There is a certain phenomenon in fashion whereby no matter what theatrics might have appeared on the runway – bouncing crinolines, protrusions of taffeta, an avant-garde silhouette – when it comes to a creative director's final bow, they will usually appear to take it in a sweater and jeans. Few practise what they preach – or, put simply, wear what they design.

There are, of course, exceptions. One is Wallpaper* US400 honoree Thom Browne. For the past 25 years, he has forged a $500m brand in his own meticulous image. Every day, runway show or not, Browne wears a ‘shrunken’ grey flannel wool suit of his own design, nipped in at the body and cropped at the ankle, as if wearing one size too small. It is accessorised with a grey tie, sometimes worn with shorts and a cardigan, and completed with three-stripe socks and lace-up brogues.

It is the uniform he requires of his staff, too. Step inside the brand’s offices on West 35th Street in New York’s Garment District, and you will find an army of near-identically dressed workers in iterations of the singular look, which is distributed to new starters before their first day (the beginner's pack currently includes two grey wool suits, five white Oxford shirts, one grey wool tie and one white pocket square). Some allowances are made when it comes to summer (seersucker is acceptable), and weekends (navy can be worn from Friday to Sunday), though a series of guidelines dictates exactly how (shirts cannot be ironed, top buttons must remain undone, ties must be knotted tightly and tucked into the waistband).

It makes entering a Thom Browne event or runway show a little like performance art, something that the designer himself seems keenly aware of. One memorable presentation, held at the Pitti Uomo menswear fair in Florence back in 2009, saw him construct a surreal scene in which 40 male models – identically dressed in the Thom Browne uniform, with side-slicked hair and wire-rim glasses – populated 40 identical office desks and tapped away at their Olivetti ‘Lettera 32’ typewriters. (The designer has said the 1950s office is a perennial reference point, inspiring the design of his stores, which often feature midcentury furnishings, strip lighting and slatted blinds.) A similar scene took place at Milan Design Week in 2024, when Browne launched a bedding collaboration with Italian textile company Frette; this time, the cast of men and women donned suits and tucked themselves into identical single beds.

If it sounds megalomaniacal, Browne believes the opposite: that a uniform is liberatory, and not simply because it frees up your mind in the morning for other things than deciding what to wear on a given day (though, he argues, this is a definite benefit). ‘I think the person becomes more interesting when you're not so drawn to the clothes,’ he says during our interview at Claridge’s, his preferred address while staying in London. ‘We could all be wearing the same thing, but we look very different.’ As if to prove the point, Browne is flanked by two members of his communications team: though they all wear versions of the same thing, the three men occupy the uniform differently, their personal style still evident in a shock of peroxide blonde hair or an item of jewellery (Browne is the most classic of the trio, his close-cropped grey hair and angular features evoking the groomed 1950s businessman who still serves as his inspiration).

The dichotomy between sartorial belonging and personal expression is a large part of the success of Thom Browne, the designer believes, something proved by its surprisingly wide gamut of devotees. There are film directors (Celine Song, Barry Jenkins and Ryan Coogler all wear Thom Browne in their daily life); actors and musicians (Thom Browne has become a red-carpet mainstay; for the latest Met Gala, he dressed 12 people, making him the most represented designer at the ‘Oscars of Fashion’); and, perhaps most intriguingly for a brand that sways towards the avant-garde, basketballers and football players. In 2018, LeBron James organised custom Thom Browne suits for every member of the Cleveland Cavaliers during the 2018 NBA playoffs; the brand has been a mainstay of the ‘tunnel walk' phenomenon ever since.

‘You didn’t look at them and think: oh, they are all wearing the same thing,’ he says of reimagining the design for the players' towering proportions. ‘Together, they all looked so strong. Sometimes we don't realise how transformative the suit is until the person is wearing it. In a time when everything is not so tailored, not so constructed, you do feel the shift when you put it on. It's powerful.’

Growing up in Pennsylvania, Browne was not a rebellious dresser, nor did he gravitate towards a particular style tribe: in fact, he was more than happy to wear the school uniform of his Catholic school (his family is Irish-Italian in heritage). A competitive swimmer in childhood who would go on to swim with Notre Dame University’s Division I team, Browne had an all-American upbringing, something that filters into his work: Ivy League dress codes run through his collections, from the red, white and blue stripe grosgrain ribbon that he uses as branding in place of more overt logos, to his (oftentimes shrunken) riffs on preppy staples, including Oxford and polo shirts, cardigans, sweaters and striped ties. They are, in his collections, like the suit itself, delivered with a sense of humour, and often a hint of perversity: one memorable menswear show featured a series of Thom Browne jock straps, the sporting garment-turned-fetish item remade in Browne’s three-stripe webbing.

The shrunken suit, however, remains the nexus of his collections, abstracted into a series of fantastical forms, particularly in his womenswear, which has all the drama and savoir-faire of haute couture (he has shown on the couture schedule previously in Paris, the lofty pinnacle of French dressmaking). It has been flattened to its composite pattern pieces and attached to models as one might dress up a paper doll; adorned with dogs, lobsters or whales; worn with matching tutus or billowing skirts; or de- and reconstructed, as with an extraordinary show in 2024 held during Paris haute couture week, whereby the humble ecru muslin used to create tailoring toiles was transformed into a series of gowns and jackets blooming with appliqué flowers or adorned with gold beading (one jacket and skirt took 42 craftspeople 11,000 hours to complete).

Browne speaks of the invention of the shrunken silhouette in mythical fashion, something that arrived to him through intuition over logic (‘my father said that I was a dreamer – I was always in my head trying to create interesting things’). Arriving back on the East Coast from Los Angeles in 1997 (after graduating from Notre Dame, Browne would spend much of his twenties trying to be an actor in Hollywood), Browne initially worked as a salesman at the Giorgio Armani showroom before taking a job at Ralph Lauren offshoot Club Monaco on the design and merchandising team, despite a lack of formal training. In 2001, a line of five own-label suits were created in his one-bedroom apartment, drawing inspiration from vintage styles and strangely contracted in their proportions (he got the initial shape by tumble-drying vintage suits to shrink them; when actor Edward Norton, an early adopter, wore one for a public appearance, Browne remembers commentators quipping that he looked like he was going to middle school).

‘No one liked it,’ he says. ‘They didn’t understand it. It was a time when that look just wasn't in fashion.' But he persevered: by 2003, he had established a ready-to-wear line, and a year later, he staged his first New York Fashion Week show (help came from Miki Higasa, a former Comme des Garçons brand strategist who linked him up with buyers from major department stores). ‘It was exactly what I wanted for myself. I think in that passion, they saw that there was a reality to it.’

In 2005, David Bowie purchased an off-the-rack suit, wearing it for a performance at New York’s Radio City Music Hall days later. Over the next two decades – bolstered by a stint as creative director of Moncler's Gamme Bleu line from 2008-2017 – the Browne look filtered into the mainstream. To wear a Thom Browne suit became a status symbol: recognisable enough for those in-the-know (there is a certain intellectual cachet to his designs that makes him popular within artistic circles), but intriguing enough to pique the interest of the man on the street. In 2018, Italian luxury conglomerate Ermenegildo Zegna Group wanted in on the action: it purchased an 85 per cent share in the brand, leaving Browne with the remaining 15 per cent and full creative control (the group has since upped its share to 90 per cent).

Closer to home, another person Browne credits his success to is his husband, British fashion curator Andrew Bolton (he admits that much of his downtime is now spent with Bolton ‘watching mindless TV’ at home; they have plans to adopt a cat to join their beloved dachshund Hector, who inspired Browne's signature dog-shaped handbag). ‘Andrew is intimidating because of how much he knows about fashion,' says Browne. ‘We talk a lot. We don't always talk specifically about work, because we have to get away from it. But we do sometimes, and he's the only person that would ever make me change something.' Bolton is best known for curating the Costume Institute's annual spring exhibition at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, the opening of which is heralded each year by the Met Gala, perhaps the fashion industry’s most-watched event.

Over the years, despite having long operated at the fringes, Browne is now firmly part of the establishment: in 2023, he was elected chairman of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), succeeding Tom Ford. Part of that role, alongside representing American fashion on the world stage and overseeing the New York Fashion Week calendar, is shepherding younger designers towards the type of success he has enjoyed. ‘I think the most important thing is that they really want it, that they want to do it more than anything else in the world – it’s not going to happen overnight,’ he says. His own career has been one of perseverance: an unerring belief in what you have created, even when the world around you is yet to catch up with your vision. ‘Actually…,’ he pauses. ‘My advice for young designers is that what I say shouldn't matter. You need to look inside yourself and figure things out on your own.’

This article appears in the August 2026 Issue of Wallpaper*, available now in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

Thom Browne is a designer who is expected to present the unexpected. The challenge he poses to conventional fashion tropes, and the response that it provokes, has made him one of the most intriguing designers of his generation – not to be second guessed nor underestimated.

That said, ‘A Bug’s Life’ was not on anyone’s bingo card as a reference for his S/S 2027 menswear collection.

The designer watched the 1998 Disney animation on a recent flight from Milan (where his collections are finessed) to New York (where he calls home) and was left enthralled by the story of Flik, an inventive ant who enlists an army of circus bugs to help him defeat the group of grasshoppers who keep stealing their food.

Thom Browne on his Milan Fashion Week show

At his show on Monday afternoon, in the courtyard of the Palazzo Serbelloni in Milan, where 400 seersucker flowerpots had been arranged to create, ‘Thom’s Garden’, it played out in the depiction of bumblebees, leapfrogs, ants, and dragonflies embroidered and appliqued across his signature summer seersucker.

‘I thought it was a charming story to play with and reference for these times that we are living in,’ Browne said with a smile backstage after the show.

The outing was the designer’s much-anticipated return to the Milan menswear schedule for the first time since 2008 and comes as he marks the 25th anniversary of his eponymous label this year. It seemed to have put the designer in both a reflective and inventive mood.

‘For spring, I wanted to focus on why you come to Thom Browne and reinforce the things I’ve been doing for the past twenty years in new ways,’ he told Wallpaper* before the show. ‘You see [it] through really strong tailoring and fabric development but done lighter for summer in poplins for shirting and various weights of tailoring including half and unlined jackets, sheer fabrics and Swiss dot.’

His idea, he continued, was about ‘trying to push people to think differently about tailoring but all rooted in that same original idea behind the grey suit. An evolution but never a change.’

Here, the East-coast American preppy look he is famous for was delivered in soft focus with patchwork and intarsia techniques playing out over the lightest layers of unlined and half-lined outerwear, shirting, and pleated shorts and skirts. Meanwhile, the brand’s signature tri-colour grosgrain tipping was intentionally distressed to represent ‘the seasonal cycles and generations of life these garments will see’.

Realised in Browne’s customary grey and white palette infused with lemon curd, cornflower, and sorbet pink, each outfit in the collection was conceived to be worn as a total look as well as broken down into singular elements, said Browne. ‘There’s a lot in the collection that you can make your own.’

It was a collection that – as ever – offered the wearer respite from rigidity, both in movement and mandate. As he told one reporter after the show, ‘I’ve been putting men in skirts for the last 25 years. I love men seeing collections and clothing differently and not being so strict about the rules of menswear.’

Shortly after the grand finale bridal look – crafted from Swiss dot tailoring, trimmed in his tipping, and wrapped in pearl-embellished tulle – closed the show, Browne himself emerged to take his bow wearing a frog headpiece-cum helmet. In Thom’s garden, anything grows.

This evening (16 June 2026), guests will gather in the cloisters of Florence’s Santa Maria Novella Church for a dinner hosted by the Umbrian designer Brunello Cucinelli – a twice-yearly tradition that marks the opening of Pitti Uomo, the historic Florentine menswear fair. And with it, the beginning of Men’s Fashion Month: after Florence, there are stops in Milan and Paris across a 12-day schedule which will see S/S 2027 menswear offerings from fashion’s biggest houses – among them Prada, Dior, Louis Vuitton and Saint Laurent – as well as a raft of newer names. By the time Paris wraps up on 28 June 2026, we will have the blueprint of how menswear might look a year from now, and no doubt plenty to mull over: this looks to be a season of consolidation and world-building as relatively new creative directors settle into their tenures and others steady the ship amid the backdrop of a global luxury slowdown.

And, while the schedule is certainly lighter than its womenswear counterpart (the S/S 2027 women’s shows will take place in September, and traditionally have a busier line-up), plenty of intriguing moments remain – from Simone Rocha’s first dedicated menswear show (she will be a guest designer at Pitti Uomo, showing in the historic Teatro Della Pergola), to calendar shift-ups, designer returns and (a small handful) of debuts. We've picked the eight moments to look out for this Men’s Fashion Month S/S 2027 below.

Simone Rocha will be Pitti Uomo’s guest star

Historic menswear fair Pitti Uomo, taking place in Florence twice-yearly, marks the start of Men’s Fashion Month each season, centring around the 14th-century Fortezza da Basso. But alongside the main fair – where you will find stands from Brunello Cucinelli, Herno and the like – organisers invite a number of guest designers to show each season in locations around the city (previous guests have included Raf Simons, Martine Rose and Grace Wales Bonner, alongside numerous fashion houses). This time, it is the turn of Irish designer Simone Rocha, who will host her first dedicated menswear show on Thursday 18 June at the 17th-century Teatro Della Pergola, an opera house and theatre that is one of the oldest in Italy (previously she has presented menswear as part of her womenswear show, or via lookbook). ‘I would like to thank Pitti Uomo for their generous invitation to present my first independent menswear show on the men's calendar,’ she said when the news was announced, elucidating that she will use the moment to show ‘the length and breadth of [her] menswear proposition... [and] a new chapter in my work and world.’

Two menswear greats will return to Milan

Milan is well known for its sartorial prowess – particularly when it comes to men’s tailoring – something that has drawn two legendary international designers back to Milan Fashion Week Men’s this season. They are Paul Smith, who has shown in the city for a handful of seasons now, and Ralph Lauren, who returned to the Milan schedule in January of this year, marking the American designer’s first Italian menswear show in two decades. Both will show in their headquarters in the city: the former on Viale Umbria, the latter at Palazzo Ralph Lauren, which resides in an imposing 1941 Mino Fiocchi-designed building formerly known as Casa Campanini-Bonomi. Both will likely be celebratory affairs: particularly for Smith, who will turn 80 in July and use the latter half of the year to celebrate the landmark, including the release of an autobiography, Threads: My Life in Style, in September.

While Thom Browne will make his Milan Fashion Week Men’s debut

American designer Thom Browne has adopted something of a travelling schedule for his runway shows in recent seasons, showing between Paris and his native New York, as well as a one-off show in San Francisco earlier this year to coincide with the Super Bowl (Browne’s tailoring is a favourite among American athletes, and NFL players DeAndre Hopkins, Justin Jefferson and Steeler Marcus Allen walked the show). This season, though, he is breaking new ground: a runway show in Milan on Monday 22 June will mark his debut in the Italian city. Apart from the venue, the neoclassical Palazzo Serbelloni, little has been revealed about the show – though, if his previous outings are any indication, expect his usual eye for fantasy and play (his last menswear show, in Paris, for example, featured enormous glittering alien heads, worn by the models as masks).

Saint Laurent is back to opening Paris Fashion Week Men’s

Last June, Saint Laurent opened Men’s Fashion Week with a S/S 2026 collection that transported guests from ‘Paris to Fire Island’ amid a serene installation by French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot at Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection (it comprised a circular pool on which a series of bowls floated across its glimmering blue surface). This season, the house will return to its first-day slot (for A/W 2026, in January, it ended proceedings) with a menswear show that is expected to take place in the contemporary art gallery. It will be followed that evening by another blockbuster show: the latest Louis Vuitton menswear collection by Pharrell Williams, which will take place at 9pm in an as-yet-undisclosed location.

All eyes will be on Jonathan Anderson’s Dior Men

Three seasons in, Northern Irish designer Jonathan Anderson has succeeded in making Dior one of fashion’s most talked-about houses: case in point, a Hollywood-inspired Cruise 2027 in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) in May, which alongside a starry front row (Sabrina Carpenter, Miley Cyrus and Al Pacino were all in attendance), featured collaborations with artist Ed Ruscha and milliner Philip Treacy (fittingly, one of the headpieces spelt out ‘Buzz’ in feathers). On Wednesday 24 June, he will return to Dior’s home city for his S/S 2027 menswear show – arguably the most anticipated on the Paris Fashion Week Men’s schedule, following an acclaimed A/W 2026 show that drew inspiration from the outré stylings of couturier Paul Poiret and his infamous Belle Époque dinner parties.

