One year after being named creative director, the designer is bringing sexy back to the men's department, starting with pre-spring 2027.

Since arriving at the creative helm of Balmain one year ago, Antonin Tron has brought a slinky, sensual and cinematic glamour to the French house’s womenswear — and now he’s turning up the heat in the men’s department, too.

“I wanted something very sexy because the womenswear is also very sexy,” Tron said in an exclusive interview about his men’s debut for the pre-spring 2027 season.

He chose to unveil its “unapologetic masculinity” in tandem with the collection’s arrival in stores on Wednesday — and backed by a campaign depicting bare-chested lotharios lolling around in the hay, sometimes wearing little more than a pair of shorts and soccer shoes.

“A little bit Mapplethorpe-y, a little cruise-y” were among descriptors he threw out to describe the steamy images by photographer Matthias Vriens of Dutch magazine fame. “Punk” and “playful” were others.

To be sure, the racy campaign is bound to bring fresh attention to Balmain menswear, which currently accounts for only 20 percent of the business, and in recent years had been largely focused on sneakers, logos and T-shirts as part of the luxury streetwear craze.

While he has dedicated most of his fashion career to womenswear, at his now-paused brand Atlein and earlier in his career at Givenchy, Balenciaga and Saint Laurent, the designer’s graduate collection at Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Arts was dedicated to men’s evening finery.

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