Inside Thom Browne’s Fantastical New York Style Week Present with Penn Badgley, Queen Latifah and Lil Nas X

After spending years exhibiting primarily in Paris, designer Thom Browne formally returned to New York Style Week with an otherworldly runway presentation to showcase his ladies’s and males’s fall/winter 2023 assortment on Tuesday night. All eyes had been on the prolific clothier, wanting to see what he would unveil on the runway now that he’s chairman of the Council of Style Designers of America.

Over the course of 35 minutes, Browne delivered a theatrical and lavish spectacle impressed by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s beloved 1943 novella, The Little Prince, which tells the story of a younger boy touring the universe looking for knowledge and discovering the unpredictable nature of adults. Browne’s assortment not solely shows his masterful and fantastical prowess as a designer and tailor but additionally evokes deep emotion about loneliness, loss, willpower, and exploration.

“I used to be actually impressed by how The Little Prince tells the story about how children perceive every little thing and see issues extra clearly than adults do,” Browne instructed Self-importance Truthful instantly following the presentation. “And that adults hopefully do not lose that sense of innocence that’s so lovely in children. It is a highly effective and vital story. That was actually the thought, to point out a fantasy that makes the world a greater place to stay in like the way in which children see, and I prefer to see issues like that with my designs.”

Staged at The Shed, the theater area in Manhattan’s Hudson Yards, the presentation greeted the 450 friends with a big white airplane (just like Alfred Hitchcock’s crop duster in North by Northwest) caught in actual sand to recreate the aircraft crash within the Sahara from Saint-Exupéry’s story. Etched within the sand had been massive numbers, suggesting an hourglass and a clock. Excessive above the aircraft, planets and stars hung suspended from the ceiling. The present started with a mannequin portraying a disoriented crashed pilot wandering within the desert wearing a white voluptuous jumpsuit with articulated sleeves in white cashmere styled with a mini button-back costume in hand-dyed blue seed beads and inexperienced silk thread fringes. She then encountered the Little Prince, carrying one in every of Browne’s signature grey flannel tweed jackets with a four-stripe band on the arm. Then got here a string of fashions representing the harmful baobab bushes that develop on the prince’s planet. They had been styled in sheer white organza attire with excessive white hair buns and creepy lengthy curled fingernails and toenails.

The next act highlighted a parade of adults who, within the phrases of the prince, see solely what’s in entrance of them. These fashions showcased a sequence of tweed coats and jackets, all with massive exaggerated shoulders, with fits and ties beneath. They carried briefcases emblazoned with clock faces, and the heels of their chunky sneakers had been composed of spherical clock faces. The fashions walked to the orderly ticking of a clock’s second hand.

The following group of fashions represented the kids, carrying reconstructed and deconstructed seems to be in blended pinstripe wool flannels with elaborate gold hats adorning their heads. For the finale, all of the fashions walked again onto the sand-filled catwalk as {couples}, holding arms to signify unity, to the accompaniment of “You may By no means Stroll Alone” from the Broadway musical Carousel.

“To step into Thom Browne’s world actually is a visit,” stated Queen Latifah moments after the present. “I’ve by no means seen something like this. I am feeling actually impressed. It is nice for a artistic particular person to be on this atmosphere and see all of the creativeness, range and the wonder he creates together with his designs. I’ve actually loved this time.”

Erykah Badu shared the identical sentiments, remarking about how donning the designer’s garments could make one really feel highly effective. “Thom has poked a little bit gap within the dam and the entire artwork got here flowing via,” stated Badu, who was dressed head to toe in his designs with gold rollers in her hair. Her look was impressed by Lucille Ball from I Love Lucy. “He is an innovator. It is all the time completely totally different at his reveals and he has the wildest creativeness. I really feel I could be anybody by carrying his garments.”