Thom Browne: very kinky and very Thom

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Jan 20, 2018

“It’s always based about my basics; the gray flannel suit or the sack suit, though this season with a little difference,” chuckled Thom Browne after his sylvan forest fantasy show on Saturday morning in Paris.

Browne has always loved a winter scene and a military camp bed, and he combined them this weekend with a score of soldier’s beds laid out in a silver birch forest inside the Beaux Arts.
 
His fall 2018 collection also reminded one forcefully of how much influence Browne has had on men’s fashion. From inventing the Little Boy suit; to re-inventing the puffer as a posh element; to building a millennial audience for a quirky classic wardrobe, Browne has been a real fashion leader. And this latest collection will maintain that with its clever play on tony sportswear – whether dreaming up some marvelous new Aran knit top-coats or creating a classy cricket blazer in bold stripes but made in padded nylon. Or sending out dramatic new hooded shearling dusters – dissected by his classic red-white-and-blue stripes, though this time made in polyester, just like the massive down scarves he left on each guest’s seat.

It being a Brown show, there was the inevitable air of sophisticated decadence. Every model eventually took off their outfits and reappeared in light gray grandfather boiler suits – before getting into huge sleeping bags, each of them covered with a gray suit design. In a delightfully weird performance, two male governesses dressed in long frocks and white Aran knit hijabs, wrapped up each young man in bed. All rather kinky and faux innocent and very Thom Browne.
 
“I am not just interested in sending out a series of looks. I think a show has to look remarkable. People expect the unexpected from me. No?” smiled the designer in the art school’s backstage.