Sarah Burton will reveal her vision for Givenchy menswear

Sarah Burton has shown three womenswear collections on the runway since the beginning of her tenure at Givenchy (she came to the house from Alexander McQueen, where she succeeded the eponymous designer as creative director); this season, in Paris, she will begin to expand her Givenchy universe with her first dedicated menswear presentation. Because, despite overseeing commercial collections – as well as dressing figures like Timothée Chalamet for the red carpet – she is yet to formerly introduce her menswear vision for the Parisian house. What to expect? Some great tailoring, no doubt – Burton is adept when it comes to a pin-sharp suit – alongside the bold flourishes of colour and print which defined her critically lauded A/W 2026 womenswear show last season.

At Celine, Michael Rider will host a dedicated menswear show

An intimate presentation of Michael Rider’s first dedicated menswear collection for Celine – presented earlier this year in the brand’s headquarters – was one of the highlights of the A/W 2026 season, despite a lack of models and runway (the clothing was instead staged in a series of playful tableaus, while guests snacked on Celine-branded popcorn). For S/S 2027, the American designer – formerly of Polo Ralph Lauren, as well as Celine during Phoebe Philo’s tenure – will host a dedicated menswear show on the final Sunday of Paris Fashion Week. Expect the infusion of Parisian insouciance and Ivy League stylings that have become his signature – and won him a devoted legion of fans, as well as thousands more aping the look in Instagram GRWMs, from colourful sweaters slung around the waist to rugby shirts and sliced-away ties.

London label Studio Nicholson will make its runway debut

This menswear season is suprisingly light on debuts, either from fledgling labels or major houses welcoming a new creative director. Studio Nicholson is an exception, though it also doesn’t fit into either camp: founded in 2010 by Nick Wakeman, the London-based label has already established itself as a cult destination for those who favour a simplicity of design and high-quality fabrications. But, while the brand has undertaken high-profile collaborations with the likes of Zara, it has never hosted a traditional runway show, something that will change this season: Wakeman has opted to present a collection during Paris Fashion Week Men‘s. Taking place on Friday 26 June at Hotel d’Evreux in Place Vendôme. Comprising her men’s and women’s collections for S/S 2027, it is a new addition to the Paris Fashion Week Men’s schedule – others include Meryll Rogge’s first menswear presentation, 2025 LVMH Prize winner Soshiotsuki and Australian brand Song for the Mute.

American designer Thom Browne has made a career of taking archetypal American menswear and turning it on its head (or, as with his hallmark tailoring, shrinking it in size).

Preppy signatures have long run through his work, seeing Ivy League tailoring and varsity uniforms shifted through strange, enveloping new proportions, unconventional adornment or teamed up with gleefully surreal accessories – including Browne’s signature dog-shaped handbags, based on his beloved dachshund, Hector (above left).

Thom Browne’s gleefully surreal accessories

A new take on the penny loafer – a perennial symbol of preppy style – is altogether more classic, though an elongated grosgrain loop tab in signature red, white and blue marks it as one of Browne’s non-conformist creations. In white, they offer the invitation to break another all-American style rule: no white shoes after Labour Day, a line immortalised by a screaming Kathleen Turner in John Waters’ 1994 movie, Serial Mom.

‘I always say that I don’t really work in fashion. I do because it’s the world we find ourselves in, but I try to create work that transcends fashion,’ Browne previously told Wallpaper* as he celebrated 20 years of his eponymous label. ‘For me, the most important thing is to tell stories and make people think in new ways.’

‘I want to make people think,’ he continued. ‘The kiss of death is when someone thinks that my work was just OK.’

The August 2025 issue of Wallpaper* is available in print on newsstands from 10 July 2025, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

If you’ve spent time in Palm Beach, Florida (or religiously follow the Class of Palm Beach TikTok account), you’ll be well-familiar with the typical Worth Avenue uniform: crisp white trousers, tropical prints and, of course, diamonds. American fashion designer Thom Browne is known for a slightly different uniform, one that consists of shrunken suiting, slate gray fabrics and woolen neckties.

The thing that unites these seemingly disparate aesthetics, according to Browne? A fundamental love of prep. Which is why he’s just opened his very first boutique in this tony Floridian enclave.

That DNA is translated into the label’s 1,500 square-foot boutique which, in quintessential Browne fashion, evokes a midcentury office with grey travertine walls and flooring; an illuminated panel ceiling; and mid-century furnishings—including a desk— by Paul McCobb, Maison Jansen and George Nakashima. Ready-to-wear hangs on simple rolling racks while accessories are tucked into a travertine niche.

It’s a ‘softer’ interpretation of Browne’s typical boutiques. And with palm trees swaying outside, it’s easy to see why the workplace aesthetic took a bit of a holiday: ‘I couldn’t think of a better location for our newest store,’ Browne said.

‘Being in Palm Beach feels so good,’ Browne told Wallpaper* in an emailed statement. ‘Mixing my world of classic Americana prep with the Palm Beach style feels so natural.’

What also felt natural was Browne’s affinity for midcentury modern design and Palm Beach’s 20th-century architectural heritage. The store, located just at the edge of the Lake Worth Lagoon, is part of the Royal Poinciana Plaza, a once pink-tinged, palm-fringed shopping oasis designed by society architect John Volk in 1957.

Breathing life into the darker dregs of January, all hail Sarabande’s ‘House of Bandits’ residency at Selfridges, a riotous takeover of London’s West End edifice, which runs until 23 March. Less pop-up, more creative explosion, the residency features art, craft, fashion, jewellery and sculpture for sale from a wealth of Sarabande’s 280 alumni alongside limited edition works by the foundation's friends and supporters, such as Thom Browne, Francesca Amfitheatrof, Tim Burton and Jake Chapman. All sales proceeds will directly support the foundation and its artists.

However important, bringing work to market is just one part of the residency. ‘We want to recreate the feeling of Sarabande too,’ says Trino Verkade, the foundation’s director: ‘Making art accessible is an important part of what we do, but it’s equally vital that we inspire the next generation of artists into existence,’ she continues. On the shop floor at Selfridges, Sarabande has recreated working studio spaces as they appear at their Haggerston and Tottenham homes. These will have a rotation of Sarabande artists and designers working in them throughout the two-month residency for people to see creativity in action and speak to the artists about their work, their process and their lives too.

Sarabande has also taken over three windows on Orchard Street, recreating the studio of a painter, a fashion designer and a craftsperson in each. Honouring the foundation’s reputation for exceptional public programs, the residency is bringing a series of talks, events and workshops to Selfridges’ shop floors and cinema space. ‘We want it to have the energy and life that we love at Sarabande,’ Verkade explains, ‘It’s a fantastic opportunity to open up our world and show people what we do. We recognise that creativity knows no bounds and so we hope that everyone whether they know anything about art or not will come and see us, find out more about the foundation and our artists, join a workshop or talk, and buy something - a mug or a painting - to support the future of fearless creativity in this country.’

Ahead of the residency opening, we caught-up with Trino Verkade, director of Sarabande to hear more about the foundation’s work.

Trino Verkade on the future of Sarabande

Wallpaper*: It’s been nearly two decades since Lee McQueen founded Sarabande in 2006. What’s the most remarkable aspect of the journey so far?

Trino Verkade: We went into Sarabande rather naively with a clear plan of what we wanted to achieve but not a great understanding of how it was going to work. It was founded with passion, based on an idea – to help support the future of fearlessly creative individuals. The thing that always strikes me is the incredible support that we receive.

W*: It looms large in the imagination of the creative industries, not just because of Lee’s legacy, but in the sense of community that you harness.

TV: The feeling we hoped to capture was based on the early 1990s in London, when creatives of all backgrounds and interests worked together and believed in working together. People helped and shared with each other. This is the concept at the heart of Sarabande in its business and mentoring layer, and we encourage everyone to help each other, while they’re working with us, and as they go out into the world.

The age group that has grown into business from the 1990s and early 2000s period really supports the foundation. We have an amazing team; it’s a community of creatives that have made it and they don’t want to be the last one. They want to see more people coming through the pipeline. They want to help.

W*: It sounds like a cliché to describe your alumni as a family, but the force is strong.

TV: It’s one of the greatest elements of success: our relationship with the artists that we support is genuinely like a family. From the very first artists who moved in to the artists we work with now, everyone is friendly with the foundation. There’s a desire to give back to support other artists coming up - it’s unusual these days, but it’s very genuine at Sarabande.

W*: What has fostered it?

TV: We make it clear there is no competition between artists, and this generates a great degree of goodwill, mutual admiration and respect. They all love to be inspired by others around them, and not with a commercially competitive eye. We tell everybody that they have their own unique voice. We encourage them not to replicate a creative concept from another artist. There’s enough room out there; everyone can own their own space and grow in their own way. We love to see how many alumni buy each other’s work. This says it all.

W*: Obviously the financial assistance and support is crucial, but the psychological support is equally vital. There’s a great degree of courage required in choosing to work creatively.

TV: Giving funds and studio spaces to people is a tangible measure of our support. The bigger issue is helping people believe they can make their own industry when they don’t see it already existing. We encourage people to understand the value of spending time on something that is a burning passion. It sounds so airy fairy and of course making money is a reality, but there are multiple ways of earning money. Striving for creative fulfilment is not an either/or choice.

When we interview an artist for studios, they often teach part-time or work elsewhere and we don’t put any limits on that. Our role is to be a space where people can make works because they mean something to them; they’re not entirely commercially driven. We want people to make things they’ve never made before and they don’t know if there’s a market for them. They are walking into new territories, and it is fearlessly courageous. Recognising and respecting this is the support we give.

W*: Understanding this brings a whole new depth to the wonderful opportunity that your residency at Selfridges presents.

TV: It is an incredible gift to us. Selfridges has given us this opportunity for free, and we have a very exciting, busy nine weeks ahead of us. There will be a different artist each week creating work on the shop floor like a mini studio. This is important for accessibility: seeing and hearing stories about why artists do what they do changes people’s minds about what they can achieve.

W*: It also enlightens people’s understanding about process, production and consumption, which is an important message in a retail environment.

TV: It makes retail living – alive. This isn’t about selling as you say, it’s about process, passion, stories. It’s a different retail offering - a cultural one that’s about education and life experience.

Sarabande ‘House of Bandits’ at Selfridges runs until 23rd March, 2025

Sarabandefoundation.org

Contemporary takes on enduring American icons of design only remind us of the USA’s extraordinary and enduring creative heft. From Pharrell Williams’ fresh interpretation of the humble cowboy boot to the latest iteration of Apple's MacBook Air, and even Andy Warhol's globally recognised soup cans reserved in puzzle form, here are the American classics that keep us coming back for more.

Icons of American design

Cowboy boots by Pharrell Williams

For his sophomore collection as menswear artistic director of Louis Vuitton, Pharrell Williams took a trip from Paris to Virginia, uniting French savoir-faire with the pioneering spirit of the American West. Case in point: his monogrammed, golden-toed riff on the cowboy boot. Williams spoke of a desire to provide a more expansive vision of the pioneer archetype, noting that Black and Native American cowboys were some of the first to strike westwards. It was to provide a prelude of sorts to Beyoncé’s own Western epic, Cowboy Carter, which the singer gave a pre-launch tease at the 2024 Grammy Awards by turning up in a studded leather Louis Vuitton look by Williams, alongside the requisite white Stetson cowboy hat.

Boots, £6,550, by Pharrell Williams, for Louis Vuitton, louisvuitton.com

M3 MacBook Air by Apple

If there’s one device that epitomises the spirit of modern mobile creativity, it’s Apple’s classic MacBook Air. First introduced in 2008, the Air squeezed the form factor of the modern laptop into hitherto unprecedented dimensions; it was the thinnest notebook computer in the world at the time of launch and Apple’s first computer with asolid-state hard drive, although it was compromised by screen quality and power. It wasn’t until Apple started fitting its own custom silicon into its laptop line-up in 2020 that the Air really came into its own. The latest edition, the M3 MacBook Air, is the de facto choice for music, video and visual design on the move, and will handle the upcoming Apple Intelligence AI integration with ease.

M3 MacBook Air, from £1,099, by Apple, apple.com

‘Black Rainbow’ bag by Telfar

Liberian-American designer Telfar Clemens has long eschewed the confines of the fashion industry with a steadfast refusal to play by the establishment’s rules. Non-gendered and defiantly democratic, it is the Telfar shopping bag that has become symbolic of his eponymous brand’s unconventional approach. Based on the shape of the Bloomingdale’s shopping bag, the vegan-leather tote features the Telfar logo, which Clemens says he first drew while at school. Originally sold in ‘blind’ pre-order drops, with prices starting at $150 – a fraction of the price of bags from the luxury fashion houses it playfully mimics – it fast became an anti-status symbol. ‘[I want to] make an ‘it’ bag where the ‘it’ has nothing to do with domination,’ says Clemens.

‘Black Rainbow’ bag, $191, by Telfar, telfar.net

‘Akari’ lamp by Isamu Noguchi

Japanese-American artist and designer Isamu Noguchi designed the first lamp in his ‘Akari’ series in 1951 after a visit to the Japanese town of Gifu, known for its traditional paper lanterns. Handcrafting the lamp from washi paper and bamboo, Noguchi was mesmerised by the way ‘the harshness of electricity is transformed through the magic of paper back to the light of our origin – the sun – so that its warmth may continue to fill our rooms at night.’ He would go on to create many more in a variety of forms and silhouettes. Over the years, the lamps have kept their timeless charm and desirability, becoming one of the most recognisable pieces of lighting design ever created (a very loose interpretation of the concept by Ikea is among the Swedish company’s best-sellers).

‘Akari 9A’ lamp, £720, by Isamu Noguchi, for Vitra, from Aram, aram.co.uk

Air Jordan 39 sneakers by Nike

It was said that Michael Jordan could defy gravity, a feat of sportsmanship immortalised by the basketballer’s leaping silhouette, which first appeared on the third iteration of Nike’s Air Jordan high-top sneaker. Originally released in 1984, 1.5m pairs were sold in the first six weeks, far exceeding Nike’s estimates, and Jordan received a portion of the profits from every pair sold, making him one of theworld’s most bankable stars. The new Air Jordan 39, released in July, saw Nike designers Joël Greenspan and Bennett Shaw work directly with Jordan on the sleek, ergonomic sneaker, which features long panels of bouncy Nike ZoomX foam in the sole, helping professionals and amateurs alike attempt to reach its namesake’s heady heights.

Air Jordan 39 sneakers, price on request, by Nike, nike.com

‘Americana’ cars by Candylab

With the icons of automotive America mostly distant memories, it falls to the New York-based Candylab to sate our love of Detroit’s golden era. Combining hand-finished custom runs made in New York and Pennsylvania with a manufacturing facility in Ningbo, China, Candylab is a bespoke wooden modelmaker whose ethos is that toys needn’t cost the earth. Each stylised model is made fromsolid lumber sourced from managed forests in North America, brightly coloured using non-toxic paints and packaged up in sturdy paper and cardboard. And Candylab’s ‘Americana’ fleet isn’t just about the muscle car; there are also police cruisers, camper vans, beech-clad surf wagons, yellow cabs, off-roaders and many more.

‘Americana’ taxi, £25; camper, £21; pickup, £25, all by Candylab, candylabtoys.com

‘Lock’ jewellery collection by Tiffany & Co

Padlocks began as purely functional items for Tiffany & Co, which sold them as part of its homeware collections. Then, in the 1950s, padlocks began to be rethought in aesthetic terms, appearing on necklaces, brooches and key rings ,a history referenced in the release of the ‘Tiffany Lock’ collection in 2022. In these pieces, unnecessary details are set aside in favour of streamlined silhouettes. The bracelets, an elongated oval available in yellow, rose or white gold, come peppered with diamonds, or are left pure and unadorned. Taking centre stage is the padlock mechanism itself, with an opening and closing function that echoes the item’s pleasing pivot. Fresh, clean and cool, the ‘Tiffany Lock’ has become a byword for classic American jewellery design.

