If these Thom Browne clothes are so striking, it’s because the designer invited celebrities and other friends to dinner at the Commerce Inn during New York Fashion Week, and as a special bonus, he dressed them all in his clothes. Instead of a runway show (he had just hosted his second haute couture show in Paris in June), he provided engaging social content for the brand’s Instagram account and guests’ TikTok feeds. In the clip, Addison Rae, Evan Mock, Alton Mason, and Fred Hechinger, the evil twin Emperor from Gladiator II, can be seen leaping for the camera.
A few weeks later, at a showroom appointment in Paris, Brown explained that the season began with the plastic that people used to cover furniture in the ’50s and ’60s. “I like to develop fabrics that are technical yet classic,” he explained. He had used this material for shoe covers in previous collections. Due to its water resistance, it can equally be used in raincoats for both men and women. There’s no shortage of interesting materials in this collection, from his classic seersucker and madras to the inventive tweeds that are part of his repertoire.
As always, proportion play was one of his interests. An unusual combination of a miniskirt and an oversized sports coat. In another look, she paired a shrunken jacket with an elongated button-down, a slip dress, and another skirt, using a trompe l’oeil technique to create a similar layered look from a single sheath. His dog Hector was also a familiar motif. Refreshing another 1950s relic, the fit-and-flare poodle skirt, Brown dressed the puppy at the hem of a midi-length pencil skirt (called a dachshund skirt). What’s on the rack, but doesn’t seem to be visible in these photos, is a canvas barn jacket. Martha Stewart wore it to a dinner party in New York, and it was perfect casting.
