Design & Culture by Ed

Marisa Berenson came running into Thom Browne’s salon-like spring 2023 menswear show. Farida Khelfa and Dree Hemingway followed, and Sasha Pivavorova emerged last, rushing to get to her front row seat. The women wore fantastical suits from Browne’s resort 2023 collection, a small preview of what is being released this week, almost a month after Browne’s sexily tweeded guys hit the catwalk. “I knew the collections were connected,” Browne said, “but I didn’t realize how well it was going to work.” The women had the kind of bravado required to pull off a mannish floral jacquard blazer or a pastel color-blocked midi skirt suit. “They are women who have lived interesting lives,” Browne said of his muses, who also include artist Anh Duong and photographer Cate Underwood. “Accomplished, strong, and iconic in their own way.” That’s the Browne promise: even for those of us who live the most normal of existences, his clothes offer the opportunity to feel extraordinary and unique. There’s no way to slip into a white suit embroidered with children’s storybook scenes and not experience an almost instant mood lift or to pack your things into a giant sunflower backpack and not smile. This season, Browne has supersized some of his proportions and continues to play with pleated skirts, allowing his sometimes overly strict vision to attract people with different body types and ways of life. Still, the classics are always Browne’s favorites. “It’s true to what I did 20 years ago and it still feels so new and strong,” he said. “It shows there is still a way for us to go forward.” Going forward, trying new things, and pushing the boundaries of what is possible in fashion – well, that’s just the Thom Browne way. It’s no wonder that many are drawn to his unconventional approach. “The love you see in these pictures,” he said, “was free.”

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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During my recent Berlin trip, I finally had the chance to discover the Dries Van Noten beauty line IRL at Andreas Murkudis (which is the only retailer in Germany who stocks these goodies). I wasn’t disappointed. For most designers, perfume and cosmetics are a rite of passage; they waste little time getting into the lucrative businesses. But not Dries Van Noten. For over three decades, he has been one of fashion’s rare independent operators who made his name not on licenses, but on clothes. And yet the 63-year-old is probably better suited to these things than many of his peers. “I said I wanted a rose perfume that is kind of a punch – really not a sweet, beautiful, feminine thing. It had to be something that men could easily wear. That was kind of the symbol of how we started to work,” he says of his fragrance lineup, which includes Neon Garden, one of the scents the designer himself has taken to wearing that pairs the freshness of mint with powdery iris, and Jardin de l’Orangerie, which blends traditional orange blossom with sandalwood for a grounded, earthy effect. What Van Noten didn’t want: “easygoing” perfumes. “I think there’s already so much out there in the market. The idea was that every perfume really tells a story – in my fashion, I’m also a storyteller,” he told Vogue. In total, the new line includes 10 genderless eaux de parfums alongside 30 lipsticks, a lip balm, as well as a select few soaps and creams. The collection also includes a series of accessories, such as a mirror, a comb, and more. The scents are personal, and so too are the apothecary-inspired bottles that they come in. Each is meticulously designed and outfitted with a cap that features the brand name engraved onto it. The bottles are colored to match the scent inside, and is bound to become a centerpiece on your beauty shelf as soon as you add them to your collection. As for the beauty offerings, the 30 lipsticks are available to shop in a range of three finishes. Fifteen of them have a satin look, 10 have a matte appearance, and five will be sheer. While some are neutral-toned, the collection also includes a vibrant purple shade, proving that the brand’s love of color runs deep. The lipsticks in this new collection are just as much about the final payoff as they are about the process of applying and playing with them. With this in mind, you can also buy a lip brush to go along with the shade of your choosing. What’s important, sustainability was also key in the new collection. Aside from being reusable and refillable, the lipsticks are packaged without plastic. Love!