For both his men’s and women’s Spring 2020 collections, Thom Browne nodded to the decadent stylings of Marie Antoinette at Versailles. In September, he debuted his first fragrance collection, six scents designed for men and women. In the previous and current pre-collections, his-and-hers looks have been paired up and are almost interchangeable.
So it should come as no surprise that Browne will present his mens- and womenswear as a combined runway show during Paris Fashion Week in March. From his gleaming gray Avenue Montaigne showroom, he noted how the “connection” has become stronger and stronger to the point of inevitability. Strip away the conceptual theatrics that make his shows so fascinating, and Browne notes that you arrive at a jacket, trouser, and coat that are tailored identically—whether his recurring, classic “sack suit” or the new silhouette that appears here. Among the distinguishing features: an ultra-high waist held up by suspenders, pleats so sharp they draw shadows, and shoulders shaped with the gentlest slope. It’s a rakish statement, to be sure, and Browne at his gender-blurring best. “I love the sensibility of it being so beautifully masculine; but on a girl, I think there’s something beautifully feminine about it too,” he said. Look no further than the black tuxedo, arguably his most seductive look of all.
For a more pronounced feminine attitude, there were fluid, dropped-waist silk shirtdresses, pleated skirts, and softly constructed coats that took cues from the 1920s (the news that he had purchased a 15-room Manhattan townhouse from this same period generated considerable buzz last week). Browne also continues to out-preppy himself, polishing and elevating the codes of American sportswear with “snob appeal” details such as his signature animal motifs now in gold-bullion embroidery, novelty fringed argyle, antique-effect repp-stripe ensembles, and “military-grade cashmere.” As he tells it, “You won’t appreciate the cashmere; your son or daughter won’t appreciate it; your grandson or granddaughter will.”
It’s good sustainability positioning, but it also assumes his top-to-toe looks have generational staying power. For now, anyway, most people who wear Thom Browne are all-in, proudly donning a uniform that conveys an incongruous mix of exactitude and whimsy. They don’t just purchase this season’s skirt and jacket incrusted with a giraffe; they purchase the matching coat, the intarsia sweater, the Oxford shirt, the argyle socks, and the quirky shoes. That’s why the expanding range of technical and classic outerwear pieces seemed like the big takeaway this season. Whether a pastel pink shearling, down-filled puffers, a waterproof Mackintosh, or tailored Harris tweed coats, they were excellently designed and flexible to styling. And yes, one imagines they could be worn by all.
