Thom Browne, New York’s most theatrical and polarizing men’s wear designer, makes his European debut next week, showing his fall collection at the Pitti Immagine Uomo fair in Florence.

As Pitti’s featured guest designer—an honor bestowed on Walter Van Beirendonck, Adam Kimmel and Kris Van Assche in recent seasons—Browne has an opportunity to reach people in the market who perhaps haven’t seen his New York shows and don’t know what he stands for. So for this season he reconsidered the avant-garde antics and perverse, themed spectacles his New York audiences have come to expect.

Like countless women’s wear designers, Browne has a history of including outlandish showpieces that are meant to stir the imagination or set a mood for a runway show without regard for practicality or commercial viability. But this common practice in women’s wear doesn’t go over the same in men’s wear, and sets up Browne’s detractors to dismiss his work as “unwearable” or “a joke.” In defense, Browne’s fans say he delivers a much-needed goosing to American men’s wear, which certainly isn’t often celebrated for provocation or wild creativity.

For his part, the designer always says it is his goal to incite strong responses, favorable or not. Therefore, one might expect him to dial up the absurdity for European audiences, who are known to have a higher tolerance for it. But it wouldn’t be like Browne to do something widely acceptable. He always seeks to upend the status quo. Next Wednesday, the audience will determine whether he succeeded.

“A lot of Europeans don’t know me,” Browne said. “So I wanted to do something very signature. This presentation shows where it all started and what I’m all about.”