Thom Browne loves to build fantastical worlds for fashion shows, and the fall/winter 2025 collection was no exception. The designer closed New York Fashion Week on Tuesday, filling up the dark Manhattan theatre space with 2,000 elegant white origami birds hanging in the air.
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On the soundtrack of birds, poems like Emily Dickinson’s “Hope is Feathered,” and music-like poems evoking the theme of birds, Brown makes his runway through his runway Filled with delicate and original versions of suits, coats and jackets. Vibrantly coloured birds, jackets and coats creep up.
Starry night
Oscar nominee Adrian Brody sat next to Vogue editor Anna Wintole. Married actors Morgan Spector and Rebecca Hall sat together in the front row. Other guests include Cara Delevingne, musician St Vincent, actors Cristin Milioti, Alessandro Nivola and Cole Escola.
Fashion for birds
Brown takes time at the runway show. They can continue two or three times in a regular runway show and tell the full story. In this case, the story wanted to be free, in a white birdcage, centered around a lovebird in two cages. “How wonderful it is,” they said, according to a production memo, “Does it make exactly what we want?”
The runway show began with two “ornithologists,” followed by a briefcase and a grey Tom Brown “uniform.” They sat at a desk near a caged lovebird and began watching a flock of fashion.
The models continued, consisting of coloured feathery eyelashes, decorated with checks, tweed, plaids, argyle knits or flannels. The disassembled or exaggerated shape of the brown was, as always, an example of a very original tailoring and silhouette piece. Overall there were 64 appearances.
There were fantastic dresses, petticoats and giant ball skirts. The most whimsical notes of all were colorful bird motifs with satin stitching or embroidery of gold bases, finding a way across the garment.
He also nodded to the university style with a brown varsity style jacket decorated with the “65” that referenced Brown’s birth year.
As always, there were several eye-opening handbags inspired by his own dog companions, including Brown’s favorite Hector bag.
Valentine’s Day gift
Every time he is on display in New York in February, Brown comes out at the end and presents his partner Andrew Bolton, curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, with a Valentine’s Day gift. This time, Brown ran off with a bouquet of white flowers, in line with the theme of monochrome origami.