‘Tiffany Lock’ yellow gold bangle, £7,000, by Tiffany & Co, tiffany.com

‘1006 Navy’ chair by Emeco

Emeco’s story begins in 1944 when it was hired to make a chair using salvaged aluminium for the US Navy during World War II and, over the years, the furniture brand has evolved to become a legend in its field, continuing its focus on superior design and sustainability. Virtually indestructible, the ‘1006 Navy’ chair has remained unchanged since its inception: it is still made by hand from scrap aluminium at the Emeco factory in Hanover, Pennsylvania, with a 77-step process that includes grinding, heat-treating, anodising and brushing. The ‘1006 Navy’ chair’s origins have also inspired Emeco to further pursue sustainable furniture design practices, with a catalogue of seats made using recycled PET bottles, discarded wood and eco-concrete.

‘1006 Navy’ chair, £808, by Emeco, from Viaduct, viaduct.co.uk

Uniform by Thom Browne

Thom Browne is well known for his tailoring, which is often shrunken in proportion, and largely a shade of mid-gray. Other perennial motifs are his signature four stripes, which run around the sleeve of a shirt or across a tie, recalling American varsity wear. It makes for a simple uniform for Thom Browne devotees, who simply follow his style diktats: he favours an unironed shirt (with an undone top button), tucked in and worn with a grey suit, narrow tie and white pocket square. Such a sharply defined aesthetic – which can verge into the surreal in his runway shows – has seen him become one of American fashion’s best-known figures, taking over from Tom Ford as chairman of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) in 2023.

Briefcase, £8,260; shirt, £440; tie, £190, all by Thom Browne, thombrowne.com

CK One fragrance by Calvin Klein

If the 1990s were to be encapsulated in a fragrance, it would be the shimmering citrussy tones of Calvin Klein’s CK One, first released in 1994 and a bestsellerever since. Marking an olfactory shift from the heady French perfumes that dominated the previous decade, it would capture the stripped-back minimalism and raw sensuality of the era, designed for both men’s and women’s skin, then a marketing first (‘one for all’, ran its slogan). Its accompanying Steven Meisel-shot campaign, featuring Kate Moss and a bevy of underwear- and denim-clad models, remains an enduring and oft-reproduced piece of fashion imagery, while the bottle itself – frosted white glass with a metal screw top and stamped CK One logo – remains an emblem of 1990s product design.

CK One fragrance, £77, by Calvin Klein, calvinklein.com

Soup can paintings by Andy Warhol

Love them or loathe them, Andy Warhol’s soup cans cracked the conversation around modern art wide open on their exhibition at LA’s Ferus Gallery in 1962. Warhol, who wished to celebrate the international distribution of homogenous products as a sign of democracy, replicated the red and white Campbell’s soup cans that he had for his lunch every day using the precise screenprinting technique that quickly became synonymous with the Pop Art movement. The soup cans became a motif for Western capitalism and rampant consumer culture, forever cementing the links between advertising and art – but the Campbell’s Soup Company, at least, was pleased. In 1964, it commissioned a classic tomato soup for its retiring board chairman.

Andy Warhol soup cans puzzle set, £24 for three, from Amazon, Amazon.com

Baseball cap by Polo Ralph Lauren

There are few things more synonymous with American style than Polo Ralph Lauren. Adorned with the ‘pony and rider’ motif, the collections have come to encapsulate a vision of American ease, reflected in breezy, aspirational campaigns where models frolic amid Edenic landscapes, often with the shimmering Atlantic Ocean beyond. The Polo symbol would also later be adopted by America’s suburban subcultures, from skaters to hip-hop artists and, across the pond, the Britpop stars of the 1990s. Recent seasons have seen the Polo Ralph Lauren pony motif become ubiquitous once again, part of a growing preppy revival – not least the classic, all-American baseball cap, which is proof of the old maxim that a classic never goes out of style.

Baseball cap, £55, by Polo Ralph Lauren, ralphlauren.com

This article appears in the August 2024 issue of Wallpaper*, available to download free when you sign up to our daily newsletter, in print on newsstands from 4 July, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

The imminent arrival of the Paris Olympics is the talk of Haute Couture Week – and, if the first day was anything to go by, the inspiration point of this season’s collections. At Dior, Maria Grazia Chiuri recalled the classical silhouettes of the event’s Ancient Greek roots, while Thom Browne riffed on American sportswear and ended his runway show with a medal ceremony of his own (here, though, the Chaumet-designed medals of the real games were replaced with models in gold, silver and bronze embroidered blazers). Meanwhile four-time gold medal winner Serena Williams took her seat front row, joining the usual phalanx of high-profile guests who travel to Paris for the haute couture shows, which represent the pinnacle of French craft (a legally protected term, couture refers to made-to-order gowns constructed entirely by hand for private clients).

Elsewhere at the week, there was the first Chanel show since the departure of creative director Virginie Viard yesterday (a replacement is yet to be announced), while a guest collection by Courrèges’ Nicolas di Felice at Jean Paul Gaultier was shown on Wednesday (previous guest designers have included Simone Rocha, Haider Ackermann and Olivier Rousteing). Shows from Armani Privé, Balenciaga and Viktor & Rolf rounded out the week.

Here, in an ongoing round up, Wallpaper* picks the best of Haute Couture Week A/W 2024.

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The best of Haute Couture Week A/W 2024

Balenciaga

Balenciaga’s latest couture collection was shown in the house’s historic salons on Avenue George V, which were recently renovated by current creative director Demna to feel as if you were opening the doors and stepping back in time (‘for me, it’s very important for it to feel like a special place… it is the same place where Cristóbal used to be... he would look out of the window and see the same trees,’ he told Wallpaper* last year). This season, Demna looked towards the ‘streetwear, goth, skater and metalhead subcultures’ which have long been his inspiration at Balenciaga, melding them here with the tropes and grandeur of mid-century haute couture. ‘This couture collection is a tribute to subculture dress codes as important influences to my fashion vocabulary,’ said the Georgian designer. ⁠

As such, hallmarks of Cristóbal Balenciaga’s oeuvre were reinterpreted in Demna’s idiosyncratic style, seeing abundant, cocooning silhouettes constructed from denim, leather and nylon (for the final look, over 47 metres of nylon were used to create the dramatic final look, which was designed to disintegrate as it was worn). Other pieces elevated the quotidian, like a sharply cut T-shirt crafted from black scuba satin which Demna likened to Andy Warhol’s Campbell Soup series. ‘Demna is interested in not only object intrigue itself, but also, the techniques used to elevate said object into an art form,’ read the collection notes. Meanwhile, dramatic millinery created alongside artists Ni Hao and Alastair Gibson recalled traditional couture headpieces, though here were constructed from T-shirts set in resin or carbon fibre. It was the butterfly, though – which appeared on masks worn by models – that became the collection’s symbol, one of transformation and fleeting beauty. ‘These creatures are beautiful and extraordinary – they are of a perfect design,’ said Demna.

Armani Privé

A quest for serenity inspired Giorgio Armani’s latest Privé outing, seeing the veteran designer look towards the lustrous surface of pearls for inspiration (indeed, for the occasion, a pearl-like runway had been installed in the Palais de Tokyo showspace). Watched on by his devoted celebrity muses – among them Cate Blanchett, Eva Green and Naomie Harris – this was a collection led by an exploration of surface and texture, moving from molten lamé tailoring and extraordinary beaded gowns towards surfaces entirely covered in shimmering crystals. Silhouettes hung close to the body – a series of black gowns in velvet or sequins which nipped the waist will no doubt prove seductive to his famous fans – while playful flourishes included bouncing feathered headpieces. ‘Gentle and enchanting,’ described Mr Armani, who took a beaming finale bow flanked by two of the collection’s models.

Chanel

Chanel marked its first collection since the departure of former creative director Virginie Viard with a show at Palais Garnier, the city’s opera house. Gone were the enormous constructed set pieces of both Viard and her forebear Karl Lagerfeld, with the ornate atrium and sweeping marble staircase instead serving as the show’s backdrop. It lent the collection – which for now was designed by an in-house team Chanel called the ‘Fashion Creation Studio’ – a feeling of reality, as if the models were simply striding along the corridors after an evening at the opera. That said, the collection’s taffeta capes and frilled collars had the requisite drama necessary for an haute couture show such as this, while this season’s tweeds were largely embellished, whether with jewellery-like adornments or feathers which emerged from sleeves or hems. Elsewhere nods to opera and the ballet – including Le Train Bleu and Apollon Musagète for which Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel designed the costumes in the 1920s – came in tutu-like ruffles and bows tied in each model’s hair. Even without a creative director, it was a show which proved the enduring strength of the house codes – as for who will put their spin on them next, and when, rumours continue to swirl.

Dior

It was inevitable that the Paris Olympics would influence the season’s collections: driving around the city, the games’ architecture is already taking over the city’s streets, with vast stands being erected at Place de Concorde and along the Seine’s bridges (along with some amount of grumbling from the city’s residents about traffic and the imminent QR codes which will prevent them from travelling outside of their own neighbourhoods for the duration of the games). Maria Grazia Chiuri was the first of haute couture week to reference the Olympics explicitly with a collection which looked back to the classical roots of the games in Ancient Greece with garments which draped, toga-like on the body, or referenced the ‘peplos’, a garment made from a singular piece of cloth and folded at the waist. Chiuri noted it was a silhouette that had inspired Christian Dior himself, though here she spoke of a desire for modernity and freedom, using jersey fabric – more typically associated with sportswear – to replace the typical haute couture fabrics the house founder would have used.

The reference, she said was the 1924 Olympics, also held in Paris, where women were still fighting to compete. New fabrics, like jersey – first used by fellow female couturier Coco Chanel in 1916 after more luxurious fabrics became hard to get hold of – signalled a mood of liberation in women’s clothing. It felt a fitting reference for Chiuri, a feminist designer who has long rallied against the idea that couture must constrain the body; here was a collection of effortless and airy elegance, which no doubt appealed to the house’s clients in Paris’ currently sweltering heat. ‘[This collection] represents an extraordinary opportunity to combine couture and sportswear with classicism, rebellion, collective energy and, above all, the political value of the female body,’ the designer said via the collection notes. ‘It allows [me] to assert the power... of haute couture actions... [imagining] the elegance of a woman at once delicate and strong. A woman who performs just as well as a man.’

Thom Browne

Last year, as part of the 20th anniversary celebrations of Thom Browne’s eponymous brand, the American designer staged his first-ever haute couture outing in Paris. Yesterday (24 June 2024), his sophomore couture collection – presented at Paris’ Musée des Arts Décoratifs – showed a designer already astute in the medium, which allows him to flex his creative muscle with both imaginative runway shows and extraordinary feats of embellishment and craft. Beginning with a series of male models clad in white Thom Browne skirt suits playing a game of tug-of-war, like at Dior, the designer looked towards the upcoming Olympics for inspiration. Here, he imagined a collection of de- and reconstructed American sportswear – like the tailored sportscoat, the swim trunk, and the pleated tennis skirt – created largely from white muslin in a nod to toiles, the draft versions of garments usually constructed from the fabric (guests were also instructed to dress in the muslin coats which served as the collection’s invitations). Of course, these archetypal garments were riffed on in imaginative ways by the designer, playfully layered or cinched and corseted, or adorned with sweeping embroidery and embellishment. In typical couture style, it ended up with Anna Cleveland as the bride, her gown erupting into a vast bunch of white flowers along its back, each one painstakingly crafted from fabric. The final scene, though, was a medal ceremony of sorts: three models, in gold, silver and bronze embroidered jackets stood on the podium for the show’s final tableau. ‘Couture is the Olympics of fashion,’ said the designer.

Schiaparelli

Daniel Roseberry hosted his latest couture show in Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild, the stately former residence of Adèle von Rothschild known for its ornate, gilded salons which have hosted many a runway show, from Valentino to Maison Margiela. It was the more anonymous basement, though, which the American designer chose to set his latest collection, the darkened space lit only by a series of dim chandeliers. It set the scene for a collection titled ‘The Phoenix’, which saw Roseberry inspired by a coq-feathered stole house founder Elsa Schiaparelli wore to the opening of the Ambassadeurs restaurant in Paris in 1941. Inspired by the Russian prima ballerina Anna Pavlova, the stole had been hand-painted by the artist Jean Dunand; in this garment, Roseberry saw a vision of the Surrealist couturier as a rising phoenix, ‘a magical creature whose power lay in her ceaseless ability to reinvent – not only herself, but fashion, too’.

Inspired by this idea of rebirth, Roseberry presented a collection of free association which was less to do with tidy thematics than a desire for each look to stand alone and evoke emotion (after all, the couture client is likely to only end up with a single look from the collection; ‘People don’t buy Schiaparelli, they collect it,’ Roseberry noted someone telling him recently). It began with his own phoenix – the opening look saw a model in a velvet cape adorned with trompe l’oeil feathered embroidery in three-dimensional chrome – while later pieces largely explored silhouette, whether blown-up tailoring or sinuous sheer gowns narrowed at the waist with corsets. Meanwhile, enormous bows, millefeuilles of ruffles, and riffs on the opera coat made reference to the archetypes of midcentury haute couture (Roseberry said the 1950s, in particular, was a reference this season).

‘Each gown, each bustier, each shoe, every piece of folded velvet feather, or triple organza spike, seeks to catch the eye and hold it,’ he said. ‘This is what makes haute couture so special: it’s an expression of my vision for the maison today, one free from marketing and merchandising. But it’s also something else: a way for me to honor that relationship, one of the most intimate ones in the world – the one in which I give women the power to be reborn, again and again and again.’

Stay tuned for more from Haute Couture Week A/W 2024.

As Salone del Mobile 2024 and the wider Milan Design Week got underway this week in the design capital, one thing quickly became clear: the majority of the fashion contingency among the schedule was in a reflective mood.

While some brands looked to design masters past, others mined their archives: Bottega Veneta worked with the Le Corbusier Foundation to re-interpret its LC14 Tabouret Cabanon stool; Yves Saint Laurent collaborated with the Gio Ponti archive to create an exclusive porcelain collection; and Gucci presented archival re-editions in its now-signature Ancora red from the likes of Tobia Scarpa and Venini.

Elsewhere, Hermès and Armani placed their new furniture and design creations beside the sartorial objects that inspired them (with Giorgio Armani sharing personal photographs that span his career) and Loewe worked with its Craft Prize alumni to create 26 unique lamps that spotlighted the time-honed craft techniques that still exist around the world.

It’s a move that reflects a recent trend in their primary medium of fashion, where reminders of iconic codes are increasingly served up to highlight the importance of respecting the signatures that stand the test of time.

Here, in our comprehensive round-up, is the Wallpaper* edit of the best fashion moments at Milan Design Week 2024.

Fashion moments at Salone del Mobile and Milan Design Week 2024

Armani Casa

Held once again in Palazzo Orsini on Via Borgonuovo (also known as Armani HQ), Armani Casa’s Salone installation took visitors on a journey of the places founder Giorgio Armani has been most inspired by during his illustrious career. His travels have taken him far and wide – all over Europe, as well as Japan, China, Saudi Arabia and Morocco – and over the years, homages to the craft and skill he has discovered in each have appeared in his ready-to-wear collections. For this installation, called ‘Echoes From The World’, he placed his exquisite couture creations and his own personal collection of souvenirs (from Samurai swords to kimonos) alongside new pieces of furniture such as the Venus console with a hand-painted lacquered glass top backed in gold-leaf to give a luminous shimmer in the room dedicated to China and the blue velvet bed in the room celebrating Morocco that took months to make (only seven centimetres of this fabric can be woven in a day and this bed took 12 metres of material). A highlight waiting at the end of the show was a room with supersized images from Armani’s private photo album in a few of the locations celebrated here. ‘For this edition of the Salone del Mobile, I imagined a “cinematic” journey to the countries that have always inspired me: places and cultures that spark highly personal reworkings,’ shared Armani, adding: ‘I like to present myself to the public in the most authentic and direct way possible.’

