American fashion, like American politics, may be a discipline won by moving toward the middle, but the most riveting action often takes place on the sides. It is the extremists on the edges who make the clothes that are the most fun to see, and provocative to consider.
So while it may be tempting to hear a description of the set that greeted attendees at the Thom Browne show — a Victorian operating theater of wooden pews surrounding an arena in which white-clad, white-haired angels/undertakers tended to an equally white-clad woman laid out motionless on a gurney, until a dusting a snow heralded her passage into, well, not heaven, exactly, but backstage and dismiss it with a roll of the eyes, to do so would be a mistake. This particular passion play came with a point.
As the ensuing parade of black-clad women in quasi-Victorian mourning gear (plus a few miniskirts) revealed.
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The New York Collections: Donna Karan, Maria Cornejo, Rodarte, Thom Browne, Vera Wang
A version of this article appears in print on February 18, 2015, on page A22 of the New York edition with the headline: A Challenge From the Fringe. Order Reprints| Today’s Paper|Subscribe
