The 500 people in the audience were all sitting in neat rows, and they had all gotten the message about how to dress: they were all wearing a classic gray Thom Browne suit.
They were also very quiet, which may have been because they knew Browne’s show on Friday night was a special event. It was held in New York instead of Paris, where his shows usually take place, to coincide with the Met Gala on Monday. But they were probably also stuffed animals.
To be exact, these were teddy bears sitting in tiny chairs to hear a “Teddy Talk” about how to be happy.
At the Thom Browne Fall 2022 fashion show at the Javits Center in New York on Friday, April 29, 2022, more than 400 teddy bears are on display.
It was yet another Browne extravaganza, more a piece of theater or performance art than a runway show, and this time it had an unusually playful feel. Browne, who is a great showman and one of America’s most successful designers, tried to teach the crowd of bears and humans (who were sitting in bigger chairs) how to find their true selves through the script he read out loud. In this case, Browne was saying that we all have a “toy version” of ourselves that is more exaggerated and crazy, but still worth connecting with.
How did this high idea have anything to do with fashion? Browne’s ensembles, which are small feats of creative engineering, answer this question. Here, his toy-store theme included a lot of different versions of his classic gray suit that were trimmed and pleated in brightly colored silks, as well as his fun handbags and shoes, like the alphabet-block purses and platform shoes, or the shoes that looked like they were made out of blocks.