On February 14th, New York Fashion Week ended with hands down the best show of the season: Thom Browne Fall/ Winter Collection 2024. The theatrical experience inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” combined with the meticulously detailed clothing that verges on couture marks the show as one of the best Ready-to-Wear collections of all time and my absolute favorite.
At Hudson Yards’ The Shed, the collection opened with actress Carrie Coon narrating Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” and children dressing in full Thom Browne emerging from under a massive, shadowy figure wearing a quilted black coat with arms shaped like tree branches. Her voice was so melodic that no music, only background sound was needed for the show. And as the performance came to a close, she screamed loudly and declared, “Nevermore!”, which is also printed on the collection’s tweed jackets.
Children emerging from the large tree
Keeping the quiet color palette of black and gray and the same techniques that he used during couture week in Paris, Browne claimed “the whole thing is about all the fabric that was developed—the tweeds, the cashmeres, the silk moiré,”, “the intarsias, the satin embroideries, and really just the shapes.” The fashion house codes were displayed in netted veils, long black nails, and Isamaya Ffrench’s painterly makeup that harked back to the New Romantics movement. However, my personal highlight of this show is the models’ hair styles that perfectly capture those mysterious golden bugs or nightingales seen in those bleak gothic fairytales.
Hair styles and makeup for Thom Browne Fall Collection 2024
To elevate the theatrical elements, Browne’s models were characters in “The Raven”’s imagination, ambling slowly and placidly through a snow-covered wasteland with sparse trees. The theme’s consistency in storytelling could also be seen in the leather appearing to be weathered, as if it was scratched up by the claws of a bird. The knits are distressed and unraveling and the angular black raven patterns are also embellished in white coats.
Thom Browne Fall Collection 2024
Closing the show was model Alex Consani, who looked stunning in a golden jacquard cape with a ballooned hem. The group of kids dressed in Thom Browne pulled off her cape as she approached the end of the stage covered in fake snow, revealing a hand-knit gold bouillon cardigan and a silk duchess bubble skirt adorned with the raven. The designer claimed, “It was almost a reference to another story I want to tell in the future: ‘The Gold Bug’ by Edgar Allan Poe.”
Alex Consani for Thom Browne Fall Collection 2024
Blending in the Valentine’s Day’s atmosphere, Browne added “I wanted it to be beautifully romantic.” as he created one of the most wholesome moments in the runway history – giving a giant red heart-shaped chocolate to his partner Andrew Bolton at the end of the show.
The Fall 2024 collection by Thom Browne heralds a pioneering fusion of haute couture and ready-to-wear, alongside an avant-garde embrace of theatricality within the realm of fashion presentation.