Mistress of Suspense
feat. Thom Browne,
Balenciaga, and Prada

How can suspense—so abstract and yet so acute—be identified without a physical agent? The ominous, slow turn of a doorknob, a phone that rings in the night. A suitcase packed in a hurry. Both a psychological state and a genre, suspense demands a vehicle. Like unexpected footsteps, just outside on the stairs, or a stranger’s coat hanging in the vestibule. Whose is it? How long have they been here? Limp and somehow foreboding, ordinary objects come to act as mediums for threat. They mean trouble.

More so, even the most everyday gestures are made tense in the vise of suspense. As a stand-off between restraint and revelation, suspense grabs hold. A watch, a shoe, a glove, the shadow of a gloved hand—they all tell a story...or solve a mystery. A key becomes a proxy. Objects conspire. They drive plot.