Editor’s Note: CNN Style is one of the official media partners of Paris Fashion Week and Haute Couture Week. See all coverage here.
Paris CNN —
True to his theatrical form, Thom Browne’s fall 2024 couture show opened with spectacle. Men grasping a rope battled for supremacy in a staged game of tug of war at the hallowed “Musée des Arts Décoratifs” gallery in Paris, where the American designer riffed off the upcoming Olympic Games to tell a story about sports, old-world couture and camp.
Quoting both antiquity and American myths, models replicated stereotypical poses of athletes throughout time — from archers and disc throwers to weightlifters — playfully deconstructing both gender roles and classical tailoring.
The latter molded bodies into exaggerated shoulder lines and tiny waists reminiscent of vintage sport iconography. Tennis skirts and dramatic heel-less track boots, complete with laurel wreath headdresses paved the way for playful homages to France: dresses adorned with hand-painted blue swimming briefs or red bikinis (the two-piece was invented in France in 1946) and beaded ‘tricolore’ lapels on jackets and overcoats.
The collection featured couture made from muslin
Thom Browne’s 2024 couture collection takes a lead from the Olympics
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