EVENTS | HAPPENINGS | WORLD OF CABANA

 

Cabana and Balmain came together this September for a special evening in Milan, discovering Antonin Tron’s debut collection, celebrating the beginning of a new chapter for the Maison.

 

BY JULIE HAENTJENS | HAPPENINGS | 17 SEPTEMBER 2026


September in Milan brings a special pleasure: familiar faces returning and the promise of a new season. On the 16th, Cabana and Balmain gathered friends from fashion, architecture and design, beginning at the new boutique on Via della Spiga before continuing over dinner at Sant Ambroeus.

At the boutique, champagne accompanied an encounter with Antonin Tron’s Balmain. The French designer, known for his understanding of drape and movement, has brought a refined sensuality to the Maison: sculptural silhouettes, assured shoulders and fabrics shaped by the body itself. His debut looks at Balmain’s couture heritage while introducing a language distinctly his own: precise and powerful, yet intimate. It marks a beginning, grounded in craftsmanship and centered on the women wearing his creations.



A surprise awaited among the new designs. Five haute couture pieces from the archives, the earliest dating to 1946, offered an intimate encounter with the Maison’s history and the joyful creativity of its postwar beginnings. A Cabana favourite archive was Erik Mortensen’s Autumn/Winter 1985 evening dress: a draped tunic of patterned velvet over a burgundy sheath, finished with tassels. Its richness of colour and texture invited the kind of close looking usually reserved for a treasure.

With conversations already well underway, guests stepped out into Milan and walked along Via Montenapoleone towards Sala Isabella’s private entrance. Théodora de Soultrait chose two wheels for the journey, gliding through Milan by bicycle in a beautiful dress, a true vision of effortless French chic. The short stroll became part of the evening, carrying the conviviality of the boutique into the welcoming rooms of Sant Ambroeus.


Matteo Sgarbossa and Bruna Scognamiglio

 

Inside, Aperol and wine accompanied a happy exchange of summer recollections. Among the guests were architect Stefano Belingardi, designer Giuseppe Porcelli, artist Antonio Monfreda and the ever-elegant Fabrizia Caracciolo. Nearby, Christoph Radl and Sara Maestrelli shared memories of Venice, while newlywed Francesca Mapelli, dressed in a matching Balmain velvet jacket and dress with tiger-stripe embroidery, exchanged stories of Portofino with Bruna Scognamiglio, Balmain CMO. Everyone was back in the rhythm of a new season, though a little of summer remained in every conversation.

Decorated by Cabana, Sala Isabella offered a setting rich in pattern and intimate in scale. Flowers in shades of pink, peach and burgundy rose between slender candles and shaded lamps. The table was dressed in Cabana’s Houghton Hall linens, their birds, butterflies and flowers echoing Martina Mondadori’s plates from Cabana’s collaboration with Ginori on the walls.

 

Once seated, guests heard a heartfelt address from Matteo Sgarbossa, Balmain CEO, on the Maison’s foundations, its heritage of craftsmanship and its ambitions for the future.

Dinner began with Italian appetisers to share, followed by risotto al limone e gambero rosso and Sant Ambroeus’s beloved Princess Cake, specially decorated for Balmain.

As conversations continued over dessert, the evening’s fil rouge felt clear: from the archives to Antonin Tron’s debut, Balmain continues to reinvent itself while preserving its heritage. Around the table, Cabana, Balmain and their friends raised a glass to the Maison’s next chapter.

 

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