Thom Browne presents the Noah’s Ark of a new generation in Paris
A giraffe, an elephant and a hippopotamus in a snowy forest? No, you didn’t magically leap into 2050 (the probable date when climate change will have wiped out our planet), but you’ve instead landed in the imaginary, albeit premonitory, mind of Thom Browne. In his “winter wonderland”, which invaded the Palais des Études of the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts this Sunday, the American designer presented a veritable Noah’s Ark for autumn-winter 2020-21: the models walked in complementary pairs. Men and women met for the first time on Thom Browne’s catwalk wearing identical outfits. The designer put masks on his models, making them difficult to identify – but does it matter? His point: it’s finally time to take fashion out of a reductive binarity. This 2020 Noah’s Ark once again put the spotlight on Thom Browne’s creative genius (and sense of humor): the houndstooth suit, the dog handbag declined in a full fauna, the precision of the cuts – it’s all there. Now at home in the front row of the most American of designers at Fashion Week in Paris, Maisie Williams and Janelle Monaé were joined this season by artist Chloé Wise and Jeremy O. Harris, actor Pelayo Diaz and Michèle Lamy. All under the approving gaze of Editor-in-chic Anna Wintour.
