Thom Browne is still best known as a menswear designer, and the fundamentals of menswear are channeled through his clothes for women as well. Any lady on the hunt for the perfect, tailored, gray flannel blazer will have no trouble finding it here. But what was notable in Browne's womenswear collection this season was its outright femininity: Everywhere you looked, pretty much, there were curves. Though Browne's wasp-waist silhouettes were a far sight more traditional than the ones he showed last season, he went at them with verve, putting a broad full skirt on a dress made from panels of classic necktie jacquard, and cutting a cascade of draped ruffles in another skirt of gray wool. Sharp shoulders and jackets tailored corset-tight further articulated the shape. The collection's strongest and most enduring looks, however, were much more relaxed. Browne nailed pre-fall's oversize coat trend, producing a few versions of mannish overcoats that were big without being sloppy or surreal. Indeed, after his madcap Spring '13 outing, this was a circumspect affair, with a muted palette of neutrals, and most of the action happening close up, in intriguing materials such as quilted ripstop nylon and tweed woven through with rubber yarn.