Hermès

Taking over the sprawling La Pelota space for the week, Hermès presented ‘Topography of Material’, an installation conceived ‘to create a dialogue between roots and movement, between materials and know-how’, shared the brand. Suspended below foot-level on a diagonal catwalk of sorts, guests were welcomed by 16 intersecting floors that brought together 16 different types of stone, ten types of earth, four types of wood and many variations of terracotta brick all sourced from either Italy or France arranged in intricate ways to celebrate the skill of timeless handcraft. It formed a powerful introduction to the presentation of objects itself as this year Hermès made a point to highlight its own enduring codes. Behind a 35m-long and 6.m-high suspended black wall lay objects from the house’s archive juxtaposed with recent masterpieces and objects making their debut. For example, the silver Timour choker necklace from 2002 sat beside the new Diapason D’Hermès chair designed by the Hermès Studio this year in homage to the piece of jewellery; the original Mangeoire pouch from 1949 (used to feed horses) stood beside the new Derby leather buckets, also launched this year; and the Drag travel bag from the 2010s was presented next to Jasper Morrison’s Equilibre chair for Hermès from 2020. As intended, it effectively presented the virtues in time-honed skills and luxurious designs that retain a forever relevance.

Valextra

Valextra worked with Bergamo-based Studio Temp (with whom it also collaborated for Casa Valextra) on its Valextra Vocabolario concept that transformed its John Pawson-designed Via Manzoni flagship into the Valextra Spa. The idea was to highlight the exceptional care that goes into each of Valextra’s leather goods, from the hands that craft them to the after-care that the brand offers its clients. Inside a huge, simulated sauna, guests were invited to sit and observe the brand’s artisans hand-painting its signature black lacquered Costa edging onto handbags in real time. In the pink-carpeted space around, the brand’s new Assoluto collection – a three-piece capsule crafted from Econyl – was unveiled as machines worked in real time to 3D-print the new Iside Onda handbag. Combining state-of-the-art handbag development and best-in-class customer service through a radical architectural lens, it beautifully captured the DNA of this Milanese brand.

Bottega Veneta

Bottega Veneta presented ‘On The Rocks’ at the Palazzo San Fedele, a special location for the house as it was the setting for creative director Matthieu Blazy’s first show and is its soon-to-be HQ. Partnering with Cassina and Fondation Le Corbusier, the brand honed in on the iconic LC14 Tabouret Cabanon stool that it described as ’a timeless icon of Le Corbusier that embodies the excellence of the Cassina carpentry workshop’. First conceived by the designer for his Côte d'Azur cabin, it was inspired by a washed-up whisky box he found on the shores beneath the residence, hence the title of the installation, which saw several iterations piled high, one on top of the other, reminiscent of a jagged coastline. This isn’t the first time Blazy has affiliated himself with the object; at his recent A/W 2024 womenswear fashion show set, guests sat on bare wooden versions. For Salone, they came in the same rendering but also covered in the brand’s famous intrecciatio leather to create 160 limited editions.

Loewe

Loewe creative director Jonathan Anderson primarily worked with alumni from the brand’s prestigious Craft Prize on his first-ever lighting installation at Salone del Mobile. Staged at Palazzo Citterio in the heart of the Brera Design District, the presentation featured one-of-a-kind lighting designs from 24 artists who the brand has either worked with or supported in the past. Remarkably, it was the first time that any of the featured makers had worked with light, which accounted for the originality on display. From Enrico David’s curved Onyx table lamp that features the face of a woman on closer inspection and Dahye Jeong’s spherical structure using an ancient weaving technique using horsehair, to Young Song Lee’s hollowed-out calabash fruits covered in twisted mulberry-tree paper and Dame Magdalene Odundo’s cinched leather hanging lamps (above), each captured the celebratory spirit of Loewe in the world of craft and design that promotes and helps preserve the most exquisite techniques from all over the world. While each of the 24 pieces was for sale at the start of the week, by 5pm on the second day the majority were – predictably – all snapped up.

Gucci

Gucci’s creative director Sabato de Sarno’s ‘Ancora’ campaign continues to thrive in Milano as the brand unveiled Gucci Design Ancora in its newly reopened flagship on Via Montenapoleone. Entering through a carpeted staircase surrounded by lacquered walls in the dark red ‘Ancora Rosso’ hue that is a signature of the De Sarno era at Gucci, visitors were presented with an antidote in acid green when they reached the top. Inside this starkly saturated mini maze, architected by Guillermo Santomà, were five objects De Sarno had chosen from several Italian masters over the years that had been re-issued in the Ancora-red hue for the occasion. The Le Mura sofa by Mario Bellini for Tacchini from 1972; the Clessidra rug from an iconic design of Piero Portaluppi made by CC-Tapis; the Storet tallboy by Nanda Vigo for Acerbis in 1994; the Opachi vase by Tobia Scarpa for Venini in 1960; and the Parola lamp by Gae Aulenti and Piero Castiglioni for FontanaArte in 1980 each stood in their own space to be admired from all angles. ‘Through Design Ancora, Gucci doesn’t simply celebrate old icons, it creates new ones,’ said Michela Pelizzari, founder of P:S Agency, which co-curated the project. ’The aura emanating from the brand spotlights five pieces by Italian masters that are perfect from a design standpoint but less known to the general public.’

Thom Browne

For his Salone del Mobile debut, Thom Browne took over the Palazzina Appiani to unveil his collaboration with the 160-year-old home textiles expert Frette with his performance, entitled Time To Sleep. True to his reputation for subverting traditional settings and concepts into unexpected scenarios, Browne placed six identical beds under the frescoes in the Hall of Honour and had models undress themselves before getting into bed. In the models’ getting dressed, rather than undressed, to sleep, Browne intended to ‘challenge the audience to question the role of dress in public life’, highlighting that the act of sleeping is just as important as the hours we are awake. ‘I think it's so much more interesting, and it elevates the product launch, when you create an installation that transcends the specific world that it’s in,’ Browne told Wallpaper* during rehearsals for the performance. The collection, which is available immediately, comprises sheets, blankets, terry-towel and cashmere robes, bath towels, and a quilted bath mat in crisp white cotton-sateen. ‘The reason I wanted to work with Frette is because they’re the best at what they do,’ added Browne.

Saint Laurent

The Paris-based house turned the clock back to 1953 and the private collection of Anala and Armando Planchart who commissioned the legendary architect Gio Ponti to mastermind their hilltop Venezuelan villa overlooking Caracas. On finishing the project, Ponti commissioned artisans from his native Italy to help furnish the space and turned to Ginori 1735 to create a collection of porcelain plates featuring motifs from around the villa and the couple’s initials. It is these plates that creative director Anthony Vaccarello curated and had reissued by the ceramic experts for Saint Laurent’s special installation in the cloisters of the Chiostri di San Simpliciano. Displayed in oscillating tubes on a raised platform that mirrored the height in which they originally lived in Villa Planchart Segnaposto, the presentation marked a coming together of multiple design icons.

Prada

Once again collaborating with FormaFantasma (above), Prada staged its Prada Frames seminar discussions on the theme of Being Home. Throughout the week, luminaries in different fields came together – including Paola Antonelli, Brigitte Baptiste, Kate Crawford, Jack Halberstam and David Van Severen – to cover myriad topics that were contextualised by Alice Rawsthorn. Each of the 17 sessions took their leave from different rooms around the home: for the bedroom, Gulsum Baydar and Philippe Rahm discussed the bedrooms role as a comfort zone; for the living room, Jayden Ali and Jack Halberstam were in conversation with Andrés Jaque exploring the rituals of diaspora communities in architectural spaces; and in the library, Isabella Rossellini and Mary Kuhn examined the relationship between humans and nature in the home, past and present. Staged each year to invite people out of their everyday lives and explore new and alternative analysis of familiar situations, it continues to be a highlight. Read more about Prada Frames.

Issey Miyake

60,000 bamboo skewers were used to create the one-of-a-kind carpet collaboration between Issey Miyake and the Dutch collective We Make Carpets. Famous for transforming everyday objects into artistic works of beauty, the artisans channelled Issey Miyake’s own skill at finding the sweet spot of robust-delicacy with the piece that was created by inserting the skewers one by one by hand into a thick piece of foam. The resulting patterns emerged organically as their dipped ends started to create surface patterns. Issey Miyake praised the group’s tenacity in making something meaningful without the need for ‘fancy gadgets and advanced technologies’, praising their labour-intensive and synchronised teamwork in bringing the piece to life. Transported flat to Milan city centre from where it was crafted in the Netherlands, in a nod to the national emblem it was presented resting on wooden beams crafted from tulip trees at the Via Bagutta flagship.

Versace

‘If These Walls Could Talk’ is an apt name for Versace’s Salone del Mobile presentation staged in its original atelier, the Palazzo Versace on Via Gesu. As many a fashion aficionado will know, it is at this residence that many of the fashion house’s famous catwalk shows have taken place over the years (including that 1991 show that birthed ‘the supermodel’) and where many of its globally recognised logos and icons were first designed, including the Medusa, Barocco and Greca emblems. They were omnipresent through this presentation that guided visitors from room to room, with even more opulence around each corner – an experience heightened by an audio experience created in collaboration with Radio Raheem for each space. They featured pieces new and reworked including The Medusa ’95 Conversational Sofa, the La Greca Bed and the Lady Desk, each a conversation starter in the space they stood.

Loro Piana 

Paying tribute to the late Milanese designer and architect Cini Boeri, Loro Piana showcased the most iconic pieces from her archive and presented them in its famously luxurious interiors fabrics. The collaboration with the official archive of Boeri, marks not only what would have been the year of Boeri’s 100th birthday, but the year Loro Piana also celebrates its centenary. Honouring Boeri’s insistence that furniture should be engaged with at all times, visitors to the presentation were encouraged to touch and sit on the pieces as they moved through the space. ’The thinking of Cini Boeri is extraordinarily contemporary,’ shared Francesco Pergamo, Director of Loro Piana Interiors. ’Just as extraordinarily contemporary remain the pieces we have chosen to exhibit together with Arflex and Archivio Cini Boeri, and to dress with our fabrics.’ Featured in the presentation are the famous modular Strips system, that won the prestigious Compasso d’Oro in 1979, the corresponding bed, the Bobo and Boborelax armchairs and the Botolo Chairs that have been covered in the brand’s ‘cashfur’ and made in a limited edition of 100. ’The dual centenary of Cini’s birth and the founding of Loro Piana has offered us the opportunity to contribute to the appreciation of the architect's figure,’ added Pergamo, who revealed plans to work with the archive on additional projects over the next three years.

Fendi Casa

Welcome to the world of Fendi Casa where the family keeps growing. This year, the Via Manzoni space was masterminded by Silvia Venturini Fendi and realised by Controvento creative collective. Together, they kept the house’s ‘double F’ logo of the house front and center, creating intimate spaces that invite people to cosy up, much like the emblem. The perfect example lies in the new Fendi F-Affair sofa by Controvento that is an interlocking platform of seats and suspended tables presented with a champagne bucket and glasses. It was joined by other collaborations in the sumptuous sofa department, the F-Stripes by Ludovica Serafini and Roberto Palomba and the Sohoft by Toan Nguyen. Existing families grew their brood, too: Thierry Lemaire’s Parsifal sofa was joined by the Mrs Parsifal armchair; Stefano Gallizioli’s Adrianand’s Audrey chair was complemented with square-shaped Audrette chairs; and Cristina Celestino's Ottavia chair was delivered of a sister, the Lazy Ottavia armchair.

Zegna

Zegna staged something of a takeover of Milan as it released its new Rizzoli tome, Born In Oasi Zegna. Named after the 100km of forested land north of Milan in the Biella Alps where its founder Ermenegildo Zegna initiated a reforestation programme in 1910, the book marked a moment for the brand to celebrate both its values and association with the city of Milan. In celebration, mini Zegna-branded newsstands (‘edicolas’) that are famously found on most corners were giving out limited-edition tote bags, while over in the piazza in front of the landmark Duomo, tulips transported in from the area were being planted in the square’s new flower beds. ’The project aims to convey the value and urgency of respect for the Earth and nature, as well as the importance that urban green spaces can bring people closer to natural ecosystems and the protection of biodiversity and social responsibility,’ shared the brand, ’concepts that are fundamental to Oasi Zegna.’

Dolce & Gabbana

Fresh from setting the city alight with its extravagant Milanese exhibition, ’From the Heart to the Hands’, Dolce & Gabbana staged an intimate reveal of its new interiors offering, The Dreaming Collection. Here, it was all about sitting comfortably, as the Moss Curved Sofa, which sits on a polished metal base in black nickel, and the DG Casa Moon Island armchair (above, which the brand said was ‘reminiscent of a warm embrace’) were joined by the Moon Island Sofa – designed to steal the spotlight in any room it’s in, much like everything this brand turns its heart and hand to.

Lanvin

Parisian house Lanvin looked towards its heritage for its installation at Milan Design Week; specifically, Lanvin Decoration, a furniture and decoration line which was first introduced by founder and couturier Jeanne Lanvin in 1920. Lanvin united with Rooms Studio – founded by two Georgian designers Nata Janberidze and Keti Toloraia in 2007 – for the project, which saw the pair curate a number of their pieces, including a series of sculptural chairs and benches, which were displayed at Lanvin’s Milan outpost.

In the grand Hall of Honour in Milan’s Palazzina Appiani this week, you will find six impeccably made beds standing in perfect formation beneath the neoclassical frescoes commissioned by Napoleon for his family residence at the start of the 19th century.

A model patrols the space, intermittently checking his watch, before a bell rings prompting the entrance of six models who slowly, and systematically, stand by each bed and in formation start to get dressed in a suit. Another bell rings: it is time to sleep.

Thom Browne collaborates with Frette at Milan Design Week 2024

The suits aren’t any suits, they are Thom Browne’s uniforms, and the beds they turn to lay on are made with the bedding from his new homeware collection with Frette that the designer has arrived to unveil at Milan Design Week 2024.

‘I think it's so much more interesting, and it elevates the product launch, when you create an installation that transcends the specific world that it’s in,’ Browne told Wallpaper* during rehearsals for the performance, entitled Time To Sleep, that will be repeated in the space throughout the week. In the models’ getting dressed, rather than undressed, to sleep, Browne intended to ‘challenge the audience to question the role of dress in public life’.

Comprising sheets, blankets, terry-towel and cashmere robes, bath towels, and a quilted bath mat, the collection is crafted from Frette’s signature cotton sateen and wool-cashmere and detailed with Browne’s four-stripe insignia, normally found in red, white and blue grosgrain but here in elegant wide embroidery.

‘The reason I wanted to work with Frette is because they’re the best at what they do and the only type of collaborations I do nowadays is when it’s with somebody whose work I respect and where there is mutual respect,’ he said. ‘It also makes it easier, and so much more organic, because they are the experts.’

True to form, Browne’s latest collaboration is an authentic one. The designer and CFDA chairman has been a customer of the 160-year-old Italian brand – which also furnishes the Orient Express – ‘ever since I bought sheets’ and uses it at the New York home he shares with his partner, Andrew Bolton, curator-in-charge at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute and collaborator on Thom Browne, the designer's 20th-anniversary book, released in 2023.

‘They’re all things that I have, so really, the collection is very true to Andrew and I live at home,’ he says, admitting that the idea of a Thom Browne suite on the Orient Express is something he would be very happy to entertain.

As one of Milan’s most important buildings standing stoically in the leafy Parco Sempione, the Palazzina Appiani was the perfect place for Browne to make his Milan Design Week debut.

‘I wanted it to be in one of those iconic Milanese spaces,’ he said. ‘I've done a lot here in Milan in the past, and this was the space I had never used it. I wanted it to feel special – as special as the collection. If I’m going to present it, I’m going to do it somewhere like this – and Frette deserves it.’

Well known for his theatrical fashion shows that subvert the traditional concepts of a fashion presentation, much as his tailoring is famed for challenging the typical properties and convention of a uniform, his debut at Milan Design Week is an homage to his first show in Europe at Pitti in 2009 that saw 40 models line up beside corresponding desks.

‘That was one of those iconic moments for me in my last 20 years,’ he said. ‘And so with [this] performance, it was really [about] taking the collection and contextualising it in a way that was true to the collection and then referencing the Pitti show. Then it was desks, now it’s beds.’

While two of the most distinctive features of the Thom Browne uniform are the colour grey and the creased Oxford shirt (as he told The New Yorker last year: ‘when something is so well made, I think you need something that kind of throws it off a little bit, so it’s not so precious’), his bedding heralds something of a departure.

‘The sheets have to be pressed. And they have to be white. Never another colour for me.’

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'Everything always starts with the grey suit,’ says American designer Thom Browne, who began his eponymous label with his take on the garment – shrunken in the body, hemmed high at the ankle – back in 2003. 

