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The Shed was abuzz Wednesday night for Thom Browne‘s Spring/Summer 2027 fashion show, which transformed the Hudson Yards arts venue into a lush garden for the finale of New York Fashion Week.
Luckily for Browne, his A-list front row — Rachel Zegler, Demi Moore, Adam Scott, Britt Lower, Penn Badgley, Anna Wintour, Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber (the latter two reunited to watch their daughter Kai walk the runway) — are, apparently, big fans of bugs. For his latest offering, the New York designer continued his fascination with creepy-crawlies, sending sequin fly and moth appliqués, butterfly-wing embroidery, jacquard grasshoppers, grass-like tweeds and countless beetle details down the runway.
At the center of the set sat a giant white cocoon, surrounded by dancers dressed as butterflies, from which a black widow eventually emerged in a black silk duchess gown. The show opened to music from “A Bug’s Life,” while the ambient hum of buzzing bees drifted through much of the presentation.
Zegler, whose favorite insect is the bee, says the collection was practically made for her. “They’re so smart!” she mused to Variety after the show. “I actually kept bees with my friend Andrew in Ireland. I got stung on the shoulder and it was the best moment ever.”
The “Evita” star even has matching insect tattoos with her best friends: Zegler has a bumblebee inked on her ribcage, while her two friends have a dragonfly and ladybug, respectively.
Janelle Monáe, meanwhile, gravitated toward the show’s many butterflies. Among the dancers — outfitted in low-slung skirts and high-neck one-piece swimsuits — were, according to the show notes, the “leopard lacewing, the emerald swallowtail, the Arizona hairstreak, the purple emperor, the scarlet Mormon, the Rajah Brooke’s birdwing, the Rothschild’s birdwing, the Apollo, the Sapho longwing, the painted lady.”
“I’m going through my own metamorphosis,” Monáe says of her affinity for the winged creatures.
Metamorphosis was a fitting theme for Browne himself, whose work has evolved considerably from the appointment-only gray suits he sold out of the West Village at the beginning of his career. He ushered in this brighter, more whimsical chapter in Milan earlier this year, where seersucker flowers, ants, dragonflies, grasshoppers and bee motifs similarly crawled across the collection.
Browne, of course, hasn’t strayed far from his signature tailoring. Amid beekeeper-style hats and beetle-shaped attachés, structured wool coats, tiered pleated skirts and waist-cinching corsets made their way across the Astroturf runway. And at the Emmys earlier this week, Browne dressed one of the night’s biggest winners, Matthew Rhys, in a custom three-piece gray tuxedo — quintessential TB.
But is this especially playful era — even by Browne standards — a final form for the designer? Those who have found the past few years’ red carpets a snooze, should sure hope so. I, for one, would happily welcome a bulbous ladybug or cricket-like exoskeleton at my next premiere.
I look forward to Zegler getting her hands on one of the collection’s bright yellow apian looks. As she tells Variety: “Thom, if you’re out there: All the bumble bee stuff, you know where to find me!”