Thom Browne
T
543
Thom Browne
om Brownes clothing is fashioned with care and delicacy, everything orchestrated with
a meticulousness that exhibits exquisite tastes free of pretense. His designs are directed at a
male audience desirous of a spectacular look beyond clichés and commonalities, an elegant,
impeccable, deliciously transgressive appearance.
His suits are the evident result of his infl uences, from the tailoring techniques of the 30s
and 40s to the stamp left by his having worked for Ralph Lauren: the mythic designers
signature notion of American culture and its perpetual reinvention.
All of this made  om the deserving recipient of the 2006 Council of Fashion Designers of
America prize for the best mens clothing, a prestigious acknowledgement of a career that
began in New York, where this magnifi cent designer came to work in the Giorgio Armani
showroom.  is was followed by his work for Ralph Lauren on the Club Monaco line,
which lasted for several years before he founded his own company.
His debut was in 2001, and since then, the designs of  om Browne have come to en-
compass the entire male wardrobe: T-shirts, underwear, ties. A few years later, he crossed
the masculine frontier and began designing clothes for women, as well.  is was thanks
to Brooks Brothers, the famous and traditional North American brand that proposed that
Browne come up with a capsule collection for women as part of its recently inaugurated
creative concept laboratory. More than anything, the work of  om Browne is a personal
homage to lovers of individual, elegant style, a luxury for the culture of the ephemeral.
Photography by Marcelo Krasilic
544
Thom Browne
Browne presented this Fall/Winter
2006 collection on a skating rink
in order to express his vision of the
traditional male wardrobe: garments
conceived for movement and a public
that accepts his idea of tailoring as a
form of avant-gardism and rebellion.
Photography by Dan & Corina Lecca
545
Thom Browne
Photography by Dan & Corina Lecca
546
Thom Browne
- What inspires you?
Real people.
- What is your dream as a designer?
To provoke diff erent ideas.
- What has been the most important achievement of your career?
Each and every collection is an important achievement for me.
- How important are trends?
For me, trends are not important at all.
- Fashion has always refl ected a certain era. What does fashion refl ect in the twenty-fi rst century?
I dont really follow what other designer are doing, but for me it refl ects keeping true to one’s ideas. Having individual-
ity is very important.
- What book would you recommend to every fashion designer?
The Fountainhead.
om Browne
100 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10013
United States
www.thombrowne.com
547
Thom Browne
Photographies by James Ryang

Get Atlas of Fashion Designers now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.