Thom Browne: The most influential male designer in America
Barded with prizes and trophies, American Thom Browne founded his own brand in 2001 after being a designer for Ralph Lauren. On-demand and ultra-productive, he launched a line of glasses with the Japanese brand Dita and a second line, Thom Gray. He has also been working with Brooks Brothers for the Black Fleece line and for Moncler with the Blue Range.
Brown is a reference in tailoring
Known for having revisited American tailoring, Thom Browne is considered a designer in the margin. Born in 1965 in the United States, he is the reference in tailoring, the art of costume. After graduating in Economics at Notre Dame University in Indiana, he moved to New York in 1997 and worked for Giorgio Armani where he was a salesman. It is while working for the showroom that the American is noticed by the brand Club Monaco of the group Ralph Lauren. The house uses his services to lead a creative team. Thom Browne decided to launch his own men’s ready-to-wear company in 2003.
He reinvented the men’s locker room
At the time, Thom Browne was one of the first to break the classic codes of the man costume. He reinvents the men’s locker room by refining the silhouettes, from trousers to jackets. With this boldness, his collection was highly successful and he won the prestigious CFDA award for the Menswear Designer of the Year in 2006. His talent is recognized by the greatest fashion stars including Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of Vogue USA. This international recognition allowed him to develop a line of jewelry for men with Harry Winston, then in 2008, Remo Ruffini — who bought Moncler — appointed him to the artistic direction of a new line called Moncler Blue. Thom Browne manages to combine the sportswear side of Moncler with his creative interpretation of the men’s locker room which earned him the title of Designer of the year by GQ magazine.
Following this success, Thom Browne presented his creations at the Fashion Week in Paris in 2010. He then launched his women’s ready-to-wear line in New York for the fall-winter 2011–2012 season. The designer once again speaks of his originality and delivers a collection that is both heterogeneous and harmoniously hailed by critics.
Thom Browne is described as a fashion UFO
Thom Browne is considered a UFO of fashion. The creator stands out in fact by spectacular stagings during his parades. For its autumn-winter 2016 collection, for example, we could discover silhouettes of men dressed in oversize coats, playing with the superposition of materials, face hidden by hats. The models paraded slowly, all in a luminous, dark, warm, cold and mystical atmosphere. The collection made fly, perfectly cut with an art of mixing the fabrics performed with mastery.
More recently, at the New York Fashion Week, the artist unveiled a woman’s collection in the same mysterious and eclectic spirit between tiles, stripes and fur. Thom Browne explained to the Inrocks that he wanted to tell a story through his collections, his stagings often bearing a message. It is inspired much by the seventh art and the years 1950–60. His aesthetics are often compared to the Mad Men series.
h/t: GQ
