Thom Browne AW14

Initial reaction:

Last season’s disturbed asylum patients have now found peace in religion.

Set:

Center 548 transformed into a shadowy Catholic church, complete with wooden pews, heady incense, and backlit crosses. Choir boys with shaven heads and black robes kneeled at altars which lined the raised, blood-red carpeted runway, their gold rosary beads swinging below their bowed heads.

Holy ascension:

A mourner’s parade in solemn grey led the first half of the show.  Browne’s favoured exaggerated sleeve and hourglass silhouette bulged in a dove grey chevron weave, satin damask with wilted paisley pattern, and in high shine stripe. Suddenly the dark cloud broke with a series of heavenly gold pieces: gold foil skirt suits with swooping cut, a half-and-half jacket with one side gold tailoring, the other a fur bolero, and a trailing gold satin gown.

How they wore it:

With white hair in a halo bob, a black or gold skullcap pinned on top, a white lace veil swept behind.

Last look:

Hauntingly beautiful in its lack of Browne exaggerated silhouette: a deflated, loose shimmering gold skirt dress that hung from ivory limbs and trailed mournfully along the runway.