Lindsey Vonn Needed a Dachshund Bag for Thom Browne’s First Couture Show

Olympic alpine ski racer Lindsey Vonn needed Thom Browne’s signature dachshund-shaped bag for his first couture show. “I had to have a purse, and so I was going to support Hector!” she tells me over the phone, minutes after the last model walked the runway.

Browne has a way of making fairly regular animals look particularly fabulous. And for the couture collection, the designer looked towards pigeons, a notoriously unfabulous and unpopular avian. Models in gray suits adorned with silk-cotton thread feathers and dresses encrusted in sequins, wore pigeon shaped headpieces, flapping their arms with the elegance associated more typically with swans. They actually modeled some of Vonn’s favorite looks of the evening. “I loved the second pigeon the most. It was a woman with a beautiful gray dress. And a cape shawl that she was holding onto in her arms. I just thought it was really beautiful.”

Vonn and Browne became friends after she modeled in his alpine-themed virtual show during March 2021. In it, she wore a tuxedo layered under a gold puffer gown. Since then, she’s been enamored with the way the designer has reinvented the classic suit. “He makes them different and unique,” she tells me. “I grew up in a similar way to him, watching my father wear suits. And I think for me as a woman…it’s about striking the balance between femininity and strength. Through Thom, I'm able to do that very well.”

For the brand’s first Couture show, Vonn wanted to do something different in honor of Browne, “I've worn a lot of Thom's suits. And so I like changing it up with his first couture show. It was my first time wearing one of his big skirts.”

The outfit's slight riff on something familiar still made her feel at home in the look, “I kind of love the way it was casual yet chic. I loved the corset but it's also basically a classic button down collared shirt, which is what Thom's signature is.” She accessorized with the classic black leather Hector, who also made an appearance on her skirt, a detail which added a dollop of Browne’s signature whimsy that made the otherwise structured look quite fun.

What’s inspiring to Vonn is how he’s able to always make the familiar, unfamiliar. “He makes something that's seemingly traditional or standard into something unique and spectacular.” At Couture week, he brought classic American workwear to Paris and proved when done right, it can be just as magical as the more expected embellished gown.

But aside from inspired collections, Browne has been able to create a universe, one that Vonn is now proudly a part of. “The people that love Tom—it's a very interesting mix of people. Diane Keaton was there! Cardi B was there! You just never know who's going to be at a Thom Browne show. His style and design transcends everything.”

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