Thom Browne: My Shows “Are Not As Intellectual As People Think”

Thom Browne has long had a penchant for the theatrical. On the catwalk, he’s conjured up Victorian-era zombie brides with powdered faces and absurdly comedic tropical bird-people next to surfers at the beach. But for his Parisian womenswear debut, Browne upped the ante, even by his standards, greeting guests with a pair of majestic creatures—half-crustacean, half-cosmonaut— resembling blobs of chewed gum, playing the Little Mermaid soundtrack and unleashing a giant tulle unicorn operated by two model puppeteers, which quickly became the highlight of fashion month. But as any customer of the designer knows, what Browne exhibits at his otherworldly and at-times bizarre shows bears little resemblance to the striped cardigans and button-down shirts one typically finds at more than 200 stores that carry his wares. Why is that? “I feel the shows should be conceptual. They should tell a story, and they should make the more plastic things that you do seem more interesting,” the soft-spoken Browne tells Vogue from his seat at the waterbar in the basement of the Parisian concept store Colette, where he is staging a takeover during the month of October. “I have a strong and classic part of what I do… what people see when they come to the showroom. There’s no reason I need to show that.” Read more at Vogue.