Anchored in emotional resonance, the collection draws from utilitarian and protective elements, merging them with soft, flowing fabrics that speak to the complexity of feminine strength. By refusing to confine itself within traditional gender expressions, SRVC champions a woman who is unapologetically both strong and vulnerable, urging her to embrace every facet of her identity. Preview the lookbook below.
The highly anticipated collection makes its global debut on July 6, available online and in-store at Gentle Monster and D’heygere locations.
Intimately set on the opera house stage, 300 guests were surrounded by diaphanous grey debris netting (the mesh you see passing by a construction site) topped with microfiber pigeons. (The pigeons would appear again, alongside the loudspeakers cooing and grunting between songs). The guests were both audience and actors and then the curtain was raised, revealing thousands of Browne-suited cardboard character boards which cheered and clapped at the excited audience (us). There was also a giant bell above us, trimmed by Thom Browne grosgrain, motionless. A little slip of paper was rolled up on the guests' chairs. It said a ‘bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.’ Ironic since I’d ditch most of my clothes and risk a lot for some of these looks.
The scene was set like grey stone. The spatially deceitful background turned heads as models paraded down the aisles and suddenly emerged from behind the rows of guests. Browne’s classic tailoring appeared with his ubiquitous suit, opening and closing the show in homage and scattered in hints throughout the collection. There was no one place to look. All you could do was focus on the clothes in front of you. Bell helmets and animal headsets topped some models' heads as others were bandaged up, their faces wrapped by silk gauze and hair detached, sitting next to their walking heads. The classic seersucker appeared in varying cuts of the grey uniform jacket. And then came the tweed, and lots of it. A beaked, netted headpiece hovers above a face. Grey feathers sprinkle over a hyper-cinched Mao suit. Another jacket bursts out at the waist, structuring the silhouette like a naked cage crinoline and shaping the model into a very opulent, very human pigeon.
There is a beauty to garments when they are viewed in a pure state of topography. There is an avalanche of line and stitch, of concave padded jackets and rippling stitches, of articulated toile silk cropped blazers and the squiggling tweed that forms a museum of checked options for one’s wardrobe. There is a complexity to all this variety, but then again, an abundance of options doesn’t hurt, right? Think about the unmediated lines and protruding shapes creating off-the-body action with many coats and sleeves. They ballooned out with fusings similar to the bone inserts that ran along the arms of Browne’s F/W2011 collection. They bulged but were far from turgid. They explore structure, a form without boast. The Browne dog, Hector, also made an appearance in some bags, and there can never be too much of Hector.
The looks varied in material, fluttering with a lightness of seersucker and suddenly propelling down in a chenille tweed overcoat. There were also variations in images that formed from the patchwork, embroidery, embellishments and mesh applique of various looks: one coat had thick nautical connotations, with an embroidered 3-strand rope looping across the woolen back; the conventional jacket was patched with flowing multicolored horsehair brushes; another look had starfish applique; another had embellished coral streaks; another had patched lighthouse and palm trees over a white and grey pinstripe jacket (sleeveless); and another had printed sailing boats and seadragons. Yes, some coats and jackets were sleeveless, resembling either a straight jacket, a sleeveless sleeping bag jacket, or the Lucretia jacket from 2018.
The patterns in this show had a silk-smooth cohesiveness that disregarded the preternatural pronounced sleeves and waists. As the hair grew away like a fungus, golden threads of coral flushed down hyper-long jackets and stopped at the hem, afraid (I think) of the gargantuan heels. The reinterpreted stiletto-esque wedge heel struck past in their tall, statuesque grandeur. They were shaped like porpoises predisposed to brogues. They, of course, also made a scene, clacking like thunderous clogs with an added ring thanks to the reintroduction of spurs — they made a nautical appearance in his SS19 collection — but this time with bells.
At one moment, the music (previously classical and operatic) swerved into a bout of contemporaneity. A miniskirt just walked on a couture runway. Sure, seaside iconography patched onto a monochromatic tailored jacket is…albeit new. But the miniskirt was merely a prelude to more couture novelty: a raw hem came from a sleeve, and oversized coats were donned, grey moss shimmered on a skirt. And then there was the last look…a sheer-ish wedding gown appeared…with shoulder pads, buttons and a collar. Notched lapels. The lowest button popped as the model ascended the staircase, and suddenly, the Browne allure hit couture with the smooth strength of a long upper thigh.
Where last year’s Paris featured ball gowns and three-tier taffeta swallowing the human form, this year’s couture collection let the models walk with an equally luxurious composure without the chaos of five-meter trains. This year, there were fewer than 5 ‘conventional’ gowns. That was enough to respectfully veer away from the pretensions of couture formalism and draw new lines in the visual fabric of fashion. Tailoring for all and a breath for none was the energy inside, yet there was hardly any havoc. Thom Browne made the show beautiful and efficiently entertaining (as usual). However, the real kicker was the fact that this brand, like many of its previous shows over the years, deserved a spot on couture week. Now, it has one. Now, we wait for the next show, perched on the ledge and edging in seats, waiting for even more daring applications, cooing at the thought of the next.
