‘Couture is the Olympics of fashion’ for Thom Browne and this conceptualisation is what he materialised for the F/W 24 couture collection. He transformed the avenue of Musée des Arts Décoratifs into an ancient Greek Olympic arena with a sportive demeanour in the all-muslin creations. The show started with a dramatic athletic theatre, a game of tug-of-war between 16 models donned in summer-weight cotton white blazers, kilts, flat sneakers, and shades. The game stopped once the ‘mistress of ceremonies’ walked down wearing a gold-wreathed headpiece that appeared to have been inspired by ancient Olympians. Shortly after, the curtains rose for the models who dawned on the runway in all muslin ensembles
In the domain of couture where silhouettes are first constructed in muslin and later toiled to perfection for the final garment, Thom Browne made the ‘work in progress’ sample— the muslin toile—the final ensemble. Reconceptualizing conventionalism is what Thom Browne excels at and making use of Muslin in everything he created was him paying ode to the test phase of an atelier— its rigorous and intricate approaches to creating pieces true to individuals— and celebrating the initial, rough transcriptions as a final festival. Muslin was a fabric that aristocrats, emperors, and royalty wore in ancient India— it was associated with poetry and used as a muse, for even statutes of Greek goddesses were donned in muslin— but for a long time, muslin has been reduced to just being used for toiles in couture’s arena. Thom Browne tapped into the beauty of ‘unfinished pieces’— how these garments were just as glamorous as heavily embroidered final fabrications. He said, “It was a theme with a vengeance”, a vengeance to the downgrade of the lost art of natural, untreated muslin into just fabricating toiles and transforming it into gems worth being put on a show in museums. He imparted this devotion to vengeance even to the guests by sending out exemplary invitations— an atelier coat in natural muslin, with the brand logo on the back and guests’ names spelled out in cursive on the front left pocket— and asked them to wear their personalised invitation to match the theme setting, despite the heat of a June afternoon.
The day before the show, Browne admitted to being skeptical of putting on a stage of couture a collection made from fabric just for toiling, “We kind of questioned, ‘Are we sure we’re doing this?’ We love finishing things and perfecting things.” Surely enough, being a perfectionist, Browne used 6 different weights of muslin— lighter weights for weaving frayed strips onto tweed or making use of it into the Mille-Feuille used for decorating sides of coats and dresses, and the heavier material for the overlaying and deconstructed tailoring— according to the technique and approach imparted into the specific looks. He harnessed chest canvasing to create patterns and shades, and hand-basting muslin and canvas— a technique used to temporarily hold layers of fabric together through a hand needle and a single thread to achieve greater control of fabrics— to achieve the desired structures and silhouettes.
Due to a very non-athletic and deconstructed approach to the elements of ancient games, the Olympics' inspiration was distinguishable only as a subtle undertone in all the 48 looks presented for the couture runway. “It was about playing with the reference of being here in Paris and the Olympics,” Browne told W magazine after the show. “But the collection based everything on where couture starts, with the muslins and the toiles, and using the toiles as the final garments. Then we went into the work in progress, fabrications, and embroidery.” The entirety of the collection held meticulous tailoring techniques and intricate craftsmanship, with each piece capturing the vigour that Browne bleeds into his art. Thom Browne, with his second-ever couture collection, shed light on the finished vs. unfinished process of creating couture by integrating natural muslin with remarkable techniques— creating raw and frayed edges, heavy de-and-reconstruction, unfinished hems, half-sewn sleeves, exposed boning, sporadic swatches of colour, and partial embroidery— to amplify the sense of being unfinished in each piece. By intentionally intertwining these elements of ‘incompleteness’ in all the pieces, Browne conveyed the importance of how couturial works in progress reveal the true beauty of the entire process.
Meticulous elements such as embroidered Grecian figures in sequins and gold bugle beads— the archer, javelinist, disc thrower, wrestler, and weightlifter— on the bodice of coats and dresses, and sculptural hair-dos on models were an innuendo to the grace and heritage of the Games. The footwear choice was a reconceptualised, avant-garde, and deconstructed take on the classic cleats and the silhouette of a boxing shoe intertwined flamboyantly with teetering heels— this certainly is a nod to the games but not in a very perceptible way. Some of the other elements that I feel tapped into the spirit of athletics was a bustier dress with embroidery of the muscular system— with blood-red beads on one half and intricate tailoring of just muslin on the other— which discernibly embodied the Olympic theme, and degraded metallic foil and bullion embroidered blazers in gold, silver, and bronze paired with knife pleated tennis skirts. The collective proceeding of the three models represented the laurel holders taking their positions on the podium as the games— the couture show— came to an end. The beginning to the end of the couturial demonstration was a nod to the couture season innately being ‘The Games’ for the American brand, Thom Browne.
