If you’re looking for a show (and equally spectacular clothes), go to Thom Browne. Just beware of killer heels he’s offering his models every season. For spring-summer 2020, the designer was drawn towards the unabashed decadence of France before the Revolution. With models in Marie Antoinette-esque wigs and powdered pink faces, Browne’s vision of the 18th-century silhouette aligned most closely with the historic original. Anna Cleveland walked down the runway in a dress that owed its waist-whittling line to traditional corsetry. There was often a layer cake of prettiness underneath the rigorous feminine architecture: petticoats and ruffled bloomers in the softest pastel shades, for example. Browne’s signature gray flannel suits were stripped back to their red, white and blue lining in places, revealing traditional men’s boxer shorts that were buoyed by suspenders. But mostly, those looks said one thing: “let them eat cake!”
Collage by Edward Kanarecki.