The setting was the Hôtel de Maisons, Karl Lagerfeld's former home, with the windows covered in plastic sheeting and water lashed against it while an extended Jim Morrison mix played. The lights stayed up this time, so we could finally pay attention to Antonin Tron's clothes, and I think they deserved it.

Tron is a Parisian with a surfer's soul, and his starting point was Michel Foucault's trip to the West Coast, the desert as a space for expanding consciousness. Sunglasses appear on the large majority of the looks, which fits that desert glare perfectly.

He was also looking at old backstage photos of Balmain shows, and that gave the dresses a loosened, half-dressed feeling I love. Let's begin there.

Tron also looked at Roger Caillois, the French writer and stone collector. He put Caillois's thinking this way: "Mankind was not inventing shapes." Nature had already made them, and you can see it in the mineral-patterned wedge heels and the animal prints throughout.

The jackets are where this gets wearable. A big share of the looks, about two in five, wear a jacket or coat, from abbreviated satin bombers to soft-shouldered tailoring. Look 12 is the one I keep thinking about: laced cowhide pants under a powerfully purple eelskin topcoat and an ocelot jacquard shirt.

About a quarter of the looks use leather, and it gives the soft shapes a bit of attitude.

More than half the looks carry a bag, so the accessories are not an afterthought. I like that they sit alongside such rich surfaces, since the fabrics were built up in three stages, with jacquards printed and then re-embroidered.

One surface Tron called toxic fish combined sequins, overprinting and hand-embroidery. It sounds like too much, and somehow it is trippy in a good way. A small shoulder bag or a calf hair top-handle bag would be the calm moment in an outfit like that.

About one in five looks also wear boots, which keeps things grounded when the dresses start to glitter.

By the end, the material reaches its peak in dresses where animal patterns are encrusted with embroidery and crystal. It is a lot, and I had a small flashback to a very different era of Italian glamour.

What I admire is that this feels diligently thought out and excellently made. Tron is still working toward the formula that connects his own ego to the shape of the house, and I find that more interesting than a finished answer.

I would wear the draped jersey dress and keep the sunglasses on. His Balmain story has barely begun, and it is starting to go places.