap jeans.) More IG posts about fashion happenings and parties than you can point an iPhone 12 Pro Max at! (No pangs of envy about those, yet, or more likely, ever, but check in with me again after Demna Gvasalia’s Balenciaga IRL haute couture debut.) But still: For all of the Business as Usual signs being put back in place, does that messaging really live up to the reality? Plus: For all of us who’ve worked through this past year-plus, we’ve had a lot of time to really think about why we’re in the industry they call fashion.
Funnily enough, that was the question put to Antonin Tron, the thoughtful, contemplative and, oh yes, very talented designer behind the French label Atlein. He knows exactly why he’s in it. “I have no choice, I can’t do anything else,” Tron replied, with a rueful laugh. “This is what I do. I love making clothes. I love cutting. I love making shapes.” We were on a Zoom—where else?—to chat about Tron’s resort, 26 sublime looks which nurse no greater ambition than to be absolutely terrific things to wear, created with precision, care, and emotion; a celebration of craft and technique imbued with a pragmatic approach to get dressed every day.
