{"id":45069,"date":"2015-02-20T00:42:55","date_gmt":"2015-02-19T23:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/?p=45069"},"modified":"2015-02-20T00:45:12","modified_gmt":"2015-02-19T23:45:12","slug":"the-immersive-genius-of-thom-browne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2015\/02\/20\/the-immersive-genius-of-thom-browne\/","title":{"rendered":"The immersive genius of Thom Browne"},"content":{"rendered":"
By now everyone has already marvelled over\u00a0Thom Browne’s AW15 collection – a phantasmagorical take on mourning attire, presented on the backs of some fortysomething fallen angels: pure art.<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n In keeping with the commercial mentality of the city, many other designers on the NYFW lineup make no such claims to ‘art’; for Thom Browne, however, art is the whole point.\u00a0\u00a0Who could forget last season’s\u00a0\u00a0show, an uncanny bedtime story of six stylish sisters, The Virgin Suicides for the sartorial set?; or the season before, a ceremonial procession of gold-and grey-clad nuns?<\/p>\n One sometimes wonders if selling clothes isn’t merely a pretense by which the designer can justify his incredible shows.\u00a0 A typical Thom Browne show both fascinates and frightens, dazzles and distresses – yet this season Browne took his work a step further.<\/p>\n Upon arrival, the difference was immediately palpable, its origin unclear.\u00a0\u00a0Guests were led upward through a wraparound wooden structure – the 19th-century approximation of a gladiatorial stadium, with bench seating in tiers descending toward a central viewing pit.<\/p>\n The pit was divided into three adjacent wood-paneled rooms.\u00a0\u00a0Viewed from above, it was like peering into a music box, each room occupied by a corpse in a white lace dress, lying on a gurney while inspected by men in white lab coats: eerily white, pristine.<\/p>\n Except for classical music, it was all silent, still – everybody whispering.\u00a0\u00a0Guests were ushered to their seats, while a kind of divine weight suspended like an incense in the air, and it was only after ten minutes that I realized what was so different and powerful about this particular arrangement: Thom Browne had literally placed us inside his world – created a structure which eliminated every outside distraction.<\/p>\n As a rule, unadulterated art does not unfold at NYFW.\u00a0\u00a0Up until showtime, the seats are always bubbling with laughter and loud chatter, while guests push through a central throng, and paparazzi flashbulbs constantly illuminate the front row.\u00a0\u00a0Yet here were no crowds, no paparazzi – no distractions at all, to undermine the scene which Browne wished his guests to witness.<\/p>\n It was sacred space, and furthermore, everyone had a perfect bird-eye view – another situation unheard of at NYFW, where relative degrees of power are determined by the number of VIP heads which obstruct one’s view of the show.<\/p>\n The lights dimmed and snow wafted onto the three vignettes.\u00a0\u00a0Enter an angel of Death, in a veil and a coat of iridescent raven feathers.\u00a0\u00a0She meandered despondently through the lonely, snow-dusted purgatory, awakening the corpses with a caress, as the question rang like a lingering bell through my mind: Why can’t every show be more like a Thom Browne show?<\/p>\n What we need at NYFW is this: fewer traditional runways, filled with paparazzi, stormed by apathetic models – and more spectacle, more\u00a0art<\/i>.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Photography:<\/strong>\u00a0Dan and Corina Lecca<\/p>\n Words:<\/strong> Seymour Glass<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By now everyone has already marvelled over\u00a0Thom Browne’s AW15 collection – a phantasmagorical take on mourning attire, presented on the backs of some fortysomething fallen angels: pure art.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":45074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9418],"tags":[5678,792,6665],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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