"I spent many, many hours in libraries writing my thesis," Michelle Harper said, as we waited in the New York Public Library's third floor corridor for Thom Browne's F/W 2012 show to begin. "They are a gift, a gift to mankind." Harper, who was dressed in a sparkly outfit of yellow and white stripes, studied at NYU and wrote her thesis on "a crossover between architecture, ethnomusicology and trade routes in Asian art." Picturing this fashion icon, studying amidst mortals -- not unlike the crowd of students and tourists who had started to gather around us -- was an amusing image.
Harper finds herself back at the library each season for Browne's show. "I have been to each show, and I am always blown away," she said. "It is the highlight of Fashion Week for me. He is very intellectual, so I think a library is a great match for him. He puts on a surprise every time, you know, it's just beautiful." As we entered the candle-lit room and "Hallelujah" played through speakers, lying before us were ten open caskets with grey-suited models inside. Another model strutted to a podium and announced that the 10 girls before us had "died from fashion, and every six months they dream of fashion." We were about to witness their fantasy. Thom Browne was looking for beauty in death, and although he certainly seemed to have found it, the idea was hard for the audience to digest in the wake of Whitney Houston's surprise and untimely passing. Leaving the presentation we overheard Lynn Yaeger saying, "it's just after the whole Whitney Houston thing, do I really want to be going to a funeral today?"
Photograph from PatrickMcMullan.com.
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