On the first Monday in May, Thom Browne dressed 21 guests for the 2025 Met Gala, and three days later, was in Milan discussing his pre-fall 2025 collection.

“It has become almost a small couture show, because each piece and each person is very specifically thought out,” he told WWD of this year’s event, dressing the likes of Demi Moore, Lorde, Walton Goggins, Whoopi Goldberg and many more.

“It’s always in the balance, because without the one side, it’s not as interesting,” the designer said of those megawatt red carpet creations and his runway shows with the more commercial styles featured throughout pre-fall. “I did just conceptual ideas, conceptual collections, I think people would become just not so interested, and the flip side, if I only did commercial, then people would be really bored. They really have to coexist.”

He explained that from his pre-collections — important previews into what’s on the runway — to the way his store is merchandised to his latest summer campaign, it’s about showing a balance between “the very understandable with some things that are not understandable,” as to keep telling his world-building, fantastical brand story. 

“I think that’s always going to be something I want to put and propose to people, because I want it to be more than just clothing most of the time,” he said.

In pre-fall, this meant previewing what was on fall’s runway — a fantastical balance of the classic and conceptual inspired by the pastime of birding — while reintroducing the American sensibility within his world. Browne said he started with fabrics — heritage tweeds and ginghams — as well as those iconic Americana silhouettes, such as his cashmere basketball jerseys; “jean” jacket, done in gray suede; utilitarian shirt jackets, and a bomber jacket with embroidered trousers.

There also were nods to fall’s bird motifs, with a pair of everyday shorts boasting small goose embroideries, and his signature silk print of the season (a pastoral scene) seen on a classic button-down shirt and pleated skirt, as well as an embroidered cashmere number. 

His men’s and women’s collections, designed at the same time with the same sensibility, boasted new proportions on his tailoring, as seen through a khaki Mack jacket worn with a longer pleated skirt and hybrid pinstripe jackets for day, or a canvas patch pocket tuxedo with corduroy collar for evening. 

“It actually lives past a photo,” Browne said of the latter look, which Barry Keoghan wore last Thursday on Jimmy Kimmel. Just one example of how pre-fall was designed for the everyday balance.