Thom Browne, tailor. If the man hung a shingle, that s the one he d hang. (Though he s always quick to credit his tailoring mentor, Rocco Ciccarelli, with whom he developed his trademark silhouettes.) Browne s women s collection is no less beholden to tailoring than his men s. It s the raison d être. So, following up a Fall show that brought more eyes to his women s line than ever before, Browne doubled down. He s so confident of his tailoring that he literally turned it inside out. "Sometimes the inside of a jacket is as beautiful as the outside," he said. Inside-outer-y is not new for fashion; provocateurs have been doing it for years. But Browne comes by it honestly, and he wrung a nice balance out of the ploy, between the rigidity of his exposed seams and the cobwebby threads that dangled off several of the pieces.
What s more, there was a comelier femininity at play than has often been evident before. Browne bristled slightly at the assertion that his womenswear hasn t always had that element, but at least where his shows are concerned, he s often kept things in a dark, theatrical realm. Here the pads and puffs were dispensed with. A tweed skirtsuit with a belted Norfolk jacket and hand-painted tights was positively flirty. And a sleek coatdress shown with a heavy leather belt—its hardware matched that on the bags—had three sharp slits at the back. Sexy! was on the tip of your tongue. And then the man himself cut in: "Like gills!"
