New York Fashion Week 2021: Thom Browne’s one-off return brought flamboyant theatre and American craftsmanship to the designer’s boundary-pushing spring 2022 collection
- Celebrity fans there included actors Dan Levy, Hailee Steinfeld and MJ Rodriguez, and NBA player Russell Westbrook – wearing one of Browne’s signature skirts
- LeBron James famously loves his suits, but this ‘post-gender’ collection adds twists like missing pieces and asymmetrical sleeves to the classic cuts
When designer Thom Browne left New York Fashion Week four years ago to start showing his label in Paris, it left a hole in the New York calendar. No designer tells stories with his clothes in the same way, creating fashion shows that are more like elaborate theatrical productions.
Never content to simply ply his wares on a regular runway, Browne has long created complex, mystical universes, often evoking past centuries: an eerie cathedral, an 18th-century hospital operating room, a tiled swimming pool filled with bathing beauties. And his characters have often seemed to hark from another planet altogether.
Returning to New York this season – albeit only temporarily – he stayed true to this tradition, mounting a show Saturday evening that told the story of a grand old house, a magical garden and statues coming to life.
He said he wanted to focus his spring 2022 collection – menswear and womenswear – on American craftsmanship. His collection explored classic suiting – with twists like missing pieces, asymmetrical sleeves, and various skirts for men – and also featured tulle creations for women in the trompe l’oeil style (literally, deceiving the eye).
Guests included some of Browne’s celebrity fans: NBA player Russell Westbrook, wearing one of Browne’s signature skirts, actors like Dan Levy, Hailee Steinfeld and MJ Rodriguez, and skier Lindsey Vonn.
As guests entered a darkened theatre space on the far west side of Manhattan, they milled around a huge rectangular garden in the middle of the room. Before the show began, Browne emerged to ask for a moment of silence in remembrance of 9/11.
Browne made his name creating men’s suits – distinctive shrunken suits, favoured by the likes of LeBron James, or more recently skirt suits, like that worn by Levy at the Emmys. But he is also known for couture-level creations for women. His enormous quilted and feathered gown for Cardi B at the 2019 Met Gala took 10 people to merely hold her train.