Thom Browne provided a peek into his tell-tale heart for his fall 1 men’s collection.
The designer drew on his admiration for Edgar Allan Poe for the line, which features several new proportions and silhouettes in his classic range alongside an assortment of more-technical-inspired pieces.
Browne took inspiration from Poe’s classic poem “The Raven,” using illustrations of the bird on overcoats, blazers and pleated skirts offered up in Harris tweed. On the coat, the designer juxtaposed the black bird with a colorful red rose intarsia, perhaps to lighten the mood of the otherwise dark poem. And the bird also made an appearance in a new handbag silhouette, which was also more likely to evoke a smile.
While the raven-inspired pieces look similar to Browne’s earlier work, they actually feature a new soft-shoulder construction that he introduced in womenswear at his inaugural couture show in Paris last summer and has now brought into the men’s world. Proportions have also been updated with slightly longer blazers and elongated pleated skirts.
Browne also offered up an evolution of his trademark shrunken suit by introducing a new version of the three-button jacket where, rather than a three-button-roll-to-two, the top two buttons are intended to be closed, resulting in an updated silhouette. Trousers, which are high-waisted, are more fitted but still tapered.
There was a different version of his signature backstrap detail, which he has traditionally used in coats, jackets, skirts and trousers. This season, the strap is front and center on several pieces including a lightweight plaid coat as well as a 1 ½-breasted jacket.
The designer exhibited his love of the outdoors with a quilted jacket in autumnal shades of navy, green and burgundy, complemented by boots that still look formal, but now offer a more outdoor-inspired sole.
This nod to the outdoors made an appearance in his formalwear range where the designer introduced a white quilted shirt-jacket with covered buttons and a black tie jacquard overcoat with the backstrap in the front.
“Fall 1 for me really started with the gray suit, as it always does,” Browne said, “and continued with the exploration of American tailoring in new proportions and silhouettes, through motifs seen in the world of Edgar Allan Poe. Soft shoulder, high buttonhole jackets, crows and roses — it was all about giving an ease to tailoring while injecting my known codes in new ways.
“I especially paid attention to functionality this season through waterproofing fabrics, flexisole loafers manufactured in Italy and new soft-structured Mr. Thom bags, while injecting a reinterpretation of classic Thom Browne ideas like using our backstrap as closures for jackets and outerwear.”
