Martha Stewart, Addison Rae, Cole Escola, and Extra—Welcome to Thom Browne’s Island of Misfit Toys

Cole Escola, Martha Stewart, Addison Rae, and Thom Browne stroll right into a bar…It’s not the start of what could be a legendary joke have been I swifter with a punchline, however how my night began final night time at The Commerce Inn within the West Village at Thom Browne’s super-secret, no-press, VIPs-only, shock non-Style Week (however positively Style Week) dinner, co-hosted by Mary Todd Lincoln herself within the physique of a blue haired, blue eyeliner-ed Escola.

If a tree falls within the forest and nobody is round to listen to it, does it make a sound? If a label throws a NYFW bash and we (the press, or Vogue, if we’re being self-congratulatory) isn’t round to inform you all about it, does it make a splash? Effectively no, which is why my GQ colleague Sam Hine and I got particular dispensation to be the outliers within the room. And so in a room of very intimidating—and typically surprisingly humorous—visitors, all legendary or budding luminaries, together with the aforementioned Stewart and Rae plus Patti LuPone, Issa Rae, Ella Emhoff, Morgan Spector, Christine Baranski, Havana Rose Liu, Alton Mason, Fred Hechinger, Ib Kamara, and lots of extra, there was little previous me, and Sam, hanging out, Voice Memo recording app in hand, to inform you all about it.

Cole Escola, Anna Wintour, and Thom Browne.

Zach Hilty/BFA.com

The gist of it’s that Browne, who confirmed a career-best assortment in June at Couture Week in Paris, was sitting on his unreleased spring 2025 assortment. In lieu of a runway present or a lookbook launch, he considered placing collectively a room filled with “individuals who signify excellence” and dressed them in items from the gathering. The thought was to have of us put on the gathering styled as they’d, relatively than as Browne & co. would for a present. Stated Browne: “I didn’t need something to remove from the couture present, and I needed this to be a second, however the assortment wasn’t the primary factor. I did need individuals to see that Thom Browne garments are literally wearable and actual, and you can see them on various kinds of individuals, however what I needed out of this night was to see Martha, to see Patti, to see you [yes, dear reader, I shed a tear here], and have an evening of people that in my thoughts signify actual excellence, people who find themselves the most effective at what they do.”

The choice to make this occur in New York was a no brainer. It’s Browne’s dwelling, the birthplace of his label, and, because the chairman of the Council of Style Designers of America, the designer mentioned he felt a duty to have interaction within the metropolis throughout Style Week.

However the actual purpose, and the actual charmer of the night time, was to harness and leverage the weirdness that has made Browne’s world one individuals need to be part of. “I’m so impressed by people who find themselves true to who they’re no matter who that’s, and the boldness that takes,” mentioned the designer in a post-dessert second of well-earned earnestness, “as my enterprise is rising, I need this to be what individuals see, I need all the pieces about Thom Browne to develop in the easiest way, however to by no means lose that particular type of factor that all of us signify, and that’s simply…not straightforward.” Within the panorama of American style Browne has turn into a shining instance of what a designer can accomplish once they stay dedicated to be the most effective model of themselves, not anybody else’s. “I at all times felt like I’m completely by myself, and I reply to individuals simply doing their very own factor, who current precisely what they need individuals to see of them,” he continued, “it might be a bizarre approach of placing it, however I’ve accomplished exhibits based mostly on this concept, of the island of misfit toys (see his fall 2022 assortment).”

Besides that within the room final night time, misfit is the utmost praise. Take it from Escola, the night’s co-host, who Browne met and have become enamored by after dressing them for the 2024 Met Gala: “It’s the largest praise,” they mentioned, including that the night was “a birthday-slash-wedding-slash-first kiss.” And, as soon as once more in a post-desert, final-moment-of-the-night jiffy of earnestness: “I nonetheless can’t wrap my head round why individuals need me to put on their garments. It means quite a bit that that is coming from my play; I wrote this play and this character that could be very a lot my voice and that different artists whose work I like are responding to it and wanting to incorporate me of their world, it’s all the pieces.”

However as issues go chez Browne and definitely chez Escola, the night was not simply “stylish as hell,” within the latter’s phrases, but in addition hilarious. In some unspecified time in the future between the salad and the primary course, one of many of us at my desk, the youngsters’ desk (complimentary), determined to step outdoors for a ciggy. Then went the following, and the following, and the following. These of us non people who smoke felt disregarded, and so we joined. On condition that we have been within the presence of Rae, pop star-in-the-making and inarguable queen of TikTok, we thought to doc our group with a 15 second clip to her newest single “Food regimen Pepsi.” The consequence was chaotic, bizarre, humorous, and, as soon as once more, stylish as hell. I confirmed it to Browne earlier than we mentioned our last goodbyes, who put his studying glasses on, glanced at my telephone, and mentioned: “I simply love that we’re all right here, we’re all totally different ages, all of us do our factor, however collectively.”