Thom Browne denounced the construct of gender with his first co-ed fashion show

Yesterday afternoon, designer Thom Browne presented his FW20 collection in Paris under the theme of Noah’s Ark.

The opening looks from the collection were models dressed in the brand’s signature seersucker fabric, all wearing skirts, blazers and the cotton heads of different animals — a giraffe, an elephant, a pig or a horse, all of whom showed no distinct signs of gender in their dress but were simply a generic mixture of both male and female. Not long after, in reference to the pairs of animals in the Biblical tale, Browne sent thirty-three couples down the runway who wore the identical looks. It included a mixture of capes, trousers, pleated skirts, draped skirts, oxford shirts and neckties inspired by old prep school silhouettes. 

It was a collection that served to blur gender lines, offering a serving of men who looked masculine in women’s clothes and women who looked feminine in men’s clothes. This was even more significant because of the designer’s history with gender roles. Browne has never been one to abide by traditional gender rules of fashion. He’s been known to freely mix womenswear with menswear in ways were obvious fusions to the bare eye. However, in the past few seasons, he has created subtle differences in the way he presents each gender. The influences for womenswear vs menswear have been slightly different in their presentation in a way that has translated negatively. 

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Browne has made a habit of feeding that whimsy by transforming women into props — of planting them atop perilously high heels for ornamental effect. And Sunday afternoon, at least one of them had to be monitored from the sidelines, as the poor girl was at risk of tumbling over like a wilting flower on a hot day…. Browne likes to use men as sentinels, too. But they, at least, are typically wearing flat shoes. They are not wearing hobbling skirts. Browne’s production choices distract from his work, and he is a master at his craft. Every quilt-like coat, every skirt with deep and extravagant folds, every perfectly tailored tweed jacket spoke of luxury and precision, wrote fashion critic Robin Givhan about the designer’s show last season. 

The latest collection being the brand’s first co-ed show was an official levelling of the gender playing field. There was visually no differences between menswear and womenswear, everyone wore skirts, or heels or dresses. Women were declared equally as masculine as men, and men were equally as feminine as women. It wasn’t just a proposal for a new form of masculinity but also a new form of femininity and gender on a whole, which was a very important move for the designer to make as the industry currently moves towards a more gender fluid way of doing things.