Thom Browne caught the bug for Spring 2027. Quite literally.
Closing out New York Fashion Week at The Shed, the American designer transformed the space into an oversized garden, complete with towering blades of grass, enormous flowers and a giant chrysalis planted directly in the middle. If that sounds like something straight out of 'A Bug’s Life', that’s because it basically was. Browne looked to the 1998 Pixar film as one of the collection’s references, using insects and metamorphosis to take his famously regimented world of tailoring somewhere considerably more playful.
Things kicked off with a group of caterpillars dancing around the cocoon before one disappeared inside, setting up the transformation that would eventually unfold later in the show. From there, Browne’s familiar uniform marched out, only this time nature had started taking over. Butterflies, bees, ants, moths, grasshoppers and other creepy-crawlies found their way across the designer’s signature tailoring, appearing through embroidery, intarsia, jacquard and appliqué.
The grey suit was still very much the foundation, because of course it was. But after more than 25 years of pulling it apart, shrinking it, stretching it and generally refusing to leave it alone, Browne once again found another way to make it feel new. Structured jackets arrived alongside pleated skirts and elongated coats, while checks moved through madras plaid, cashmere and textured tweeds. Some fabrics resembled grass-covered fields and flower gardens, while embroidered insects appeared to crawl directly across the clothes.
That contrast between control and chaos is where the collection really worked. Browne's tailoring is famously precise, almost obsessive, but here that order was interrupted by the unpredictability of the natural world. Gold bullion ants marched across garments, bees occupied a Chesterfield coat and butterfly wings stretched across the body in intricate panels. Raffia, sequins, organza and exaggerated yarns pushed the textures even further, making parts of the collection look like they'd been left outside long enough for an entire ecosystem to move in.
Models emerged in low-slung handkerchief-hem pleated skirts worn over high-neck swimsuits, with each look referencing different species of butterfly. At the centre of it all was Kai Schreiber, who entered the chrysalis as part of the opening performance before later emerging transformed, turning Browne's theme of metamorphosis into something much more literal. The finale pushed the idea further with a bridal look featuring wing-like intarsia panels rising around the face, a cropped silk duchess satin jacket, padded velvet corsetry and a sweeping asymmetrical skirt.
The models also wore glossy, mushroom-shaped bowl cuts intended to resemble beetle shells, while makeup moved between sharply sculpted faces and flashes of rainbow colour inspired by butterflies. It was weird, theatrical and knowingly artificial.
