Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
MILAN, Italy — Thom Browne likes to test his audience with shows conceived as cryptic and extremely slow performances that invariably last too long. He cannot help it. It worked at the beginning of his career. Now, the game is getting so repetitive, you can hardly tell one season from the other. The fact that Browne's aesthetic code is actually based on repetition does not help either.
The Moncler Gamme Bleu show on Sunday was the nth iteration of the same formula. Based on the idea that seasons, nowadays, are completely screwed, with winters in July and summers in December, it featured Browne's trademark shrunken, baby-sized tailoring in either padded versions or light, unpadded ones. Period. The level of sartorial execution was truly superb; the looks were faultless. But it is really time for the designer to shake it all up and test new grounds. Consistency is one thing, immobility another. Gamme Bleu must move on.
