Avenue Montaigne in Paris is one of the most famous luxury streets in the world. Between imposing historic halls of haute couture houses and huge exclusive boutiques with dozens of tourists queuing out the door, sits a gray concrete office building; boring if it weren't an incongruous element in the area's architecture. On the second floor is the Thom Browne Atelier, an open space that is more like an office than a designer studio and also functions as a shop by appointment. Of course, neither the room nor the decorations are chosen at random. These are the days after Browne's first show during the very exclusive Paris Haute Couture Week (he is the first North American designer in 50 years to present his collection on this elite calendar) and several people on his team are finalizing the details finalize the pieces for appointments with buyers. They are all young and all wear what Browne calls “uniform”: gray pantsuits with shorts, pleated skirts or fishnet pants over tight white shirts. “You always have to be in harmony with what you create, stay true to a vision. I think that’s the key to success,” says the designer. This coherence is taken to the extreme in Browne's curious imagination. He founded his brand 20 years ago and neither he nor those around him have ever been seen without his “uniform”. This has allowed him to be one of the few current creatives whose work is instantly recognisable; It doesn't matter whether they are worn by men or women, whether they are complicated dresses or simple suits. Everyone knows that these clothes bear his signature.
Thom Browne in his studio.Philippe Quaisse (Pascoandco)
At first it wasn't that easy. Two decades ago, men's fashion began to awaken and flirt with luxury sportswear. Hedi Slimane triumphed at Dior Hombre with those slim-fitting suit designs that were directly reminiscent of the rock stars of the '70s, and Browne, unaware of the current trend, began designing gray suits that were seemingly boring if it weren't for that fact that they appeared shrunken. This uniform, which expressed and still expresses a strange mixture of discipline and irony, was the visual result of his rigorous education at a Catholic school in Pennsylvania and his years as a competitive swimmer (the three stripes of the logo are a translation). the medal ribbons) and his time on the creative team at Club Monaco, a historic Ivy League-style brand once owned by Ralph Lauren. It was he who trusted Browne, who had no academic training in fashion, and gave him a position on the design team after working in his stores. “A lot of people didn't understand what I was doing, they just thought it looked bad, but you have to stay true to the story you want to tell,” he remembers. Until there were people who understood it. People like David Bowie, who entrusted him with the design of his suits when, before he began presenting his collections in 2006, the designer only owned a small tailor-made clothing workshop in the West Village (in the artist's last public image before his death, he wears a tight-fitting Browne uniform). Or people like Claudio Del Vecchio, the then owner of the historic American tailoring company Brooks Brothers, who commissioned him to develop the conceptual tailoring line Black Fleece in 2007 and until 2012. This and his subsequent collections for Moncler, he says, helped him expand his vision beyond the confines of New York. Suddenly Browne's suits were the uniform of the moment and he and his partner Andrew Bolton, curator of the Metropolitan Museum's fashion exhibitions, became two of the most influential figures in the industry. “I think what happened is that a connection was made with a certain type of audience. A uniform may seem boring, but it can be liberating and tell the story of the wearer. Now there may be more customers, but the profile hasn't changed. These are people who want to express something with their style, regardless of current fashion,” he says.
His 2024 haute couture show was centered around his classic gray suit jacket.Philippe Quaisse (Pascoandco)
Detail of the parade headgear.Philippe Quaisse (Pascoandco)
For Browne, history is everything. He was one of them long before he founded the brand, when he himself searched vintage shops to dress (always in uniform, of course) in a different style from the others. And this has been the case for all these years, with parades taking place in swimming pools, train stations and of course in offices. Or when she launched her women's collection in 2013, which was just as recognizable but infinitely more theatrical than the men's collection. “And it will continue to be that way. Not only because it's what the public expects of me, but also because I don't know how to do it otherwise. “I can only design collections if I think of stories,” he admits. For example, his latest show, the first in the field of haute couture. At the Paris Opera and in front of the “watchful gaze” of 1,000 gray-clad cardboard mannequins sitting in the audience, supermodel Alek Wek performed a kind of performance in which she initially watched her own life pass unnoticed until she realized… , that there was a certain courage in this monochromatic biography. Of course, Fade to Gray or Station to Station were played as a tribute to Bowie, their most important supporter. “Everything had to be gray because it's my story,” he says, “but I also wanted it to be a demonstration of what can be achieved with the suit as a creative base,” he says of these dramatic, hand-made designs .
Browne's foray into the closed world of haute couture was ultimately a kind of homage to his 20 years of creative boldness, an anniversary he caps with a book written by his partner and published by Rizzoli that looks back on his career. “But I also wanted it to be an example of what is possible in North American fashion,” he comments. “We have a deep-rooted tradition that is tied to the suit in the most creative sense.” Since last year, Thom Browne has replaced Tom Ford as president of the Council of American Fashion Designers (CFDA): “My mission is to inspire the new generation of “To support creatives so that they can develop their story inside and outside the country,” says. A story that for him “must entertain and provoke”, that is, must find a similar path to the one he started 20 years ago . When Browne is asked about the future, he actually responds briefly: “I want to stay true to my history.”
Dog shaped bag. Browne was one of the first to design animal-shaped bags.Philippe Quaisse (Pascoandco)
One of the handmade bags for the show. Philippe Quaisse (Pascoandco)
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