This year marks the label’s 20th anniversary, a two-decade span that has seen Browne become one of the USA’s most prominent and lauded designers, best known for theatrical runway shows that have taken place in both Paris and New York. Earlier this year, he was named part of the Wallpaper* USA 300 in the ‘Legends and Trailblazers’ category, a recognition of his role in shaping America’s cultural and fashion landscape. 2023 also saw him become the chairman of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, succeeding Tom Ford. 

A number of moments have been orchestrated by the designer to mark the milestone; in July, Browne showed his first haute couture collection in Paris amid the dramatic surroundings of the city’s gilded Palais Garnier (a fittingly dramatic backdrop for the designer’s fantastical works), while this month he releases a capsule collection of his signature pieces emblazoned with ‘2003’ as a nod to the brand’s founding year.

Thom Browne on his first-ever monograph, celebrating 20 years

But perhaps the nexus of the anniversary is the release of a new Phaidon-published tome, Thom Browne, which was curated by the designer’s partner Andrew Bolton (and joins our library of favourite fashion books). Bolton, who began his career at London’s V&A Museum, is best known for his work as Wendy Yu curator in charge of the Anna Wintour Costume Centre at the Met in New York, responsible for the annual blockbuster fashion exhibitions which are inaugurated by the star-filled Met Gala (Bolton was also named as part of the Wallpaper* USA 300 in the ‘Keepers of Culture’ category).

For the book – which is designed by Irma Boom to recall Browne’s famous suit in its all-grey palette – Bolton selected a number of past looks by the designer to be photographed by British photographer Johnny Dufort, alongside a selection of archival imagery. Bolton also provides the book’s foreword. ’Everything comes from Andrew’s point of view,’ Browne says. 

Here, following a celebration at the V&A to mark the book’s launch on Monday evening (9 October), Browne tells Wallpaper* the story behind his first-ever monograph. 

Wallpaper*: Tell us a little bit about how the book came about. Why did it feel a fitting way to celebrate 20 years?

Thom Browne: The book was really a mutual collaboration between Phaidon, Andrew and myself. We’ve talked about this for a while and now felt like the perfect time. To be able to work with Andrew was such a privilege – seeing how he interrupts my work through his eyes as someone who has elevated fashion to the highest level was so invaluable. 

W*: A lot of the book is original photography of archival pieces by Johnny Dufort. Why did you want to shoot these new images, rather than using archival imagery? 

TB: I think it’s important to show your work through different eyes. Andrew told me that designers are the worst at curating their own books, everything comes from his point of view...

W*: Why did you choose to work with Johnny on the project? What do you like about his work?

TB: Johnny is not only an incredible fashion photographer but someone whose work transcends fashion. Andrew [had previously] worked with Johnny and invited him to work on this project.

W*: How were the various looks chosen? 

TB: Everything you see in the book is Andrew. I find myself to be more instinctual when it comes to design, so, there’s no way I could have chosen the looks that were featured. Andrew really looks at things from an intellectual point of view and I think you see that evolution across my work because of him.

W*: Why was it important that the book was a design object in itself? What was it like working with Irma Boom on the project? 

TB: I always say that I don’t really work in fashion. I do because it’s the world we find ourselves in, but I try to create work that transcends fashion. For me, the most important thing is to tell stories and make people think in new ways. This was no different when approaching the monograph. Irma is the best at what she does, it was a privilege to work with her on this book.

W*: Did anything strike you looking back at your past work? Do you enjoy the process of looking back?

TB: Seeing the collections through Andrew’s eyes was the most inspiring thing when looking back. I feel like he showcased how I’ve evolved as a designer and pushed myself to be better and better each season. 

W*: At the centre of the book is the suit. Why do you think it is a garment that has resonated with you so much? 

TB: Everything always starts with the grey suit. It was something I wanted for myself 20 years ago, and something that looks just as good today.

W*: What do you think has changed in your approach over the last 20 years? What has stayed the same? 

TB: I always approach my collections in the same way. I want to share new stories and new ideas and make people think when they leave – the kiss of death is when someone thinks that my work was just OK. But for me, making something of the highest quality that is so personal to me will never change.

W*: What‘s the biggest lesson that you’ve learnt? 

TB: To just be yourself and do work that makes people think. You have to really commit to the work and love it so much that you can’t imagine doing anything else.

‘Thom Browne’ is published by Phaidon and released on 25 October 2023.

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Fashion has well and truly infiltrated Frieze Week, with a slew of happenings across the city to coincide with the arrival of Frieze London 2023, which opens to the public tomorrow (12 October 2023). Whether fashionable new sponsors for the fair itself or the numerous other happenings across the city – from a blockbuster Gucci Cosmos exhibition to Dover Street Market’s annual Frieze takeover, as well as relaxing gong bath courtesy of Birkenstock, Tekla and Matches – there is plenty to keep both art and style aficionados amused throughout the week. Here, we run down the fashion-and-Frieze crossovers that aren’t to be missed.

Best fashion moments at London Frieze Week 2023

Stone Island and Dunhill become Frieze partners

The year’s Frieze in London welcomes two new principal partners: Italian streetwear label Stone Island and British heritage house Dunhill, the former supporting Frieze’s ‘Focus’ and ‘Frieze 91’ projects, the latter Frieze Masters. As part of the multi-year deal, Stone Island will give participating ‘Focus’ galleries – younger, less established institutions – a special bursary which is equivalent to 30 per cent of the stand fee. ‘Stone Island is built on community and creative energy inspired by research and innovation, characteristics that define the Focus section of Frieze’s art fairs,’ says Robert Triefus, the brand’s CEO. ‘Through this partnership, Stone Island will offer foundational support to some of the world’s most significant emerging galleries and artists for years to come.’ The partnership will be celebrated with a club night at Koko in Camden on 12 October, as well as a special collaborative collection with Dover Street Market, which will launch at the store the same day. 

Dunhill, meanwhile, will support this year’s edition of Frieze Masters Talks, a celebrated programme of conversations between various art world figures – this year’s participants include Sarah Lucas, Maggi Hambling, Rachel Whiteread and V&A East’s Dr Gus Casely-Hayford, among others. There will also be a dedicated Dunhill space at the fair, whereby the current collection from the house will sit alongside archival pieces, curated by Nick Foulkes, author of Dunhill by Design. 

Burberry supports Sarah Lucas at Tate Britain

Though it opened just prior to Frieze, British artist Sarah Lucas’ latest exhibition ‘Happy Gas’ at Tate Britain (until 14 January 2024) will no doubt attract those travelling to London for the fair (Lucas will also participate in Dunhill’s Frieze Masters Talks on 13 October at 3pm). The exhibition is sponsored by British fashion house Burberry, which under latest creative director Daniel Lee is hoping to forge greater links with Britain’s arts and culture scene. To coincide with the exhibition, Burberry released a special portrait of Lucas photographed by Anton Gottlob at Tate Britain and will host an intimate private dinner during Frieze Week to celebrate the partnership.

‘Humour, desire, domesticity’: read our review of ‘Sarah Lucas: Happy Gas’.

Gucci Cosmos takes over 180 Studios

Brutalist landmark 180 Studios plays host to Gucci Cosmos, a travelling exhibition that celebrates the Italian house’s archive and opens to the public on 11 October to coincide with Frieze Week. The immersive exhibition – comprising a number of garments and accessories that date from Gucci’s founding in 1921 to the present day – features dramatic set pieces from British artist and set designer Es Devlin. These include a pair of enormous white resin figures project with archival looks (an ode to Gulliver’s Travels), a luggage conveyor belt, and a surreal, futuristic imagining of the house’s archives. The exhibition will run until December 2023. 

Take a look inside Gucci Cosmos.

Dover Street Market launches ‘Frieze 2023 Happenings’

Dover Street Market’s London outpost continues its tradition of hosting a series of installations, activations and product launches to coincide with the arrival of Frieze Week. Beginning with a celebratory evening on 12 October – complete with food and drink from its in-house Rose Bakery – these include a special collaborative collection with Stone Island, the arrival of a slew of new Comme des Garçons collections, as well as various special projects with the likes of Mary McCartney, Jake Chapman, Dauphin x The Serpentine Galleries, Susan Nemeth, Angela Hill and Seana Gavin, among others. 

Tekla, Birkenstock and Matches provide a relaxing pit stop

Those seeking escape from the hustle and bustle of the Regent Park tents should head to Mayfair, where Matches is hosting a series of relaxing crystal-bowl gong baths in its Carlos Place townhouse. The occasion is Birkenstock’s recent collaboration with Danish lifestyle brand Tekla, a series of loungewear, clogs and sandals designed to capture the serenity of home. Attendees will also be able to shop the collection, launching exclusively at Matches, while the pieces can also be purchased online.

Gong baths will take place on 12 October 2023 at Matches Townhouse, 5 Carlos Place. Places can be booked here.

Thom Browne celebrates 20 years in business

American designer Thom Browne has arrived in London this week to celebrate 20 years of his theatrical collections, as documented in a new Phaidon-published tome. Browne hosted a dinner on Monday night (9 October) at London‘s V&A to mark the book’s launch – preceeded by a talk alongside critic Charlie Porter – as well as a special lunch on Tuesday alongside department store Harrods. A capsule collection – available on the brand’s website and in flagship stores around the world – will also celebrate the anniversary, featuring its year of founding, 2003, adorning a series of Browne’s iconic pieces, from varsity jackets and sports coats to a classic wool flannel pleated skirt. 

The Row hosts new work by jeweller Ana Khouri

Ana Khouri’s creations have long straddled sculpture and jewellery – Khouri had a background in fine art before starting the eponymous jewellery brand – making Frieze Week the perfect moment to reveal a new collection. Hosted by The Row in its London Carlos Place outpost, Khouri will reveal a new collection of pieces titled ‘Raw’, part of her ‘Edition’ line, which is released every two or three years. Mining Khouri’s fascination with gold – ‘its simplicity, the way it reflects the light and illuminates the skin’, as she describes – the various pieces are inspired by the process of digging in the dirt for gold. ’I was overwhelmed by a sense of reverence for the care involved in procuring such a gift from the earth and how that care can yield something so exceptional,’ she says. ‘Unearthing even the smallest fragment of raw gold, holding it in my hand, I felt enveloped by something larger – as if nature’s creative energy and my own had merged.’

Margaret Howell hosts exhibition celebrating Architectural Review’s memorable covers

Opening on 13 October 2023, Margaret Howell will host a new exhibition in her Wigmore Street store (featured in a recent behind-the-scenes film), celebrating two decades of Architectural Review covers spanning the 1960s and 1970s (eras of design that have long been a fascination for Howell). The exhibition follows a show hosted by the brand during the London Festival of Architecture 2023, whereby photographs of Britain’s cooling towers – ‘sculptural giants’ – were celebrated in a mesmerising display in the brand’s flagship store.

The Architectural Review Covers Exhibition runs at Margaret Howell, 34 Wigmore Street from 13 October – 5 November 2023.

Vestiaire Collective supports the Barbican’s new exhibition on ecology and gender

Fashion resale platform Vestiare Collective – which aims to provide a sustainable, circular way of buying and selling luxury fashion – sponsors a major new group exhibition at the Barbican, titled ‘RE/SISTERS: A Lens on Gender and Ecology’. Across various mediums – including photography, film and installations – the expansive exhibition sees 50 women and gender-non-conforming artists explore ‘the systemic links between the oppression of women and the degradation of the planet’. A particular focus is placed on work from indigenous communities, while several of the artworks look towards a brighter future: ‘a roadmap for creative forms of civil disobedience and protest: a lesser explored, cautiously optimistic route to reconsidering our relationship to the Earth’, as the institution describes. To celebrate the launch, Vestiare Collective will host a private view and dinner on 11 October 2023. 

‘RE/SISTERS: A Lens on Gender and Ecology’ runs from 5 October 2023 – 14 January 2024 at Barbican Art Centre

Theory ‘Shades of Fall’ 

To celebrate the launch of a new campaign, ‘Shades of Fall‘ – based on the idea of colour theory – American brand Theory hosted an exhibition of work by Wanda Koop and Kenny Rivero at No. 9 Cork Street Gallery (a partnership with Frieze, it was celebrated with an intimate dinner on Friday evening). The two artists offered their own colour theories as part of the campaign; ‘red is the most powerful and passionate,’ said Koop, while Rivero posited that ‘black is the uniform, the armour and the camouflage that lets me be everywhere and nowhere at once.’

Discover the best of Frieze London 2023 in our ongoing round-up.

‘I wanted it to feel like Thom Browne is hugging Moncler,’ says the American designer of his interpretation of the Italian outerwear brand’s Maya jacket, part of Moncler’s 70th-anniversary celebrations which began with a takeover of Milan’s Pizza Della Duomo last month. ‘The perfect combination of Thom Browne and Moncler, front and back. You see me in the front and Moncler in the back. Or vice versa.’

Indeed, the limited-edition jacket’s design sees hallmarks of both labels combined into a singular hybrid garment, as if in embrace – from the back, a shrunken grey suit jacket, shirt and tie (the undeniable Thom Browne uniform), from the front, a hooded nylon boudin-quilted puffer, in the style of the original Maya jacket. The asymmetric bottom half of the coat evokes Browne’s signature pleated kilts, here married with an elongated quilted panel.

It is not the first time that Browne has worked with the brand; previously, he was creative director of Moncler Gamme Bleu, an offshoot of the label which ran from 2009 to 2017 and showed at Milan Fashion Week. ‘Moncler Gamme Bleu reflects the synergy of Moncler’s expertise in active sportswear and outerwear with the handmade tailoring sensibility of Thom Browne,’ read a release for the A/W 2016 season.

‘Moncler has been such an important part of my last ten years, so this project was something that I really wanted to do – for all the work that I did with Moncler, but also for Remo [Ruffini, the brand’s CEO and chairman]. He acquired the brand not long before I started, so we kind of grew up together. It makes it a very personal project.’

Browne’s approach to the Maya jacket was not unlike the way he would create his Gamme Bleu collections – reinterpreting Moncler’s classic designs through his own irreverent lens, often featuring plays on proportion and shape. ‘I worked with Moncler for so long that I have played with – or re-proportioned – most of its iconic pieces. I know the Maya jacket really well, so for this collaboration I just wanted to do what I did with Gamme Bleu over those years and put half of me in the project, half of Moncler. That’s really what you see in this jacket.’

Moncler has an illustrious legacy of collaboration, most recently with its Genius project, whereby various international designers have been given the opportunity to create collections that marry their own aesthetic with the Moncler DNA. For the 70th anniversary, Browne joins six other creatives in reimagining the Maya jacket – Hiroshi Fujiwara, Rick Owens, Pierpaolo Piccioli, Francesco Ragazzi, Pharrell Williams and Giambattista Valli, the latter previously designing Gamme Rouge at the same time Browne was at Gamme Bleu. These jackets will drop in exclusive weekly drops, with Browne’s launching this week on 22 October 2022.

‘I think with any good collaboration you have to respect who you’re collaborating with, and I think it comes down to mutual respect from both parties,’ says Browne of why these partnerships have proved so successful. ‘Remo has always been generous in making sure that there aren’t any limits. I love seeing what other people are doing and how they interpret the same project – it’s always good to be in a group of such talented people.’

The project is accompanied by a visual campaign by Platon, a Greece-born, London-based photographer best known for his bold black and white portraiture (he has photographed numerous American presidents and world leaders, as well as musicians, actors and cultural luminaries). The American actor Lee Pace – who stars in the recently released Halina Reijn-directed movie Bodies, Bodies, Bodies – appears in Browne’s design in the short film and photographic series. The designer calls Pace ‘part of the family’ (an avid wearer of Browne’s collections, Pace attended the 2021 Met Gala in a custom tuxedo jacket and shorts by the designer).

‘I like working with people who are the best at what they do, and he represents that,’ says Browne. ‘Because this project was so personal I thought it was important to pick somebody who was personal to me.’ 

Moncler Maya 70 by Thom Browne launches October 22, 2022.

