Thom Browne Fall 2025: A Fantastical Fashion Flock
Thom Browne already had a fashion show of sorts at the Grammys, when rapper Doechii hit the red carpet in his pin-striped corseted gown, performed in his gray tailored shorts suit, bra top and jock strap, complete with TB uniformed backup dancers, and accepted the Best Rap Album award in pannier trousers, a corset and cropped jacket. Talk about a 360 moment.
“What I love people to see is the classic gray tailoring idea never gets old and becomes relevant in different ways with different people,” Browne said during a fall 2025 collection preview at his studio Saturday, where two besuited seamstresses were sitting on the floor with their heads under a huge petticoat, hand-sewing a ball gown in a scene out of “Alice in Wonderland,” the fashion version.
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Browne’s latest runway fairytale, which closed out New York Fashion Week Tuesday, channeled the calming pastime of bird watching, however, with a flock of origami-folded white paper feathered friends suspended in the air as a stage set.
The story began with a pair of ornithologists decked out in Thom Browne parkas and waders sitting down at a desk to study the migration of rare runway delights in gray flannel, as well as gorgeous English herringbone, glen plaid, houndstooth, and windowpane check fabrics developed especially for the designer.
What followed was a sensory treat, from the feathery eyelashes to the extraordinary fabric combinations, that forced one to slow down and appreciate the beauty — and the tweet-tweets.
Browne engaged in lots of proportion and silhouette play, with barrel-chested shapes, oversized shoulders, padded coats, elongated blazers, mini and floor-length shorts and pleated skirts, and shrunken argyle knits evoking the varied statures of birds.
Throughout, tailoring details were as varied as field marks, with suede elbow patches, contrast collars, covered buttons and armbands speaking to Browne’s obsessive nature (and deep pockets; the show and collection were unlike anything else in New York).
Coats and jackets with checks and plaids puzzled together, some with whimsical satin stitched or intarsia birds, were really works of art. So, too, was a group of remarkable colorful dresses of pleated rep stripe silk twisted on the body, exquisitely executed, and tromp l’oeil looks with paper doll-like dresses backed by huge petticoats that glided down the runway like children’s toy tops.
Browne also mingled in a number of simpler, more commercial outfits with looser styling, like a jacket, pants, shirt and tie, for example. But there was of course no shortage of fantasy, including the rarest bird of them all — the finale gown — which was the very same gold bullion embroidered jacket and sweeping 40-meter tweed ball skirt that the seamstresses were working on during the preview.
“It’s a reminder to quiet the noise,” the designer said of the message of staying true to one’s creative vision. But at the end of a fashion week interrupted by a lot of real-world distractions, it was not a bad message to take in general.
Launch Gallery: Thom Browne Fall 2025 Ready-to-Wear Collection
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