Welcome to a new era of Show Notes, in which a rotating cast of contributors from across the global GQ network will deliver breaking menswear intel, intrepid trend reporting, and amusing asides direct to your inbox all Fashion Month long. Next up: Mahalia Chang takes you through the Thom Browne show in Milan.
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Backstage after Thom Browne’s spring 2027 show at Milan’s Palazzo Serbelloni, as a gaggle of journalists and VIPs (including Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow) took shelter from the brutal summer heat, I asked the designer what had inspired the nature-themed garments he’d just presented. “Well, it started from A Bug's Life,” he replied, referring to the 1998 Pixar classic.
That bucolic influence was immediately apparent on the runway. Jackets were embroidered with beaded marching ants, oversized dragonflies, and grasshoppers (unlike in the film, thankfully, none were voiced by Kevin Spacey). The opening looks were styled with beekeeping veils wrapped around boater hats. Models carried watering cans cut from seersucker fabric and had gold honeycomb patterns dripping down their shoulders.
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The bee motif, however, wasn’t borrowed from an animated movie. “Napoleon actually stayed here [at the Palazzo] for three months,” Browne told me, gesturing around to the gold-trimmed doors and marble columns. “So [I was] using the bee, which was his motif, as a little bit of the bug reference as well.”
But it wasn’t all insects and gardening tools. The 58-look collection—Browne’s first dedicated menswear show since spring 2023—was full of TB signatures. Most of the bottoms were shorts, alongside a few suit trousers and slim pants—some in lemon yellow, others with floral embroidery creeping up the thigh. For a spring collection, the looks were aggressively layered—one (presumably overheating) model wore a shirt under a sweater vest under a blazer under a jacket—with colors, patterns, and textures all clashing.
There were a few sportier pieces, too: an icy Madras-print sleeveless windbreaker, as well as split-tone engineered jackets. Browne’s familiar pleated kilts still reigned supreme—both Jamie Campbell Bower and Tramell Tillman gamely wore theirs in the front row—but new twists on the skirt, with longer column and pencil shapes, also popped up on the runway. Our thoughts and prayers to the guest wearing the bedazzled alien mask from spring 2026, who was surely risking some sort of heat stroke.
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Stefano Rellandini/Getty Images |
While the show marked the first time Thom Browne’s mainline had shown in Milan (the designer presented collections for Moncler Gamme Blue here in 2017), the 60-year-old Pennsylvania native is no stranger to the city. “Milan is a second home for me, so it's always nice to be here,” he said. “I’m here so often with the collections.”
That sort of homecoming deserved a big bonanza finale. And we got one: Here came the groom. In a white short suit with a cropped cricket vest underneath, he wore a cape of tulle like a bridal veil, and a net hat swarmed with beaded bees. This was a “reference to the frog and the princess story,” said Browne, referring to Disney’s 2009 film The Princess and the Frog. “But in my story, it’s the frog and the prince.”
At the end of the show, Browne did his closing bow in a bouclé frog mask with a net veil. Another little fairytale nod. Does he really love Disney?
“Why not?” he said, with a little smile and a shrug. “Who doesn’t?”
See all the looks from the show.
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Pietro D'Aprano/Getty Images |
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