Thom Browne
Founder & Chief Creative Officer, Thom Browne
The modern dandy specialises in fitted, shrunken suiting and has designed for Brooks Brothers Black Fleece and Moncler Gamme Bleu.
Thom Browne’s stunted male silhouette and his otherworldly creations for women have placed him at the vanguard of New York’s fashion scene. His aesthetic and theatrical presentations has garnered Browne worldwide recognition and has led to extremely successful collaborations with Brooks Brothers and Moncler Gamme Bleu.
Having obtained a business degree at Notre Dame, Browne tried his hand at acting in LA. While auditioning and working in commercials Browne discovered a passion for altering vintage men’s tailoring with Johnson Hartig, now the co-designer of Libertine. Once resigned to the fact that acting was not the right path, Browne sold his car and moved to New York in 1997, taking up a job as a Giorgio Armani salesman. He was then taken on by Club Monaco, then owned by Polo Ralph Lauren . Lauren saw Browne’s potential and hired the designer to be a part of Club Monaco’s design and merchandising team.
In 2001 Browne started his own label, believing the ubiquity of casual dressing had created a gap in the market. Browne told New York Magazine, “I feel like jeans and a T-shirt have become Establishment. Everyone’s dressed down. So actually putting on a jacket is the anti-Establishment stance.”
Unable to fund a full collection, Browne made five suits for himself, wearing them around town in a form of guerilla advertising and imploring friends and contacts to buy from him. “Thom’s suit is the new expression of the suit,” Tommy Fazio, men’s fashion director at Bergdorf Goodman told New York Magazine at the time. “He’s really influencing everyone. I see his shape echoed throughout the market. But no one does it like Thom. And in the store it’s gotten to the point where guys just come in and say, ‘Where’s the Thom Browne?’ You hear it as much as ‘Where’s the ladies’ room?’ these days.”
In 2003 he opened his made-to-measure store in New York, quickly followed by a presentation at New York Fashion Week in 2004. In 2007 he began his collaboration with Brooks Brothers and the following year was named designer of the year by GQ. In 2013 the CFDA awarded Browne its Menswear Designer of the year Award.
Browne made an audacious move in 2011, launching a womenswear collection at New York Fashion Week. His womenswear aesthetic is as equally novel as that of his menswear, however for all of his collection’s avant-garde sensibilities Michelle Obama called upon the designer to custom make a coat dress for her husband’s second inauguration.
In August 2018, Ermenegildo Zegna acquired an 85 percent stake in the company, valuing the business at approximately $500 million.
VITAL STATISTICS
What is The BoF 500?
The people shaping the global fashion industry, curated by the editors of The Business of Fashion, based on nominations and on-the-ground intelligence from around the world.
ExploreWhat is The BoF 500?
The people shaping the global fashion industry, curated by the editors of The Business of Fashion, based on nominations and on-the-ground intelligence from around the world.
ExploreThom Browne to Curate Sotheby’s ‘Visions of America’ Auction Series
The designer and CFDA chairman will front the auction house’s January sale of American paintings, furniture, ceramics and other objects, including a fashion selection in partnership with the CFDA, meant to hammer home the idea of American fashion as art, said Browne.
Thom Browne to Curate Sotheby’s ‘Visions of America’ Auction Series
The designer and CFDA chairman will front the auction house’s January sale of American paintings, furniture, ceramics and other objects, including a fashion selection in partnership with the CFDA, meant to hammer home the idea of American fashion as art, said Browne.
Thom Browne: The Five Hundred Million Dollar Man
Twenty years ago, people laughed at him in his shrunken grey suit. Now he’s showing haute couture in Paris, publishing a weighty monograph on his career, and chairing the CFDA. Who’s laughing now?
This Fashion Month, Let’s Take Care of Ourselves First
Post-Covid, people across fashion are seeking alternatives to the pressure and expectations that come from working in such a fast-paced industry, writes Imran Amed.
Paris Couture Week: All or Nothing
Couture Week was a polarised affair, opposing restraint and excess, technique and showmanship, real clothes and wild storytelling, with little in between, writes Angelo Flaccavento.
Colette: The Original Concept Store, now a Fashion Institution
PARIS, France — Founded in 1997 by Colette Rousseau and her daughter Sarah Andelman, Parisian store Colette has quickly become part of Paris Fashion
Silver Deer: Mexico’s Men's Style Pioneer
MEXICO CITY, Mexico — Robert Hirsh, a Canadian investment banker, founded Silver Deer after spotting the opportunity for a menswear multi-brand
Antonia: Milan’s Classic Purveyor of Luxe Streetwear
MILAN, Italy — Multi-brand retailer Antonia began as a women's accessories shop in Milan in 1999. The store soon built significant buzz around its
The Monumental and Minimal at Thom Browne
For all the grandiosity of the setting and the difficulties of realising such a production under strict pandemic restrictions, it felt surprisingly breezy for Browne.
In Paris, Finding Power in a New Femininity
Designers embraced the polar opposites of traditional womanliness and tailored, menswear-inflected power dressing.
Did Tom Ford Betray New York Fashion Week? Not So Fast.
The CFDA chairman’s decision to do what’s best for his label and show in Los Angeles may spark the ‘creative destruction’ that American fashion needs in order to progress.