A few nights before Thom Browne presented his pre-fall collection, he was seated next to Deeda Blair at a dinner. “To listen to somebody who has seen it all and was at couture shows in the Fifties and Sixties, and the only thing she cares about is things that are beautifully made — that’s so refreshing,” said Browne, “especially nowadays, when everything is so fast.” His pre-fall collection was finished before his dinner with Deeda, but she personified the values and ideas that he wanted to address in his lineup: Make really beautiful clothes, make them the best.
Rather than pursue a trend or an overarching theme, Browne went deep on the items for which he’s known, including three jackets — his classic blazer, the sack jacket and a new, slightly Seventies-inspired blazer that fit easier through the body — as well as trompe l’oeil, shirting and down jackets. After his nine-year partnership with Moncler, Browne knows a thing or two about how to make tailored-down clothing. His selection included nifty shrunken blazers and bombers that were quilted and done in classic men’s fabrics. One puffer was done in red-white-and-blue leather.
Men’s oxford shirts were cut up and reworked into shirtdresses with full skirts. Cardigans, shirts and flannel shorts were packaged into one trompe l’oeil dress. There were beautiful languid shirts and jackets made from jacket linings; a colorful intarsia mink coat and a herringbone jacket embroidered with a penguin, Browne’s playful mascot of the season. The motif appeared on knits, tailoring, shoes and bags shaped like giant penguins. The black-tie portion of the lineup took the bird a step further with a range of tuxedo-inspired looks — a sequined blazer, shirtdress and a tromp l’oeil dress version of the classic penguin suit. Impeccably tailored and crafted from the finest fabrics, it was the best trompe l’oeil penguin suit dress on the market.