Kai Schreiber Stars in Thom Browne’s Bug Themed NYFW Show

For Browne, Schreiber was a natural pick. “She’s an amazing performer, she’s an amazing girl just in general,” the designer said a half hour before the show began. “I wanted to cast her just because of that, because I knew that she could really perform in a way that was at the level that I wanted in the show.”

During our chat, Browne was very much still in producer mode, pausing every so often to audibly call shots on wigs and accessories. “This is what I do this for. These are the moments,” he says of those last-minute nitpicks and adjustments. “If I didn’t have these moments, I wouldn’t want to do it. It’s so nice for everyone that has worked on the collections to actually see it all coming together.”

The show itself featured models in insectile twists on Browne’s signature suits, as well as some fabulous ladybug silhouettes. Still, Browne wants to make one thing clear: “The gray suit never gets old. It still lives, and it’s still around, and it’s still recognizable, and I think it still looks as good as it did 25 years ago.”

The majesty of nature inspired his latest collection, with a Thom Browne twist. By adapting couture techniques like embroidery and intarsia to Browne’s “tailored world,” he says, the pieces all came together to “play with the story of the collection, of a bug’s life.” And yes, that is a direct reference to the 1998 animated film. “All the embroidery and intarsia is all playing with that kind of theme, so you see a lot of butterflies and bees and ants and cockroaches.”

There were eight other butterflies in the show. The ninth was Schreiber, who was the only model to enter the onstage chrysalis and come out transformed in a new ensemble that referenced Browne’s iconic grey suit.

“I knew that I wanted to have a butterfly moment that was more of a performance, and knowing that Kai could move, I wanted her to be the focus and the star,” says Browne. And though this is her first time working with the famed designer, Schreiber has long been a fan of Browne’s. “I always remember being excited for Thom Browne during Fashion Week, because he was always going to have something fun, something weird and funky…like aliens on the runway,” she says, referencing his spring-summer ’26 show, “We Come in Peace.”

A native New Yorker, Schreiber was particularly chuffed to star in Browne’s dance-forward New York show. (Browne usually opts to show his clothes in Paris.) “I used to study dance and classical ballet at LaGuardia. When I heard that this show was very classical-ballet themed, it got me really excited because, since graduating from LaGuardia, I haven’t really found a way to reinvolve dance in my life again,” she says. “I couldn’t stay trying to train to become a professional because that wasn’t what I wanted.”

In Browne’s show, Schreiber could combine her two passions—modeling and dance. Browne had her strike poses that blended the world of high-fashion modeling and modern dance.

In another bit of synergy, Schreiber transferred into a beautiful Browne butterfly days after becoming the first trans girl to receive the title of breakthrough model of the year. The significance is not lost on Schreiber. “I don’t even know how to explain it. That feeling where you’re being acknowledged for who you are, someone just giving you a pat on the back and saying, ‘Well done,’” she says. Schreiber is well aware of her place in the lineage of LGBTQ+ history. “I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the trans girls and boys who paved the way for me and who have been here longer than me,” she adds. “I have to thank them every step of the way. It’s an honor.”