In a season where many designers stripped-back to more conventional and functional fashion, Thom Browne set the cat amongst the pigeons with his mega-directional jocks versus punks playoff!
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Set in Paris’s beautiful Galérie de Minéralogie et de Géologie, the usual stocks of rocks and plants were stashed away and the venue had a decidedly classroom feel to it. Thom was taking us back to school, issuing a lesson in how to do menswear the avant-garde way. The models came in two-by-two, the first of each partnership presenting an homage to all things fetishistic and punk, whilst still maintaining TB’s trim tailoring traditions. Gimp masks were covered in studs, trousers were cut-off above the ankles, hair was Mohican’d and there were enough safety pins to reach the dark side of the moon and back. The second model in the pairing referenced the distinct silhouette of an American footballer; inflated shoulders, padded butt cheeks and scull caps, Thom’s jocks brought new meaning to ‘power dressing’. Despite injecting the collection with such extrovert and conceptual curveballs, Thom delivered pieces thick with the luxury and modern Americana that he’s developed a following for. Horizontal stripes cemented their position on the AW12 trend top ten, lengthy skirts made an appearance and recurring duck and dog motifs added a softer note to proceedings. Brit-punk takes on US-beefcake… Who wins? You decide.
Text: Sean Baker
Photography: Mitchell Sams
Click here to see our AW12 Menswear coverage in full.
