Dapper designer Thom Browne sees American men as strangers in a strange land. Last year, he projected them into space. For this season, he spirited them back to the 18th century, with a show that took founding father Thomas Jefferson's sojourn in Paris as its starting point. In the Salon Impérial of the Westin Hotel in Place Vendôme, Thom Browne staged a sit-down dinner for 42 painted, peruked fops (the wigs were actually an Aran knit snood), who picked at a dieter's plate of sweet corn and peas while huge turkeys steamed invitingly on the table in front of them. Every so often, the men would arise as one and promenade around the dinner table in a game of musical chairs in a motion slow enough to suggest they might be plagued by gout, a favorite affliction of dudit century. Closing the parade, Berthold Rothas sported a pair of neat plaits. Mr Browne loves drama, bending a world to his will, but he's smart enough to know the show is not entirely the thing. He indicated a riding influence in the collection, which yielded jackets with cutaways that buttoned to sleeves. He talked about a new high-buttoned shape. And he was insistent that you could winnow out a flotilla of wearable options from his theatrical parade. True, there was a navy blazer layered over a longer one in gray cord. There were plaid bermudas and a blue-white-red suede motocross jacket, and a navy shearling trench with huge buckles. There were also huge leg-of-mutton sleeves, and britches trimmed with guinea-fowl feathers, a St Trinian's schoolgirl uniform in gray mohair, and a dramatic coat whose Empire line and sweeping train brought together the wardrobe of Thomas Jefferson and his wife Martha. In the realm of fashion, The Option has become a treasured tool with which to seduce shoppers. The vast range of Thom Browne's offering carries the act of seduction to an entirely illogical extreme. For that alone, he should be declared a national treasure. ♥ ♥ ♥