See the runway looks below.
It is early Friday morning in New York when Kuai picks up the phone, mere days away from her graduation. Kuai was propelled towards a certain kind of recognition among fashion circles after Sabrina wore her black wings look for the TikTok Awards in Brazil last year. By then her costumes had already been featured on Vogue Italia and tmrw magazine. She was contacted by Sabrina’s stylist Pedro Sales, after posting a new design of a green look. “Maybe he thought I’m a little crazy, you know!” she laughed. He had commented on her post, requesting her to check her DMs, which confused her. “I was like, ‘Who is this guy?’” she said mischievously. Pedro revealed they wanted to collaborate with her on Sabrina’s look for the TikTok awards, and Kuai agreed. “Oh, she’s quite fabulous,” Kuai said talking about Sabrina, “She’s so iconic and she wears a lot of great designs.”
Kuai had started getting messages from stylists and potential clients very quickly after she began posting the garments she created for her classes at FIT. It had led her to the moment when Sabrina’s team settled on the now iconic black wings look, which she had also posted on Instagram. “They wanted to try crazy things,” she said, “No matter how much it cost, or how big it is.” However, the shock of the assistant who had bought a small bag to deliver the piece to Sabrina’s team was palpable. “She opened her eyes widely, and asked me, ‘Sweetheart, are you sure this is the one?’ and I was like ‘Yes, this is what they want’. The assistant couldn’t believe that.” Kuai was spellbound at how beautiful Sato looked in the piece after the event went live – “I was like, oh my god, she’s such a blessing!”
Soon after the immense response after the show, Kylie’s team reached out to her. Kylie’s preferences and Kuai’s artistic practice complimented each other. Kylie laid out her preferences and Kuai navigated fabric around the areas she wanted exposed or concealed. “She wanted to show more of her midriff. I cut out that area to be exposed,” she said. She sketched for half an hour and before Kylie’s team replied to her about their preferences, she had already chosen the fabric – “As time was quite short”, she said. “I always spend time in my studio, working till ten or eleven,” she laughed, “I had my final due when I was making garments new garments for Kylie – and I stayed in the studio till almost twelve or one!” Within three days everything was ready.
Kuai’s designs are often conceptual in the way they uphold structured silhouettes which extend beyond the body. They highlight the prominence of the architectural. This influence draws from her practice as an industrial design student at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. Born in Yiyang, China, she moved to Beijing for college. “I was quite interested in industry and design sketches and architecture sketches,” she said, “I was obsessed with architects, mainly Louis Kahn.” She started going to art exhibitions. Her tmrw magazine piece with a circular exposed mid-section was inspired by the figurative artist James Turrell, who created a round cavity in the roof of a building to expose the sky above. After graduating from college, she had a roommate who was interested in fashion “She introduced me to designers like Yohji Yamamoto, Isse Miyake and Haider Akerman. I was really attracted to these designs.” She got a job in Beijing, but also started creating designs – however materializing them into reality became an issue due to bad fabric. She quit her job, moved to San Francisco with her boyfriend and applied to FIT. “I just kept what I felt for art” she said, “And used that passion and belief to transfer into fashion – that is the way I create my designs.”
She met Richie Shazam when the latter was shooting for her book ‘Shazam’, which was released at Dover Street Market in New York last week. Julia Fox’s stylist Briana Andalore, who had styled Dove Cameron with Kuai’s looks for Interview Magazine (which was also shot by Shazam) had told her that Richie would be launching a book for which she wanted to use her looks – specially a three-meter-long neon-green look. “I was like yes, it’s possible, but I have to go with you as I’m the only person who knows how to put this on the body,” she said. When they arrived at the studio, Richie was there. “We just hugged each other, she said she’s a huge fan of me, and I’m doing crazy stuff,” Kuai recalled, “She also said we should collaborate. She wanted to visit my studio, and I was like, ‘I still have a school studio!’”
Kuai shot her thesis editorial in Chinatown, highlighting the amalgamation of two cultures. She is excited by the diversity of lifestyle there and her designs stand boldly, commanding space within busy streets. Titled The Independent Reality, the collection highlights a visible boundary she creates with her garments. “I wanted to see people’s reactions,” she laughed, “Everybody was like ‘oh my god…these are avatars. They’re from the computer, but they’re actually alive.’ I think this is called the magic of fashion!”
After graduation, she will continue designing and completing her graduate collection, which will be showcased at NYFW. Moving forward, connecting with factory owners, looking for studio space and hiring people are part of her plan. When asked about whether she has any exciting collaborations coming up, she said, “Yes, yes, but I am not sure if you can write about them now!”
