Paris ? One iconoclastic designer staged his latest image smashing collection in the restaurant of the most famous fashion iconoclast of them all in Paris on Sunday, June 26.
The younger revolutionary was Thom Browne, the impertinent American tailor, who this season sent out his male models in transparent cocktail dresses and covered their heads with lampshades instead of hats in a spring 2012 collection staged in the famed Paris restaurant Maxim's.
Pierre Cardin, the first designer to ever stage a men's show a half century ago with students from the Sorbonne, and the first to create everything from a jeans brand to restaurant chain, has owned the posh eatery for the past 30 years. Cardin, who sat quietly at Browne's show, has also opened Maxim's everywhere from Rio to Beijing.
"Monsieur Browne definitely has a point of view, which I can only respect. It's a different sort of proposition than mine, for I had clearly a more revolutionary modernist perspective," the firm of handshake and still bright eyed 88-year-old Cardin said.
Though the images and code he so much enjoys breaking down are all very much American, Browne's shows have become cult events in Paris. Several hundred fans begged to get into the show, all to no avail. Inside, every menswear editor of note sat sardine-packed on tiny bistro tables, sipping champagne as a pianist thumped out a dramatic intro.
This is a designer known for his theatrical staging. This show was no exception - opening with two hyper dandies in tuxedos with huge lapels but no sleeves, taking their seats on Maxim's small stage, to act like critics or show producers inspecting each model before they toured the twisting catwalk.
Throughout Browne poked fun at our traditional notions of male dressing - attiring men in tuxedos that morphed into floor-length evening dresses where the lapels ended at the crotch, and fitting out guys in nightclub singer bugle beaded pants or blazers in Indian embroidery more associated with a Park Avenue grand dame than a suited gentleman.
As a designer, Browne has passed several key tests - he has invented a signature look, his short-sleeve, short-leg strict little gent's suit, and created an easily identifiable look. But the reason he may ultimately be regarded as a great designer is that his collections provoke thought. With the very deliberate act of breaking unspoken masculine mores about how a man is meant to dress by creating collections full of grandee gender bending gestures, Browne reminds us how much we are slaves to our tradition and past than we realize, or suspected.
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