The collection consisted of radically deconstructed outerwear, lace back and pleated front hourglass corsets, bustier fitted jackets, and blown-up sports coats in gold and bronze bodices and tweed patterns— to overlay and add dimension— in varying hues of greys and ivory. The all-muslin collection exhibited unique takes on asymmetric pencil skirts, deconstructed kilts, decomposed open knitted cardigans with varying patterns, and many more such variations of the conventional pieces with a ‘Browne twist’. Each look challenged the prosaicness in form and structural ensembles that most fashion houses produce nowadays in the name of ‘couture’. All the models carried chalk-white, embroidery sampler masks, and classic Thom Browne bags and paused midway down the runway to pose and twirl for the cameras and audience, enhancing the scent of drama in the air. I loved how the outerwear and even the skirts had different lengths, silhouettes, and even materials in their construction, this made an unfaltering contact with the eyes as the multi-faceted looks moved graciously on the runway. The excessive overlaying of pieces was the most harmonious layering one could ever experience and wear— each piece complemented and accentuated the other while having a vivid voice and structure to itself without making another component seem bland or toned down.
The outfit that started the show was an extremely deconstructed, magnificent, and humongous cocoon-like coat that swept the floor— and with it, our breaths— and was paired with a pleated, button-down long skirt. Its oversized collars with different weights of muslin and extensions of ruffled ridges set the stage for expectations that Browne’s show will truly be aesthetically innovative and hit the ‘avant-garde’ mark. I extremely loved look 26, which was a heavily deconstructed blazer— of which we saw not just one but numerous other variations— with sequined embroidery and accentuated hips paired with a pleated skirt. The right half of the blazer was sleeveless with a raw armhole stitch while the left side of the blazer was longer and asymmetrical with a full sleeve covering the model's arm entirely. An extra swatch of embroidered muslin came forward, from the tailored shirt underneath, from the top left-center which extended downwards to the middle front, thus accentuating the elements of asymmetry even more— the kind of vision that entailed this look truly served as a testament to couture.
Browne transported the venue to ancient Greece with the variegated and transcendental gowns he crafted— fit for ancient Greek royalty— for the F/W 2024 couture runway. The compilation included an ephemeral bustier gown with a beaded bronze bodice and pleated, asymmetric massive sleeves— which extended alongside the length of the gown— emanating etherealism from each stitch it was constituted of. The second look in this compilation, which I was in awe of, was an intricately draped, asymmetric, and voluminous off-white gown with a high leg slit. Its extremely textured bodice was corseted with a conical bust and comprised of intricate detailing— red stitching accents, and frayed edges on the layered coat which added depth and complexity. Even the humongous coat with a huge tied-up bow on its back held intricate tailor-work, serving as a testament to Browne’s definition of couture— revering traditional craftsmanship and merging it with more artisanal and dynamic approaches. Coming to the last gown before the showstopper appeared, we witnessed a sleek and fitted bodice gown with visible seams and paneling, paired with a cropped open jacket with frayed edges and cut-up shoulders which inherently added to the element of rawness in the look. All these intricate inclusions gave the ensemble a very deconstructed yet elegant feel. This tailored elegance was contrasted with the chaotic embellishments of rosettes— in a circular pattern extending from the hem to below the waistline— made from rolled and frayed muslin in hues of cream-white, ivory, Prussian blue, and red. These looks showcased Thom Browne’s versatility and vision, of transforming the most basic material into a masterpiece of couture art.
“Even the pattern work for the simple pieces was probably the most I’ve ever done,” Browne said. Evidently so, it took 11,000 hours, 42 people, and intense handwork to achieve the meticulous work of gold beading for a button-front fitted jacket and pencil skirt. But nothing could compare to the showstopper of the show; the final wedding dress— I’d say it was the most ephemeral and irresistible of all the looks combined— which was carried by Anna Cleveland. The beauty and the energy in the entirety of this look were ineffable. It was a shimmering, tailored gown with embellishments carved on the fabric— all over its body— and buttons cascaded from the asymmetric parabolic neckline to the flared hem of the gown which reached the floor. The back of the dress was embellished with a three-dimensional explosion of textural monochromatic flowers and ferns, which called to themes of both life and decay— this dress would have fit in perfectly for the Met this year with its flamboyant explosion of flora.
To carry this dress in a way befitting the worth and beauty that encircled the vision imparted to it—which I can only describe as a boon to the category of showstoppers— Cleveland enacted a walk that vocalised a voice of divinity and echoed drama in each step she took. She stopped in the middle of the runway and turned theatrically to show the dress at all angles to the melody of Etenraku— a Japanese melody that has been described as music brought from the heavens. Etenraku is constructed from a single melody, according to a predetermined plan, and without improvisation. Thus, it was a metaphor pointing to the incompleteness of creating couture— the finished and the unfinished, the raw chaos and the complete calm associated with it. It emanated an aura of quietness, depth, and a powerful inward-looking calm associated with Buddhist contemplation.
Thom Browne’s 2024 couture collection made us consider not just the connections between the grace of athletes and the rigour of couturial ateliers, but even beyond, it made us reflect on the fleeting feelings of incompleteness in ourselves and of all the moments that comprise our life. The point, Browne said, was to demonstrate “the beauty of the hand, rather than a machine.” It bore a lesson that humans and their capabilities to constantly create, evolve, and recontextualize will always far exceed that of AI. To showcase how even the most basic, futile, and discarded elements, that we feel are unfinished in their being, can be made into artisanal pieces without any addition of redundancy disguised in convention and beauty to induce or impart a faux completeness to something that is already beaming with wholeness— as we all are.