Thom Browne AW2017/18 Women's Collection

 Thom Browne AW2017/18 Women's Collection was based on the idea of Gesamtkunstwerk, a total work of art. To achieve this Browne created a frozen winter pond scene, wrapped completely in wool suiting fabrics. Surrounding the white wool pond were barren trees, cattails and other plants, boulders, penguins and a boat with a dog peering over the edge, all intricately created from wrapped grey wool suiting materials. The same wool suiting fabrics were incorporated throughout the collection and even the hair and makeup.

The show began with four male models dressed in grey wool herringbone bodysuits and masks stepping into the four corners of the room with a light orb in each hand, giving the appearance of lamp posts. Selections from Wagner’s “Ring” brought out the first of three groups of models. One by one they entered through a grey wool fence and stepped onto the pond “ice-skating” in a figure eight formation. This group was dressed all in variations of grey wool suiting looks. With a shift into Kraftwerk’s “The Man Machine”, the next group entered adorned in colorful wool and fur suiting looks.

The final group entered to Marilyn Manson’s “The Dope Show”, dressed in black and white formal suiting looks and continued in the path looping around the pond. Each model had a long wool braid trailing behind her in either shades of grey, prince of wales check, or black and white, depending on her group. They also had wool nails, lips and exaggerated wool eyebrows.

The silhouettes consisted of classic suits with trousers, shorts and pleated skirts and single and double breast sack suits with shorts and sack skirts. There was also a new silhouette introduced this season that included single and double breast wide lapel suits with shorts and skirts. These styles had a more relaxed fit in the body than the signature Thom Browne styles.

Outerwear consisted of classic chesterfield coats, single and double breast wide lapel overcoats, single and double breast sack overcoats and single breast sack capes. This season, down filled outerwear was also introduced to the collection. The final group also included a classic tail coat and a down fill morning coat with train.

The fabrications consisted of a wide range of classic suiting fabrics such as, chalk stripe flannel, windowpane check school uniform twill, cavalry twill, 3-ply mohair, gun club check cashmere and tweeds including Herringbone Harris tweed, mixed yarn and bold stripe tech tweed, boucle wool tweed, eyelash tweed, mélange wool cotton houndstooth tweed, Shetland tweed, hand loom tweed and sheer tweeds.

Other fabrics used were linen chest canvas, micro ripstop, denim, pique, merino Melton, corduroy, organza, high density cotton twill, double faced satin, silk charmeuse, tulle and twill suiting, nylon tech and silk, lace and bespoke suiting loops. The furs used included blue and grey iris mink, sheered and long haired mink, sable fur, and karakul. Throughout the collection, fabrics were embellished with penguin icon applique, intarsia and embroidery, grosgrain tipping, tulle overlay, chandelier button embroidery, patent leather argyle embroidery, scenic sheered mink intarsia and braided Plexiglas tipping. There were also argyle cashmere and cable knit sweaters.

Accessories this season included shoes of various styles, all made to look like ice skates, with steel blades fixed to the soles. The shoe styles included classic wingtip brogue, double monk strap and knee high boots. There were also shoes that mimicked shirts, ties and trousers seen throughout the collection. The bags of the collection consisted of several styles, also in the form of suiting seen in the collection. There were bags shaped like jackets and like shirts with the collar detached to form the handle . Leather tote bags and clutches had grey jacket, shirt and tie motifs. The Hector bag was reinvented in brown alligator and swakara fur and the new animal bag introduced for the season was a penguin.