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Ever since the digital device was deemed to be unavoidable, ubiquitous and an integral part of our lives, the search has been on for a credible digital detox, a way to smooth out the relentlessly insistent nature of instant access to information and communications. For digital doubters, the new Samsung Galaxy Z Flip phone is a step in the right direction. This new stab at a folding phone demands that you open it up before zoning out of your surroundings. The NY-based fashion brand Thom Browne clearly believes that this smart black square is the key to a quiet life, as well as offering up the perfect canvas for self-expression, both sartorial and digital

The new Samsung Galaxy Z Flip Thom Browne Edition offers refinement from the packaging onwards. The limited edition device has a tailored software interface with app icons that appear to be hand-stitched and lettering that takes its cue from the company image. A Venetian blind style wake screen takes inspiration from the American Gigolo aesthetic that permeates the brand, while there's also a grey leather case, grey earbuds and the simple Thom Browne four-bar logo to wrap up the all-American style sensibility.

Even the sounds have been given a late-century makeover, with a typewriter clack for the on-screen keyboard, an old-school analogue ringtone and the sound of a shoe tapping on the floor as a notification. The tone is under statement, despite the Z Flip's bountiful tech specs and cutting-edge appearance – this is the first credible folding phone on the market, with a mechanism that's good for a minimum of 200,000 actions. The tiny notification screen on the front, 12-megapixel main camera and useful 256GB of storage mean you're not scrimping on specification while still majoring on style

INFORMATION

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Thom Browne is usually spotted sporting a slate grey suit of his own design, favouring in warmer months, a knee-length short style that reflects his obsession with preppy Ivy League dress codes. As a child, the first summer suit which Browne’s mother bought him was cut in lightweight seersucker cotton. ‘It was always part of my life…summer life…’ Browne explains, of the striped puckered fabric, first used in men’s suiting in 1909 by tailor Joseph Haspel in New Orleans, which today riffs on rumpled elegance and is essential to the designer’s take on American prep.

For Browne’s S/S 2020 women’s show, the designer was keen to immerse guests in his favourite fabric, creating a garden of Versailles-like show set in Paris, created entirely in grey and white stripe seersucker fabric. Seersucker roses grew from the ground and tongue-in-cheek urinating cherub statues were also swathed in the crumpled fabric. Browne bought his Wasp-y world to 18th century silhouettes, pairing saccharine seersucker suiting with architectural panniers, sported by models in towering Pompadour wigs and twizzling straw boater hats on sticks.

‘This is the uniform for everyone’s summer wardrobe,’ adds Browne. For men, short suits were imagined in an array of vibrant striped hues, from candyfloss pink to cornflower. The beauty of the fabric lies in its everyday ease. It’s infinitely elegant, yet gains even more aesthetic beauty as the fabric develops another time-worn wrinkle. Browne's silhouettes will withstand a gamut of garden parties, and they're best sported when lounging in a deck chair, sipping a strong cocktail and staring at a bed of roses, be they from the designer's Versailles-inspired landscape, or in their natural state.

INFORMATION

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Over the last month, we’ve transitioned to viewing the world from a smaller viewfinder. As the perspective of our new parameters has shifted, so we’ve found uplift in everyday domestic details or striking beauty in the natural world, now seen largely through our windows. As fashion designers have acclimatised to this new, four wall-defined way of life, from Beijing to Berlin, London to Longiano, we’ve invited those within our creative community to document by hand what they can see from their work desk or window. Here we present our rooms with a view.

Manolo Blahnik, Bath

‘The sky was blue almost Mediterranean,’ says the footwear behemoth of the lush garden view from his bedroom window.

Maria Grazia Chiuri, womenswear artistic director Dior, Rome

A unifying Italian flag hangs from the window of Chiuri's home in Italy's capital.

Michael Halpern, London

Jars of citrus fruits and bowls of fiery chillis sit on the colour-inclined womenswear designer's work desk.

Margaret Howell, Suffolk

‘One drawing is my sheep’s trough with planted tall, reed grass. The other is my hazelnut tree, which planted itself by seed many years ago. I drew this just as it’s new leaves are coming out. At least nature is carrying on as normal' – MH.

Bryan Conway, design director Tiger of Sweden, Stockholm

Titled ‘Spring in Sweden,' Conway's sketch offers a tree-lined street scene in the country's capital.

Marco de Vincenzo, Rome

From his window, the womenswear designer can see the splendid baroque architecture of Rome.

Massimo Giorgetti, founder MSGM, Milan

Plant-festooned balconies greet Giorgetti as he looks across Milan from his apartment.

Eudon Choi, London

From the view of his kitchen table, the womenswear designer sees a selection of sculptures and stacks of his husband's copies of Wallpaper*.

Karl Templer, artistic director Ports 1961, London

A green garden view greets the artistic director from his work desk in London.

Pierre Hardy, Paris

The window view through the accessories and jewellery aficionados wood panelled apartment reveals the splendour of the River Seine.

Thom Browne, New York

The designer presents an abstract view from his Central Park West location.

Petar Petrov, Vienna

Mannequins and a cutting table make up the designer's view across his mid-century apartment and live-in studio.

Isabel Marant, Paris

Natural beauty greets the progenitor of Parisian chic from her window.

Samuel Ross, founder A-Cold-Wall*, London

The boundary-pushing menswear designer shares a domestic scene from the London-based home he shares with his family.

Maria Skappel-Holzweiler, head of design Holzweiler, Oslo

For the head of design of the family run, Norwegian brand, respite comes in watching her children painting Easter eggs, outside in a pergola.

Sean Suen, Beijing

The menswear designer, who has been on lockdown since late January, shares a domestic scene in pencil and coloured wax crayon.

Lorraine Acornley, creative director Begg & Co, Hertfordshire

Quick daily observational sketches of a plant pot on Acornley's desk, ‘explore line and materials'.

Giuseppe Zanotti, Longiano

The Italian footwear behemoth is currently residing in his home in Longiano, Emilia-Romagna, a short distance from the brand's factory.

Daniel Rosenberry, artistic director Schiaparelli, New York 

‘My window, my desk, my things and me' – DR.

Tammy Kane, co-founder and creative director Christopher Kane, London

A view of nature across a conservatory has been imagined using oil on canvas and oil crayon.

Albert Kriemler, creative director Akris, St Gallen

Lines from First Suprematist Standing Poem (1965), by writer, visual artist and gardener Ian Hamilton Finlay, greet Kriemler.

Giuseppe Marretta, menswear design director, Pringle of Scotland, London

Exhibition posters and verdant plant life offer visual distraction for the menswear designer.

MM6 design collective, MM6, Paris

The eclectic collective serve up a symbolic sketch inspired by the inversion of social structures. ‘Even so, we are still singing,' they add.

Cecilie Bahnsen, Copenhagen

A huge Scots pine tree stands outside Bahnsen's window in the Danish capital.

Erdem Moralıoğlu, London

A sketch of rooftops from Moralıoğlu's window sits amongst ready-to-wear illustrations and swatches of fabric.

Alessandro Sartori, artistic director Ermenegildo Zegna, Milan

An abstract artwork, cosy chair and Cire Trudon candles all make up Sartori's domestic set up.

Roksanda Ilinčić, London

Linck Ceramics vases – from a curated Matchesfashion collection with Wallpaper's Picky Nicky – stand next to a window plastered with a community-focused NHS poster. 

Molly Molloy, co-founder Colville, Milan

‘I look out on to a courtyard of bright yellow apartments and have a balcony full of tropical plants. When the sun is out I have the windows open, you can hear the clattering of plates at lunch time and the smell of amazing Italian dishes cooking.' – MM

Ramesh Nair, artistic director Moynat, Paris

Stacks of artist monographs and a feline friend sit on Nair's busy work desk.

Feng Chen Wang, Shanghai

Shanghai's built up skyline forms the backdrop to the menswear designer's studio space.

Gherardo Felloni, creative director Roger Vivier, Isola del Giglio 

A burnt sun setting over the ocean greets the footwear designer from his island home.

Alexandre Mattiussi, founder AMI, Paris

A window view completely free of buildings offers the natural gift of a clear blue sky.

Moodboard: Ten years ago, in January 2009, Thom Browne staged a performance at Pitti Uomo in which hordes of female models dressed as clones of the designer himself, undersized grey flannel suits and all, sat at identical desks, behaving like your average Joe would at the office, only at a far more glacial pace. The show became instantly embedded into the fashion audience’s collective consciousness and, ever since, Browne has been known for his often cryptic, sometimes humorous, always slow-themed shows. And, ten years after that first Florentine show, the cycle has come full circle. On Sunday, guests arrived at the Beaux Arts on Paris’ Rive Gauche to find a rectangular glass structure containing an office, with several desks, coat hangers, table lamps and old-fashioned typewriters. Nothing could feel more inherently Thom Browne.

Best in show: The same applied to the clothes: the show opened, as it usually does, with a group of models dressed identically, this time in trademark tightly-proportioned grey suits with short trousers, complete with beige mini macs. Making their way to a workspace they started methodically typing away as the rest of the show went by, to the sounds of Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence. One thing was clear: this season was the antithesis of the last one, physically and metaphorically: beach holidays had been swapped for everyday humdrumness, yes, but torturous high heels, masks and bondage-inspired gowns had also given way to ultra comfortable loafers, clicking away as models advanced, and simple pleated trousers. The couture-like quality of Browne’s feminine clothes was of course still there, but this time it felt more subtle, reaching its technical climax with a golden coat in which astrakhan gave way to embroidery almost imperceptibly. As for the rest, it was, as the French would say, ‘un retour aux sources'.

Team Work: One of the objects present on every single desk on set was particularly intriguing: it was a photo-sized replica (the kind parents keep of their kids at the office) of Una Troubridge’s portrait by Romaine Brooks. Hailed as a sort of family member, the monocled figure acted as the main inspiration for the collection. Models were styled after her, their hair so masculine-like you would have been forgiven for temporarily forgetting you were at a womenswear show. It was this sort of garçonne-spirited androgyny that first caught the attention of the industry at the very first Thom Browne show. On Sunday, it did again.

There’s a special synergy when icons of the world of culture meet – but it’s not always obvious how you get in the room.

When British photographer David McCabe arrived in Connecticut at Philip Johnson’s famed The Glass House in 1964 to shoot Andy Warhol, he couldn’t find the front door. Trying to locate an entrance in the the minimalist structure, with its tricks of the light, endless transparency and reflection, McCabe took a fortuitous turn that lead to an unexpectedly intimate encounter with Warhol. 

‘It must have been about nine in the morning. We stumbled upon the guesthouse and it had this huge porthole type window. And I look in and there’s Andy, in bed. My first reaction was to step back – I felt like I was invading his privacy. But he saw me, and he grabbed his shades and put them on and sat up in bed, very regally draped with a satin sheet.' McCabe says, talking on the phone from New York. ‘I said screw it, I’m gonna shoot!'

McCabe had photographed Warhol on countless occasions before then, since he’d been hired by the artist to document a year in his life – but until The Glass House, always ‘at night, in clubs or in galleries, dimly lit places, pretty challenging situations. But here the light was just beautiful – it was a very easy shoot for me. I’d never been in an environment like that before. If I could design a photo studio, it would be just like that.'

That day McCabe would also capture what is now one of the definitive photographs of Warhol, gazing out of The Glass House, still wearing his shades, but now dressed, in a slick suit and tie. The photographs were not directed, McCabe says, and he simply captured the intensity of the characters who gathered at The Glass House, including Johnson’s then partner David Whitney. ‘I was just like a fly on the wall – well actually, there aren’t really any walls!'

It’s that momentous image that inspired designer Thom Browne’s latest campaign for a Golf Collection, photographed by Micaiah Carter and featuring friends of the brand, and McCabe himself – playing the role of the late Johnson. The limited-edition offering follow Browne's Tennis Collection, and features an energetic array of Argyle and tartan knitwear and tailoring, and pompom-detail sweatsuits inspired by vintage golf club covers. ‘I prefer to be on my side of the camera, quite frankly!' McCabe jokes. It has been 54 years since he was at the Glass House. ‘In a way nothing had changed.'

‘It was a very nostalgic experience for me to recollect my impressions as a younger man – and then to be surrounded by all these creative people, and Thom’s amazing outfits…' The world-famous image of a musing, elegant Warhol – one of McCabe’s most enduring and celebrated pictures from the time he spent with the artist – has also been recreated for the collection’s campaign, and we think it's a hole in one.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Thom Browne website and the David McCabe website

Mood board: It’s still only September but the chilly, unstable weather we have been experiencing in the French capital during Paris Fashion Week has got more than one person dreaming about the beach already. As it turns out, so is Thom Browne. Then again, the American designer is often inspired by the vibrant coastal landscape and marine life in his collections. This time, he presented his S/S 2019 outing against a show set featuring a pastel-coloured paper palm trees and striped beach sheds reminiscent of the island of Nantucket, populated by a fairy tale-like cast of characters clad in variations of his classic XS suit including feathered seagulls, sequined fish and embroidered seashells.

Best in show: This was the perfect backdrop for a collection that explored the culture of the prepster set during the summer season. Reminders of Browne’s fondness for marine life (the sort of cartoonish silhouettes of whales, crabs and lobsters that populate his suit jackets and accessories were everywhere, including the tights) coexisted with colourful gingham suits, coats made out of printed plastic picnic tablecloths and fruity motifs. Not that it was all happy-go-lucky and sweet: Browne’s very particular brand of BDSM-inspired perversity was omnipresent, from the way he made his models advance at a snail’s pace wearing fetish heels, to the fishermen net-like bondage suits. Most of the models’ faces were also hidden behind ominous masks – that they were holding with their mouths! -– making for an extraordinarily unsettling show experience. But then again, that’s where the designer thrives.

Finishing touches: Accessories, on the other hand, were, quite simply, all about cuteness. A tiny chained doctor bag decorated with an anchor opened the show, and led the way for an assembly of new pieces including a naïf gingham bucket bag much like a kid’s beach bucket, mini picnic baskets and hats in the shape of cherries, bananas and watermelons.

Given its track record for staging fashion spectaculars, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute does not shy away from controversy by any means. Its latest effort, ‘Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination’, which examines the influence of Roman Catholic imagery and symbolism in fashion, may have been polarising from the outset. However, installed within the museum’s galleries for Byzantine and medieval art, its Costume Center space and also uptown at The Met Cloisters, the historical context of viewing both ecclesiastical fashion and genuine religious garments bestows the exhibition with a palpable gravitas, whether you are a believer or not.

As the largest undertaking the Costume Institute has attempted to date, ‘Heavenly Bodies’ brings together over 150 garments, including 40 papal robes and vestments dating back to the mid-18th century, on loan from the Sistine Chapel Sacristy – an unprecedented move as some of them have never been seen outside of the Vatican exhibition space in the museum, the task was given to Diller Scofidio + Renfro to create a cohesive exhibition design to bring it all together.

‘We were really game to take on such a complex theme,’ says founding partner Liz Diller, who also oversaw the firm’s design for the museum’s Charles James retrospective in 2014. ‘The idea of bringing in all this modern and contemporary fashion with [objects] from the Vatican was a challenge to figure out how do. To do it both in the spaces of the museum and at the Cloisters – there was a lot that had to be thought through and resolved.’

‘We spent a lot of time in the early days talking about taking the subject matter seriously on its own terms, but also not being overly reverential and trying not to do anything campy or too narrative. Keeping a foot in the museum and then also [bringing] something more elevated was something we tried to get the right balance for,’ adds project lead Kumar Atre.

The exhibition opens in the Byzantine and Medieval art galleries, where ethereal creations from Dior, Givenchy and Valentino are situated alongside more austere, nun and clergy-inspired garb from Thom Browne and Yves Saint Laurent in its sanctuary-like setting.

DS+R specially designed a display system, made from concrete, steel and acrylic, that quietly adapted itself to the garments being showcased. From hovering platforms lightly suspended off the ground, to towering industrial pedestals and modern yet other worldly vitrines, the system’s variations maintain a fresh, yet continuous thread as viewers explore the various spaces.

Diller explains, ‘There was an existing museology in all the spaces, and so we had to intersect it in a way that was both respectful, but also give the show a coherence about it.’

From this historical backdrop, the exhibition moves on to the white-box Anna Wintour Costume Center, where the Vatican’s loaned objects are appropriately given their own moment. Papal robes are displayed in wide cases, while mitres and other accessories are shown in tall single vitrines, each visible on all sides so that visitors can appreciate the intricate embroidery and all its details.

The final part of the exhibition’s triptych strikes a more spiritual and contemplative note amongst the solitude of the Met Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park near the Bronx. Playing off the dramatic monastery architecture, creations by Rick Owens, Undercover and Gareth Pugh are presented in all their irreverent glory.

