Destuctured, restructured, untamed by the boundaries of shape and silhouette—Thom Browne’s Fall/Winter 2021 ready-to-wear collection is a feat of fashion construction, a dreamlike fantasy of escapism and the melding together of vividly fantastical visions with the sweet euphoria of reality.

In a surreal black-and-white short film starring Lindsey Vonn, the collection is unveiled. Butter yellow is the only point of color, the rich, tumbling fabrics of a sleeveless gown draped over a fitted tuxedo; the rest of the dream, desaturated, wavers in an in-between place with the rest of the garments in the collection, a half-world of masculine and feminine, dresses stitched with suits, bowties blooming from full skirts, wing-like shoulders emerging from the silhouette of a ballgown.

There are no limits in Thom Browne’s new reality, no fixed boundaries in the desaturated world populated by stick-figures and faceless shadows. Possibilities are only bound by the stretch of the imagination—elastic and moldable as Thom Browne’s is, this is a collection of rich neutrals in reimagined structures, elevated formalwear born anew into something bolder, more fluid, more surreal.

The spectrum of gender is a circle, not a line, in this collection. Standout pieces merge softness and hardness together, the delicate ruffles of a skirt with the sharp lines of a tuxedo jacket, the slim cut of a blazer with the long, flowing lines of a skirt, every look adorned with a gentleman’s top hat and a face-covering, sheer mask, ambiguity reawakened. 

A black ball gown with a fitted corset bodice is paired with a tuxedo top and flaring shoulders, the steampunk silhouette of something new and awesome; an elaborately wide black-and-white skirt with puffing ribbons and looming stripes it tapered at the waist to be a double-breasted, cropped jacket, teetering between form and structures. Nothing is simple—everything is vivid, vibrant in its desaturation, complex as a dream, wild and fantastical.

Enter the slideshow below to view looks from the Thom Browne Fall/Winter 2021 ready-to-wear collection and shop Thom Browne here.