Olympic alpine ski racer Lindsey Vonn needed Thom Browne’s signature dachshund-shaped bag for his first couture show. “I had to have a purse, and so I was going to support Hector!” she tells me over the phone, minutes after the last model walked the runway.
Browne has a way of making fairly regular animals look particularly fabulous. And for the couture collection, the designer looked toward pigeons, a notoriously unfabulous and unpopular avian. Models in gray suits adorned with silk-cotton-thread feathers and dresses encrusted in sequins wore pigeon-shaped headpieces, flapping their arms with an elegance more typically associated with swans. They actually modeled some of Vonn’s favorite looks of the evening. “I loved the second pigeon the most. It was a woman with a beautiful gray dress. And a cape shawl that she was holding on to in her arms. I just thought it was really beautiful.”
Vonn and Browne became friends after she modeled in his alpine-themed virtual show in March 2021. For that show, she wore a tuxedo layered under a gold puffer gown. Since then, she’s been enamored with the way the designer has reinvented the classic suit. “He makes them different and unique,” she tells me. “I grew up in a similar way to him, watching my father wear suits. And I think for me as a woman … it’s about striking the balance between femininity and strength. Through Thom, I’m able to do that very well.”
For the brand’s first couture show, Vonn wanted to do something different in honor of Browne: “I’ve worn a lot of Thom’s suits. And so I like changing it up with his first couture show. It was my first time wearing one of his big skirts.”
The outfit’s slight riff on something familiar still made her feel at home in the look. “I kind of love the way it was casual yet chic,” Vonn says. “I loved the corset, but it’s also basically a classic button-down collared shirt, which is what Thom’s signature is.” She accessorized with the classic black leather Hector; the pup also made an appearance on her skirt, a detail that added a dollop of Browne’s signature whimsy and made the otherwise structured look quite fun.
What’s inspiring to Vonn is how Browne is always able to make the familiar unfamiliar. “He makes something that’s seemingly traditional or standard into something unique and spectacular,” she says. At Couture Week, he brought classic American workwear to Paris and proved that when done right, it can be just as magical as the more expected embellished gown.
Aside from inspired collections, Browne has also been able to create a universe, one Vonn is now proudly a part of. “The people that love Tom—it’s a very interesting mix of people,” she notes. “Diane Keaton was there! Cardi B was there! You just never know who’s going to be at a Thom Browne show. His style and design transcends everything.”
Tara Gonzalez is the Senior Fashion Editor at Harper’s Bazaar. Previously, she was the style writer at InStyle, founding commerce editor at Glamour, and fashion editor at Coveteur.