‘The show is in cooperation with other curators and a lot of other artifacts,’ Diller concludes. ‘There is a kind of thinking about all the links and a building of the choreography, but it’s also about taking advantage of and interpreting what’s already there.’

INFORMATION

‘Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination’ is on view from 10 May – 8 October 2018. For more information, visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art website

Fashion week is not just the time for brands to showcase new collections. It’s also the schedule from which they experiment with new formats, be it presentations or video debuts, the merging of men’s and women’s lines or the showcase of see-now-buy-now collections. Last night on 20 February, Italian label Moncler debuted the latest chapter in the narrative of its creative vision, unveiling the ‘Genius Building’, a magnificent show at Palazzo delle Scintilla, made up of eight individual presentations by a roster of Moncler’s latest collaborators, including Craig Green, Simone Rocha and Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli.

‘Since the beginning, Moncler has been constantly been looking for new means of expression,’ explains Remo Ruffini, Moncler’s chairman and CEO. Until last year, the brand had presented its Thom Browne and Giambattista Valli directed Moncler Gamme Bleu and Rouge lines on the men’s and women’s fashion week schedule. It has also collaborated with a roster of creative talents including Jean Philippe-Delhomme, Greg Lauren and Off-White.

Last night, Moncler bought its diverse and evolving approach to collaboration to a majestic crescendo. Eight separate presentation galleries were cloaked in futuristic silver fabric, like huge draped theatre curtains or interplanetary oil cylinders. As guests entered each space via entrances like tunnel or porthole, they were greeted with eight diverse set-ups, which featured imaginative reinterpretations of the brand’s classic down jacket.

Take Pierpaolo Piccioli, whose ethereal installation featured a range of gently flaring and multicoloured duvet coats on elongated mannequins, their widening silhouettes taking on a couture meets Handmaid’s Tale sensibility. Or Simone Rocha, whose set-up featured models dressed as Victorian climbers walking amongst a snowy mountain landscape.

Rocha, who is renowned for using gauzy and lightweight fabrics like lace and tulle, was fascinated by Moncler’s signature down fabric, presenting quilted asymmetric dresses with marabou trim, and scarlet coats with fronds of ruffles. 'It was amazing to work on a project that required a new level of expertise,’ she says. ‘I wanted to work with materials that were signature to me like twill or cloqué, and balance those pieces with the down.’

‘We had real freedom,’ says Craig Green, whose presentation space featured two undulating mechanical structures, designed by London-based set designers Isabel + Helen, which resembled steaming pistols or globulous jellyfish. Green has a long fascination with underwater imagery, and his architectural padded designs resembled huge deep sea diving suits that protected the body. ‘They’re like crazy Moncler flotation devices,’ he adds of the pieces, which were presented against a dark backdrop of eerie mechnical noises, like the sounds of a submarine miles below the surface of the sea.

Moncler has always taken its catwalk set-ups to amazing heights. For its A/W 2017 show in New York, the brand recreated a majestic Viennese Ball at Hammerstein Ballroom, and for its S/S 2016 Gamme Bleu show in Paris, its regatta-inspired show set featured a catwalk installed with rowing boats. The Moncer Genius Building debut was a creative culmination of this performance-focus. Produced by Villa Eugénie, it also comprised of a Karl Templer curated installation featuring a giant patchwork sea of Moncler jackets, Sandro Mandrino’s presentation of models moving as if inside a huge reflective kaleidoscope, and Comme des Garçons’ protégé Noir Kei Ninomiya's darkly minimalist set-up, which featured mannequins clothed in innovative knitted down.

‘I believe that creativity has no boundaries,’ Ruffini says. ‘I conceived the Moncler Genius as a hub of exceptional creative minds, that will work together under the same brand, keeping Moncler's DNA alive.’

INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Moncler website

Scene setting: The Thom Browne look is as defined as it is in motion. The performative aspect to his shows and – more importantly – the clothes, are delivered for an Instagram age but he’s been doing this since 2003. There is real authenticity to how Browne chooses to show his collections. A/W18 was held at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts on a rainy Saturday afternoon. The space had been set up like a snowy holiday camp, complete with naked trees and ski-loungers lined in tricolor down sleeping bags.
 
Best in show: Last season, Browne riffed on gender in his own inimitable way, putting male models in stiletto heeled brogues and tailored dresses in grey flannel. The catwalk collections showcase Browne’s sense of humour. A/W18, he says simply, is about ‘elaborations on a jacket and a pair of trousers’. The sack shapes, high armholes and abbreviated proportion that created the label all come to the fore. Models walked around the snowy catwalk and then came back out wearing fine grey marl all in ones. They each unzipped a sleeping bag and slipped inside. Tucking the models in were two oddballs dressed in white skirts and short boucle jackets with fencing masks in lace.
 
Mood board: The collection revisits the codes in Browne’s archive. His foundation is playing with proportion; playing with our perception of performance. At the core of the brand are the classic wingtip brogue in pebble grain, the slim-fit grey marl suits and fresh Oxford shirts all made in New York. He presented his last Gamme Bleu collection for Moncler last season, so there was more sportswear offered in his own line. Sartorial meets the sporty in down jacket suits. Classic tailoring is done on cable knit, padded and down-filled. Flannels, Donegal tweed, camel. Irish knits and Fair Isle knits. Tartans. There is a tradition to the textile; A/W18 feels edited and tight. Browne notes: ‘It all comes down to a grey suit. That’s it.’

Scene setting: It was back to the Hôtel de Ville for showgoers, for the second time in the week after the Dries Van Noten show. This time, though, the gilded, frescoed baroque salons of the Paris Mayor’s office were not the backdrop of some louche, decadently living Dries girl, but what could have been the palace of a prince charming in a fairy tale. One that was complete with fairy godfathers, male models dressed in the unmistakeable Thom Browne tiny-proportioned pleated skirt suits (this time realised entirely in white organza), floating around and brandishing glimmering fairy wands. The room's crystal chandeliers had an adding to them, giant balls of organza shaped to look like planets. We didn’t know it then, but we were being prepared for a unique experience.

Mood board: This was the first time the American designer – a fixture in the Parisian men’s schedule – was showing his women’s collection in the French capital. A designer as epically-minded as Thom Browne was never going to let such a big opportunity get away. For the occasion, he put on a show that could very well compete with any of the ones in the official couture calendar. And, like couture shows, his starting point was ‘unicorns and mermaids, and all the things that little girls dream of’, as he put it. Deep down, the idea was exceedingly simple: take several fairytale tropes. Yes, there were mermaids, but also sleeping beauties, princesses and even a brilliant couture-like finale where the bride was substituted by a gigantic organza unicorn majestically advancing on the runway. Combined with Jodi Benson’s The Little Mermaid soundtrack, it moved the audience, in some cases to tears. Isn’t that what great fairy tales do?

Best in show: No one has even disputed Browne’s extraordinary technical skills. Yesterday’s show, though, went a step further. Chiffon was embroidered, worked as a milefeuille in mermaid skirts, shredded and curled to make it look fantastically fluffy, almost like marabout feathers. Then crafted into blazer jackets, quilt-like motifs or even 3D figures, like the multi-coloured octopus climbing up a model's back. Quilted volumes exaggerated the female form in a sculptural manner. Even simpler tweeds and wools had their proportions reworked, giving them an eerie feeling. Towards the end, embroidery became more present, especially in a stunning two-piece suit gleaming with pastel-coloured sequins that almost looked pointilliste. Browne was not interpreting any fairy tale here; he was creating his own.

Thom Browne arrived on London’s Albemarle Street last week with his second freestanding shop in Europe and a celebratory Wimbledon-themed capsule collection.

The American fashion designer worked with architect Flavio Albanese, founder of ASA Studio and a longtime friend, on the design. ‘I appreciate his intelligent approach to architecture and interiors as well as his understanding of my design sensibilities,’ said Browne, who added that he wanted the space to align with his other stores while having qualities unique to London.

Thom Browne celebrated the launch of his first London store with a Wimbledon inspired ’Tennis’ collection. Pieces from the collection was captured at the Golden Lanes and Barbican Estate, and were shot by Laurence Ellis

Spread across two levels, the 1,500-square-foot space features the mid-century office-inspired style that's become synonymous with Thom Browne stores. Venetian slat blinds cover the windows, rows of fluorescent tube lights line the ceilings and a refined palette of grey, black and white prevails. (Browne's fascination with the beauty of the boardroom could also be seen at Design Miami's Basel edition last month, where he curated the fair's Design at Large programme with a retrospective of statement desk designs from the last 100 years.)

A mix of polished-white Calacatta, Carrara and banker-grey Bardiglio marble clads the walls and ceilings. It creates a striking contrast with the organic lines and warm woods of the furniture in store – showstoppping pieces by American and French designers such as Paul McCobb, Jacques Adnet, Maison Jansen and Dunbar by Edward Wormley. ‘This juxtaposition is something I like personally and is true to the way I live,’ said Browne.

The designer has arranged his men’s and women’s ready-to-wear and accessories collections across the ground floor. Fitting rooms and a seating area are on the lower level, an area Browne says ‘replicates my own living space’. A crisp white floating spiral staircase to the right of the entrance links the two. ‘I liked how the layout did not feel like a true retail space,’ he added.

The new outpost is the latest glamorous resident to settle on Mayfair’s Albemarle Street. Current tenants include Casadei, Vincent van Duysen, Alexander Wang and Aquazzura, to name just a few. 

‘Since taking ownership of Albemarle Street, we have embarked on a significant transformation for this part of Mayfair to create a new luxury lifestyle destination,' said Matt Farrell, director of Trophaeum, landlord of the building. 'This year we plan to continue to curate Albemarle Street as one of the finest day-to-night destinations in the capital with significant public-realm investment and several more new openings.’ 

It’s a location that ‘just felt right’, Browne said of the spot. ‘I am excited to open in London – it’s a city that has supported my collections from the beginning.’

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Thom Browne website

ADDRESS

3 Albemarle St
Mayfair
London
W1S 4HE

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

Mood board: Designers were in a contemplative mood this season. At Officine Générale, creative director Pierre Mahéo handed out a letter explaining the self-doubt he had experienced as the creator of wearable, smart clothes in a sea of quick-fire trends; Rei Kawakubo’s jubilant ‘what’s on the inside that maters’ collection for her Comme des Garçons Homme Plus label turned both garments and our emotions inside-out. Thom Browne decided to smack the archetypal codes of menswear and womenswear together. The show (nay performance) was a ‘why not!’ to everybody else’s ‘why?’ Why not put men in what is traditionally considered to be women's attire?  Why not apply seemingly feminine proportions and details to men's tailoring? Well, why not indeed. The result was a proposition for menswear that felt provocatively rational.

Finishing touches: Each of the 46 looks was modelled by men who walked the catwalk wearing Browne’s classic wingtip brogue with an added high heel. Three glass cases stood in the middle of the space, in each a bronzed pair of shoes; ‘mens’ brogues; a pair of tiny baby slippers; and then the heeled, feminised style. Each model glanced momentarily at the child’s booties in a symbolic gesture designed to reinstate a relationship to a time when clothes weren’t so gendered. The sharp clothes were of course, well cut. Browne’s cropped jackets, sack sport-coats and skirts were perversely recognisable in new ways.

Best in show: From the blazers and chesterfield coats to cardigans, pleated skirts and trousers, S/S 2018 is precise and mildly subversive with its bracelet sleeves, inside girdles and high buttoning necks. All in a somber palette of greys, navy blue, white, camel. For the more binary, Browne’s smart tailoring was still here; there were higher vents in jackets lined with his signature tricolore taping. His message wasn’t shocking or radically new. But that was the point. 

June sees the return of Design Miami/ for its Basel edition, and along with it the fair’s Design at Large programme, which presents contemporary design in a new conceptual light. For its fourth iteration, the showcase is curated by Thom Browne – the first time a fashion designer has overseen the exhibition – who has put together a retrospective of statement desk designs from the last century, coupled with a choreographed performance focusing on young design students and their creative responses to the installation.

Browne’s installation will include design classics such as Charlotte Perriand’s curved wooden desk, and Pierre Paulin’s ‘CM141’ desk produced by Thonet in the 1950s, as well as iconic designs by Jean Prouvè and Charles and Ray Eames. Some designs on display challenge the traditional desk structure more than others; case in point Ron Arad’s steel ‘Two Legs and a Table’, or Pucci De Rossi’s postmodern marble, glass and wooden piece. 

‘I chose the desks purely based on their design importance in the last century,’ explains Browne, whose display also includes a large-scale installation plucked from his A/W 2014 runway set – a woodland tableau complete with a river and an array of animals clad in menswear fabrics. The 15 desks in the exhibition are displayed in a strict grid-like pattern facing the installation, forming an interesting juxtaposition with the more conceptual scene.

Browne notes, ‘I believe it is vital that as living designers in an increasingly interdisciplinary creative realm we revisit these significant movements and consider how each challenged the status quo and made way for innovation.’ To wit, this Basel exhibition is a fitting example of the multifaceted practice of the designer, who is celebrated for his thrilling fashion shows.

‘The concept of the installation is really taking the very classic idea of menswear fabrics and interpreting them into an autumn/winter scene,’ says Browne. ‘The desks are almost a separate installation which the artists will actually use during the performance so, for me, it will be a study as to how the two concepts play into each other.’

INFORMATION
Design Miami/ Basel runs from 13 – 18 June. For more information, visit the website

ADDRESS

Design Miami/ Basel
Hall 1 Süd
Messe Basel

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

Scene setting: Thom Browne’s design team transformed Skylight Modern into a winter wonderland that complemented the brand’s signature grey colour palette. Thom Browne penguins, wall scenes of a small town and a frozen pond-turned-skating rink runway were a few of the elements of the elaborate set.

Best in show: A striped coat with a fur trim and collar added a bit of colour to the collection. A houndstooth single-buttoned coat was accented with a fur bottom and cuffs at the wrists, and argyle prints were imagined in padded blazers, stoles and cropped cardigans.

Finishing touches: Swatches of houndstooth fabric, cut into brow and lip shapes covered the models’ mouths and eyebrows, who each entered wearing ice skate style shoes. Strips of fabric layered into the hair resembled unusual hair extensions. Browne's animal themed accessories have included crab and sausage dog shapes, and for A/W 2017 the designer added penguin backpacks to his zoological roster, which offset the styling's sinister edge.

Mood board: The opening looks at Thom Browne’s A/W 2017 show all looked identical at first glance. However, the full body suits – like those worn by matadors – impeccably fitted to the body and cut in delicate herringbone wool, were adorned with hundreds of covered buttons that created a different line on each. Suits were exquisitely precise and incredibly elegant. There was a foamy brutalism to the way Browne chose to show his clothes in their single fabric and modular layering. And it was utterly beautiful.

Scene setting: The pace was measured and intense; one by one, models trod slowly around a large, square catwalk wearing exaggerated platform brogues. To a broken orchestral soundtrack, a second set came wearing flat, rigid pattern pieces followed by a third rotation of Browne’s signature surreal tailoring. In the centre of the catwalk lay neat piles of thick grey felt cut into the patterns used in the atelier.

Best in show: A shrunken sleeve frock-coat, worn with shorts over trousers, continued the buttoned-up look. The silhouette was fitted and neat but with a playful, architectural quality; the sides of jackets and trousers could be buttoned open to create new shapes. Dismiss Browne at your peril – these suits are sharp, snappy and special. 

Scene setting: Ever the showman, Thom Browne set the scene for his S/S 2017 show by setting up a Greek bath-cum-runway, composed of an assortment of tiles that created a graphic, pixely effect.

Mood board: Browne sent out an array of models donning bulbous floral caftans. After a sequined goddess appeared, the models then stripped down to the collection’s looks – a series of dresses with tropical prints featured collared shirts, shrunken jackets and serious ties that had been trompe l’oeiled onto them. After the finale, the sequined goddess turned into a living disco ball as the models took off their clothes, revealing bathing suits in Browne’s striped red, white and blue.

Best in show: Browne’s quirky and clever riff on his own tailored pieces produced a number of strong looks. A sequined dress with a green floral skirt, pink cardigan, and blue floral jacket trompe l’oeiled on it stole the show. A silk chiffon sherbet orange and pastel yellow dress had a vintage, yet contemporary feel.

