AP/AFP – Thom Browne loves building fantastical worlds for his fashion shows, and his fall/winter 2025 collection was no exception. The designer filled a darkened Manhattan theatre space with 2,000 graceful white origami birds, many suspended in the air, as he closed out New York Fashion Week.
To a soundtrack of bird sounds, poetry like Emily Dickinson’s Hope is the Thing with Feathers, and music evoking ornithological themes, Browne filled his runway with fanciful and inventive versions of his finely tailored suits, coats and jackets, some of them adorned with birds in brilliant colours, creeping across a jacket or coat.
Browne takes his time with his runway shows. They can last two or three times a usual runway show and tell a full story. In this case, the story centred on two caged lovebirds, in a white birdcage, longing to be free. “How marvelous would it be,” they wonder, according to production notes, “to be exactly who we wish to be?”
The runway show began with two “ornithologists”, with briefcases and in grey Thom Browne “uniforms”. They sat at a desk, near the caged lovebirds, and began watching the flock of fashions.
Models followed, made up with coloured, feathery eyelashes and dressed in checks, tweeds, plaids, argyle knits or flannels. Browne’s deconstructed or exaggerated shapes were, as usual, examples of highly inventive tailoring and silhouette work. There were 64 looks in all.
There were fanciful dresses, petticoats and a huge ball skirt. The most whimsical notes of all were the colorful bird motifs, in satin stitch or gold bullion embroidery, finding their way across garments.
There was also a nod to collegiate style, with a brown varsity-style jacket emblazoned with “65”, a reference to Browne’s birth year.
As always there were a few eye-popping handbags, including Browne’s favorite Hector bag, inspired by his own canine companion.
