THOM BROWNE SPRING 2021

At first glance my immediate thought was WTF is this but one more frenzy of Thom Browne’s endless imagination. Then I went back and looked at each outfit in an exploded view and found his superb workmanship, the insanity of the mind boggling fabrications and embellishments but I had to mentally remove/eradicate all the antics, bells and whistles that make a Thom Browne show such a spectacle. He is not to be taken at face value.

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Dissect it, take the time to look at it slowly head to toe and it’s all there ...pieces…lots of pieces ... they are clothes to be collected. worn and worshiped as masterpieces of craftsmanship and design. This is a collection that I want to touch and feel and not necessarily see on a body to appreciate. In a time when designers are tripping all over themselves trying to figure out what’s next and what is or isn’t appropriate for our present times, Browne knows exactly…. he just continues doing what he does and continues to tweak our design intelligence and our eyes with his talents that in ways are not easily digested by most.

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Most will dismiss this … I for one salute it!

PS.... go to  vogue.com or an  other site and look at the magnified images

Thom Browne fall 2020

Anyone who really knows me understands that fashion is one of the few things that still races my motor. As I wrote yesterday, I don’t see myself as a fashion intellect nor do I pretend to like what I don’t understand but in the case of Thom Browne I am inexplicably mesmerized by what he does.

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Do I get it?  Nah, not even close and actually nor do I care to but what I do know is that this man in his twisted, witty and demented way is just brilliant when it comes to the art and craft of fashion and I’m not just speaking about what you see:  it’s about how it happens…  the manufacture of it, the incredible fabrications, the construction, patterns, in this case, the most limited of palettes to create a jaw-dropping display of talent.

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I’m sure there will be write-ups about gender blurring and god knows what else but hell…. Look at these clothes….do I have a clue who wears them ... nope! My best guess is that there is a cult of Thom Browne devotées who either wear them or just collect them. As for the inspirational crap … who cares? …   this is unquestionably when fashion crosses the line into artistry.

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He is a brilliant showman and when I look at this and look at the trash that Balenciaga is turning out just for attention and there is no contest. We worry about the Russians invading our voting process and yet the Russians have almost destroyed the fashion business by upending it and turning it into a sideshow of freaks from a gulag.

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So, I don’t know what you call this ... it’s not exactly a review ... maybe it’s a rant ... maybe it’s a vent but whatever it is, I wanted to make a point of putting it out there… like it? ... fine!   Don’t like it?  Fine!  Truth be told it doesn’t much matter to me.

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At the risk of blowing my own horn but after almost 50 years of being in this business, I have forgotten more than most know about it!

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PS… if anyone would like to buy me a gift the pancaked man scarf is my favorite!

THOM BROWNE spring 2019

I have absolutely not even the vaguest idea of what I just saw but I can tell you that I was mesmerized, astounded, hypnotized and incredulous by what was paraded out in front of my eyes. I can’t offer any critique as I don’t think there is a suitable one to proffer. 

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Yes I know there were few if any pieces to really wear as shown but any lover of the art and craft of fashion has to be slack jawed by the most amazingly  precise workmanship we have seen and by the demented mind of this mad scientist of fashion. Yes there was the iconography of spring/summer but never in a jillion years could you conceive of how it was shown. No detail left untouched!

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Esthetically he proves that fashion is an art form as to what is or is not wearable would be determined in the showroom... I cannot even fathom but my eyes were glued, I wanted to touch, I wanted to examine, I wanted to feel these clothes, I wanted to stare which is so much more than I can say about 90-95% of what we have all seen for almost a month now. It is called EXCITEMENT!!

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I tip my hat to him and to Zegna for having the foresight to invest in what might possibly be the most creative collection and maybe genius of fashion that has come along in quite some time.

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WOW!

Thom Browne PFW spring 2018

 Imagine if Walter Van Beirendonck, Issey Miyake, Junya Watanabe, Sarah Burton, Rei Kawakubo, John Galliano, Martin Margiella and Alexander McQueen gave birth to a baby boy this season and his name is Thom Browne. 

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Do not think that he has copied any of them but he has somehow captured the essence of all of them within one collection.

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There are no words to truly describe but I can say it is a wonder of technique, an unending stretch of one’s imagination and a celebration of the art of art and craft of fashion.

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This is a connoisseur’s collection, a museum collection . .. It has nothing to do with marketability or wearability but it has everything to do with how we view fashion .. it is pure unadulterated spectacle and theater. 

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It is 1000% pure Thom Browne