INFORMATION

Photography: Jason Lloyd-Evans

Delpozo: Arguably the most beautiful collection of New York Fashion Week, Delpozo’s Josep Font proved that he’s the master of eveningwear. Font was influenced by Spanish light master Joaquín Sorolla and Korean-American artist Soo Sunny Park’s installation art. Sculptural trousers, tops and gowns in soft pastels came out from the runway, along with an assortment of ruffles, stripes and shiny floral embellishments. 

Tomas Maier: Embroidered floral details, hand-painted hems and colour blocking brought a playful element to Tomas Maier understated spring/summer collection that was clearly meant for discrete city dwellers. The German accessories expert’s take on the furry slide trend, in a diverse range of colours, as with the metallic leather bags, showed his firm grasp of what his audience is waiting for

Narciso Rodriguez: The New Yorker put out a number of minimal separates for his S/S 2017 collection. Calf wedges were styled with photogram print silk dresses and loose silk trenches

Rodarte: Alexandre de Betak of Bureau Betak once again juxtaposed technology and nature for the Mulleavy sisters’ S/S 2017 set that saw fluorescent tube lights intermingled with yellow wild flowers

Gabriela Hearst: For her sixth collection, Gabriela Hearst looked at witches as her starting point, churning out oversized silk trenches, guipure lace pencil skirts and chic separates that can be dressed up or down

3.1 Phillip Lim: The floor of the 3.1 Phillip Lim show was dusted with flowers, which alluded to the prints that would soon walk out onto the runway. The varying floral prints ended up being the strongest part of the collection, decorating a white jacket, and showing up on several blouses and dresses that were teamed back with contrasting linear stripes.

DKNY: Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne, the two born-and-bred New Yorkers now behind DKNY, took it upon themselves to redefine New York’s fashion future by creating a collection that inhabits in a place they called ‘Neo Soho’. Here the pair flexed their streetwear expertise, incorporating edgy windbreakers with tailored blazers and oversized knits.

The Row: The American brand may not be releasing its S/S 2017 runway images until January, but the New York show did give us a chance to get better acquainted with its new art-filled Manhattan store.

Zero + Maria Cornejo: Maria Cornejo used one hue for her entire S/S 2017 collection: off-white. The pieces were loose and wearable, yet stylish; clothes that women who care about comfort and the way they’re dressed would covet.

Diane Von Furstenberg: Jonathan Saunders’s debut at DVF was a commanding success, with the designer adding new life to the house’s signature wrap dress, with vibrant, intersecting prints and a looser fit. Touches of bold stripes and laser cutting made it more interesting, while being wearable and accessible to DVF loyalists. 

Sies Marjan: For his second NYFW outing, Sies Marjan’s Sander Lak continued to maintain the buzz around his label with an array of monochromatic looks, featuring a sprinkling of an abstract pastel prints, and looks that proved that he knows how to elegantly drape, wrap, and slouch. A layered, shimmery fiery orange gown fell just so in all the right places, while a subtle navy off-the-shoulder v-neck top revealed an easygoing elegance. 

Hood By Air: Never one to hold on to convention, Hood By Air’s Shayne Oliver tapped Pornhub to sponsor his S/S 2016 show, even using porn as the inspiration for the show’s beauty looks, smearing Vaseline all over the models’ heads. Crisp, deconstructed white shirts rolled out, many covered with the word Wench – the collection’s theme. Models stumbling around while wearing double-sided cowboy boots, showed that they are probably more fashion than function, while HBA’s signature logoed jackets also made an appearance. 

Eckhaus Latta: Despite the sweltering heat, a coterie of artists, musicians and downtown scenesters showed up for Eckhaus Latta’s runway show, which was located in a park on New York’s Lower East Side. There’s a reason why Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta’s label is one of New York’s most buzzed about, especially amongst New York’s creative set; it’s the way they form innovative silhouettes by rejiggering denim, so that it looks new and fresh, just as they retool knits with carefree open backs. In short, they give traditional staples a new perspective

Lacoste: Felipe Oliveira Baptista dreamed up a tennis match on the rooftop of the modernist Villa Malaparte in Capri, where comfort, elegance and sensuality were of prime importance. The designer reinterpreted terrycloth robes into dresses, while turning Lacoste’s crocodile into an edgy, artful print.

Paul Andrew: Fresh on the heels of being named footwear director of Salvatore Ferragamo, Paul Andrew put out a collection of architecturally minded shoes. A rainbow of basic pumps started it all, before branching out into heavy lacings on sandals and heels. Prominent buckles accented a lot of the shoes, and simple mules were made for the more minimal minded

Area: Piotrek Panszczyk and Beckett Fogg combed old issues of iconic American fashion magazines to find inspiration for their S/S 2017 collection. ‘There was a lot of sports involved, so from that we started this intarsia on silk track jackets,’ explained Panszyczyk. ‘It starts as a bow that is appliquéd on the jacket, and it finishes as a bow that’s tied onto the neck’

M. Martin: The team at M. Martin looked to the fashions of Ernest Hemingway and his many women for S/S 2017, showing an easygoing collection dominated by tropical prints, loose-fitting safari jackets and its signature pyajama-cut pieces

Hermès: Renown for its luxurious goods and eminent handbags, the famous maison's latest collection – proposed by Véronique Nichanian for the menswear line – were utterly stupefying in their expert finish and unequivocally French mood. Photography/Videography: Antonio Camera

Dior Homme: Set in the midst of a sprawling mass of rollercoaster tracks festooned with coloured lights, Kris van Assche's catwalk was said to be a direct replica of a ride that once stood at Sinksenfoor Antwerp, a traditional Belgian fairground. Photography/Videography: Antonio Camera

Comme des Garçons Homme Plus: Transparency and pageantry were the message of Rei Kawakubo's S/S 2017 collection. A raft of tailoring was layered with fine gauze, longline cardigans underneath or PVC trench coats on top, models milling about the raw concrete runway. Photography/Videography: Antonio Camera

Berluti: Instead of a traditional fashion show, Berluti chose a rather more active stage on which to showcase their new wears: a poolside party. A rather fitting touch, considering they debuted their new lifestyle collection. Alongside skipping ropes, dumbbells, beach rackets and a set of boules, the label’s signature hide was also hand-stitched around a football which models kicked around in a friendly match. Photography: Antonio Camera. Videography: Courtesy of Berluti

Scene setting: Guests at Thom Browne's show stepped out of the snowy Chelsea streets and into an only slightly dusted park square this season, complete with trees, park benches, lamp posts and a clock in the square. The smell of moist soil and a low hanging fog filled the air as models strolled macabrely round the park's perimeter dressed in their intricate finery.

Mood board: Browne's impeccably conceptual approach saw him reconstruct recognisable tailored garments into completely new pieces. Suiting components, like Chesterfield coats, tailcoats and Oxford shirts, and fabrics such as tweed, Melton wool and jacquard, were transformed into voluminous overcoats that appeared simply slung over the shoulders, double-breasted dresses with beaded embroidery and trouser-like capes with brown beaver lining.

Finishing touches: Whether it was Stephen Jones' incredible necktie headpieces, which framed (or obscured) models' faces, the python leather whale and crab chain linked handbags, or doctor-style leather totes and backpacks, there were incredible accessories to savour everywhere we looked at this show.

Scene setting: Thom Browne whisked us away to a topsy-turvy world, by way of a twisted schoolhouse (complete with a front garden on the ceiling) that had landed on some poor Thom Browne-clad soul (a pair of legs and shoes were visible unsquashed underneath). Haunting music gave the arrangement of school desks, each primed with notebook and pencil, an even more foreboding quality. And as the procession of schoolgirl/models appeared wearing braided pigtails that stood on end through their Stephen Jones straw boater hats, the fairy-tale gone wrong developed in full swing.

Mood board: Browne's classic suits were emblazoned kimono-style with Japanese motifs such as oversized flowers, cherry blossom branches, willow leaves and even abstracted portraits of geishas, in a myriad of textures and colours. Below-the-knee, box-pleated skirts played up the schoolgirl feel while also resembling samurai armour, and iridescent appliqué and pastel coloured furs infused the pieces with a naive, but elevated vibe.

Best in show: The closing series of looks, which were predominantly realised in stark black and white, possessed an incredibly graphic quality that gave  the models' Japanese/Charlie Chaplin make-up a renewed artistic quality. Browne's ability to combine apparently disparate sources of inspirations that somehow make natural sense in his world is something to be truly commended and admired.

INFORMATION

Photography: Umberto Fratini, Jason Lloyd-Evans

The first ever, men’s-only edition of New York Fashion Week was held in Manhattan last week, with a strong mix of emerging and established menswear brands relishing the chance to show on home turf. Homegrown favourites like Rag & Bone, Billy Reid and Public School kept the hometown spirit high with immersive presentations that expressed just what their DNA was all about. Stalwarts like Michael Kors, Tommy Hilfiger, Polo Ralph Lauren and Thom Browne gave the event gravitas; Browne (pictured) stayed true to form and stunned spectators with a dramatic installation filled with signature pieces, despite showing a full collection in Paris just weeks before. New York Fashion Week: Men’s (as it is known) was headquartered in a sophisticated setting at Skylight Clarkson Sq, a warehouse venue in west SoHo, just off of the Hudson River. Undeniably chic, yet edgy, it was the perfect birthplace for the standalone showcase...

Thom Browne: The designer used his slot on the New York men's calendar to take stock of the brand's essence - his signature grey suit. Entitled The Officeman, Browne presented 28 grey toned ensembles within a mirrored cube that a snaking line of spectators waited to venture through. With what appeared to be an army of models donning reflective glasses and slicked back hair, Browne's presentation took on a strong sci-fi quality reminiscent of the Matrix films, where uniformity acquires a sinister edge. The same could be said about walking into Browne's disorienting infinity room, which also featured a silver desk, apple, briefcase and typewriter - almost indiscernible amidst the reflections. Set against the visual cacophony, Browne's tailoring cut like a knife

Public School: Undoubtedly one of the hottest names on the men's fashion scene, Public School staged an arresting presentation of its S/S 2016 collection by assembling its models in the style of a police line-up. Complete with viewing galleries, height measures, and an occasional voiceover calling each of the suspects to step forward, the monochrome collection was comprised of tailored skater shorts, slim three-quarter length coats, roguish varsity jackets and other Public School repeat offenders

Scene setting: Granted that last season's indoor garden setting was a hard one to beat, Thom Browne managed to one-up himself by creating an eerie, Victorian-gothic morgue, surrounded by a wood-paneled viewing gallery. In each of the three presentation areas, a girl laid still on top of a metal examination table, as a pair of male angels watched over her, all dressed in white.

Best in show: The real show began when the tables were wheeled out and a funeral procession of mourners descended. Set to one continuous track from Bjork's new album, each of the looks was comprised of complex, multiple layers of exquisite and intricately finished fabrics - all in black. From a lace driving coat trimmed in black mink, to embellished mini dresses (long sleeved, of course) and pinstriped suits that played with proportions, the collection was one dark, unbroken reverie.

Finishing touches: Browne's stunning sartorial creations were each finished off with hats and veils created by Stephen Jones. Shaped to resemble different hairstyles, the adornments brought a graphic theatricality to the looks and were a fascinating aspect of the collection themselves. Handbags came in the form of embossed leather doctor's bags and even whale-shaped (Browne's motif of choice), for a touch of whimsy.

Photography: Jason Lloyd-Evans

Expect the unexpected is the general rule of thumb when it comes to Thom Browne's shows. This season, the designer created an Alice in Wonderland-grade garden of statues on the fourth floor of a Chelsea gallery, complete with a manicured grass catwalk where the main event would take place. Eschewing the mega-mix soundtrack norm, the show was set to a voice narrating a rambling fairytale. Browne's signature suits were adorned with kaleidoscopic splashes of colour in the form of frenetic florals, wild marbling and bold, painterly prints. Although the show's overall effect was that of a very well-dressed, Mad Hatters party (the millinery came courtesy of Stephen Jones, of course), Browne's pieces were beautiful in their tailoring and hypnotic in their detail. We're already looking forward to seeing how high he raises the bar to next.

Themes and theatrics are par for the course at a Thom Browne show, be it in New York, Paris or Milan for the various collections he designs for men and women at his own label, Black Fleece by Brooks Brothers or Moncler Gamme Bleu. He underscored his latest effort with a twisted forest landscape, replete with plaid and tweed-covered oaks with woodland fauna crawling at their roots. Later he transformed his models with a millinery menagerie by Stephen Jones, their Surrealist animal heads and hats atop Browne's signature suiting that had been fringed in 4-pocket bouclé wools, or felt checks layered with kilts and shorts. In an about turn halfway, the one-note greige tailoring was upended by a bell-shaped silhouette adorned with peeling oak leaf embroideries - the models faces shaded in the same motif to clownish effect. Browne closed his point in a revolving finale, posing the contrasting chapters face-to-face, in an absurdist, fantasy face-off.

Photography: Anna Stokland/Jason Lloyd-Evans

Fashion week, nowadays, is about much more than just the collections. Showmanship is the name of game, and in the meticulously executed sartorial extravaganzas, the sound space is an element that no producer or designer can afford to overlook. Music royalty - past, present and future - is enlisted to ensure a full assault on the senses. Here, we bring you Paris Fashion Week's catwalk mega mix from the A/W 2014 menswear collections.

WEDNESDAY 15/01

Valentino

'Before Long' by Ryuichi Sakamoto; 'With or Without You' by Twin Shadow; 'NYC 73-78' by Beck; 'The Sheltering Sky' by Ryuichi Sakamoto

Raf Simons

'Speak To Me', by Pink Floyd; 'The Great Gig in the Sky', by Pink Floyd; 'On the Run' by Pink Floyd; 'Baby's on Fire' by Brian Eno

THURSDAY 16/01

Rick Owens

'Heavy Heat', remixed by RP Boo

Louis Vuitton

'Love is the Message', by MFSB

Music production: Honey Dijon

Dries Van Noten

'Sympathy For The Devil', by The Rolling Stones; 'Gimme Shelter' by Rolling Stones

Music production: Kid Koala aka Eric San
 
FRIDAY 17/01

Junya Watanabe

'Baby Blue' by King Krule; 'Ocean Bed' by King Krule; 'Easy Easy' by King Krule; 'A Lizard State' by King Krule; 'All Around the World' by Oasis

Kris Van Assche

'Destination/Rocket Number 9 (Gesaffelstein Remix)' by Gesaffelstein/Zombie Zombie

Music production: Michel Gaubert

Cerruti 1881

'Hymn to a Great City' by Katia & Marielle Labèque; 'Red Right Hand' by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds; 'Ashes To Ashes' by Warpaint

Music production: Michel Gaubert

Givenchy

'Flawless (Fashion Show Mix)' by The Martinez Brothers; 'Interlude 01' by The Martinez Brothers; 'The Kid (Fashion Show Mix)' by The Martinez Brothers

Music production: The Martinez Brothers

Comme des Garçons

'Hidden XS' by Fuck Buttons; 'Broken Head' by Cluster & Eno; 'Computerwelt' by Kraftwerk

Maison Martin Margiela

'Koln (January 24, 1975 Part I)' by Keith Jarrett; 'Koln (January 24, 1975 Part II A)' by Keith Jarrett

SATURDAY 18/01

Dior Homme

'Swan Rot' by Michael Nyman; 'Prawn Watching' by Michael Nyman; 'Human Drama (Paula Temple Remix)' by Planningtorock

Music production: Michel Gaubert

Hermès

'Golden Arrow' by Darkside; 'Hijk' by C.A.R; 'Paper Trails', by Darkside; 'Swept Away (New Jackson Remix)' by The XX; 'Got Well Soon' by Breton

Music production: Thierry Planelle

SUNDAY 19/01

Paul Smith

'Soft Parade' by The Doors; 'Soul Kitchen' by The Doors; 'LA Woman' by The Doors; 'My Wild Love' by The Doors; 'Touch Me' by The Doors

Music production: Peter Smith & Andrew Hale

Umit Benan

'Danny Boy' by Jackie Wilson; 'Hellhound' by Son of Dave; 'Stupid' by Bobby Womack                                       

Thom Browne

'Prologue' (from Birth OST) by Alexandre Desplat; 'The Rendezvous' (from Birth OST) by Alexandra Desplat; 'Birth Waltz - Finale' (from Birth OST) by Alexandre Desplat

Saint Laurent

General Education' by Froth