The awe inspired by this season’s Thom Browne show was evoked well before the models took to the runway. The set was a masterpiece: 2000 origami paper birds hung suspended from the ceiling and perched on the ground. The set’s centerpoint was twin-like boy and girl models at a white table (later a real set of twins walked the runway), upon which sat a singular white bird cage, imprisoning origami birds.
The show itself called to mind an austere Alice in Wonderland; as if Alice fell down the rabbit hole into a tailor’s workshop. Proportions were delightfully skewed, as though models had eaten the wrong biscuits for a pre-show snack: Uncle Fester blazers were worn over tights, giving models a triangular shape. Lips were pursed with rectangular lip paint, an angular version of The Queen of Hearts’ famous pout, and models wore beauty spots in the same place as the queen. Later, the references felt more overt, via pastel plaids.
The show was designed to feel ethereal: the press release referred to the models as "otherworldly visitors.” In the show’s standout looks, plaids were worn under silk trompe l’oeil 3D dresses, rendering models sartorial optical illusions. Other garments were made up of neckties, fastened together for a deconstructed collegiate look. Elsewhere the collection showcased Browne’s signature tailoring and greyscale, this time occasionally embellished with crystals via a collaboration with Swarovski.
Birds were also a recurrent theme: eyelashes were rendered out of feathers, while in a nod to Browne’s high school mascot, the canary, pops of yellow offset the collection’s darker colours. Birds were also stitched onto garments using the ‘exquisite corpse’ drawing technique, which sees participants take turns adding to a drawing without seeing what others have contributed.
The closing look saw the otherwise statuesque twinning models emerge from behind their barren white desk to walk the runway, in the kind of tailored ensembles we’ve come to associate with Browne.
Featured image via Getty ©
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