Initial reaction:
Wednesday Addams is all grown-up. Clad in black, black and more black, doll-like maidens parade through an old fashioned operating theatre.
The art of mourning:
Following on from his menswear collection, Thom Browne AW15 was a strict study in mourning with sumptuous style – from dark tears tattooed across cheeks to handsomely tailored ensembles laden with trim, painstakingly detailed embroidery and a rich mix of textures including tweed and astrakhan. “I think that when you work with black it’s important not to make everything so heavy, so there was a lot of play with proportion and a lot of fabrics which made it seem not as black as maybe it actually was,” said Browne of the monochromatic palette. Stunning headpieces made by master milliner Stephen Jones replicated different hairstyles in different fabrics, from veils of lace and silk masks to dark shrouds and vampy velvet bobs. Jeweller Sarah Jane Wilde used her own hair to create a new take on “a true reference to old mourning jewellery” – embellishing strings of ebony Tahitian pearls and earrings with long, black human hair tassels.
The broken hearts club:
A Thom Browne show wouldn’t be the spectacle we’ve come to expect without a fantastic backstory – and certainly his flair for the theatrical makes his shows a standout event every season. For AW15, the scene was set within a custom-built wooden auditorium, made in the style of an old fashioned operating room. The morbid tale began with the story of three girls who had died the purest of deaths – killed by heartbreak. “It’s a simple story of these girls dying from broken hearts,” explained Brown. “When the surgeons can’t save them, they turn into angels and ascend to heaven. Then come their friends, the girls that came to mourn their beautiful lives.”
