While rain clouds gathered over Paris, the forecast called for snow at Thom Browne this afternoon. His runway was covered with heaps of the artificial kind at least, prompting a minor Instagram storm as guests arrived on the scene. Ultimately, the winter wonderland proved to be a bit of a red herring: with a giraffe mask on his head and hoof-like platform ankle boots on his feet, the first model who emerged from backstage was clearly totally out of his element. As more models came out two by two, it wasn’t hard to guess the overall theme for the collection: Noah’s Ark.
References to the apocalypse have been all over Paris Fashion Week, reaching peak dystopia this morning at Balenciaga with a runway flooded with water and illuminated with fiery video projections. Against the backdrop of climate change and the escalating coronavirus crisis, scenes like these feel eerily prescient.
Browne’s biblical-inspired narrative was altogether more tame in comparison and makes sense in the outsized world of his imagination. The designer has long posited fashion as escapism, and the idea of sailing off into the unknown with a boatload of well-dressed creatures might be his ultimate flight of fancy.
Where Browne usually presents his men’s and women’s separately, he combined the two today. With models swishing through the fake snow in pairs—one male, one female—wearing twinning looks, the effect was twice as impactful. The flannel suit has been the linchpin of the brand since its inception, and today the designer twisted and turned the conventional look in every direction imaginable. After last season’s ode to the lavish life and style of Marie Antoinette, the new focus on luxurious tailoring felt more in step with the moment.
Midi-length box pleated tweed skirts and cropped trousers seemed grounded in the real world, regardless of gender. Aside from one skin-baring halter-neck top reconstructed from a pair of gray woolen trousers, the outerwear was the most attention-grabbing element of the collection. Some of the most intricate coats came embedded with Browne’s deliciously dark sense of humor. One Prince of Wales check cape was draped with the cutout of a male figure across the shoulder; another had an embellished stuffed snake at the neck where you would usually expect a fox-fur stole. If you looked closely at the natural landscape appliqué across the back of one overcoat, you’d find a man drowning in a lake amid the monkeys and lions.
At the end of the show, Browne sent his models out for a final lap—this time the couples were same-sex and held hands. With identical lace-up booties and lace trimmed handkerchiefs pulled over their eyes however, it was almost impossible to tell the men and women apart. And that was clearly Browne’s point. Whatever the future, it’s clear that those long-held gender norms in fashion are rapidly becoming extinct.
