For Thom Browne&rsquo;s 20th anniversary, the designer retraces his career, his couture debut, and his first monograph.&nbsp;

Thom Browne is recognized for modernizing today&rsquo;s professional uniform: the tailored suit. An impeccable slim fit, crisp shirt, precise tie, slightly cropped pants or tailored shorts, and blazers with an indelibly American preppy attitude make the difference. Browne leaves his mark with his signatures: four bars placed on the sleeve of a blazer or leg of a trouser, plus tabs striped in red, white, and blue.&nbsp; 
Originally from Pennsylvania, the designer took his first fashion steps as a showroom salesman at Giorgio Armani in New York, but the first to notice his potential was Ralph Lauren, who offered Browne a position within the design and merchandising division. In 2001, Browne launched his own brand with a small shop in the West Village. On offer? Just five suits. In 2003, he presented his first collection, and three years later he received the CFDA Award for Best Menswear Designer of the Year. The women&rsquo;s line debuted during New York Fashion Week in 2011 because, as he explains, &ldquo;There are no boundaries between men&rsquo;s and women&rsquo;s fashion; it is always and only a matter of cut.&rdquo; In October 2022, Browne was named Chairman of the CFDA, and in July of this year, he presented his first couture collection at the Opéra Garnier in Paris. Now, the designer celebrates 20 years of hard work with his eponymous first monograph, published by Phaidon. 
L&rsquo;OFFICIEL: You&rsquo;re celebrating 20 years of Thom Browne; how has the brand evolved over the past two decades?
 THOM BROWNE: Every collection evolves in different ways, but it&rsquo;s always stayed true to where it started at the beginning. I feel like that&rsquo;s why the shows are so important to me&mdash;every season, [the show] takes that very classic, very tailored idea, and evolves it in different ways to keep it moving forward. 
L&rsquo;O: Tell us about your first monograph, which was released earlier this year.
 TB: It&rsquo;s really a celebration of these 20 years. I wasn&rsquo;t always so interested in doing the book, but I feel like after 20 years, it was important. Of course...I had the luxury of working with Andrew [Bolton, Browne&rsquo;s partner, and curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art&rsquo;s Costume Institute since 2006], who told me once that a designer is the worst at curating his own book or his own show at a museum. So I feel like seeing my story in the book through Andrew&rsquo;s eyes is a great way of seeing the last 20 years.

Behind the scenes at the Fall 2023 Couture show. Photo by Corey Tenold

L&rsquo;O: How was it working with him?
TB: So easy. I feel like he&rsquo;s the best in the world. He&rsquo;s elevated fashion to such a high level in so many different ways that it was a luxury for all of us to be able to work with him on it. 
L&rsquo;O: This year, you presented your first couture collection in Paris. What did you take away from that experience?
TB: I wanted to do the show during couture because I did want to celebrate the 20th year of the collection. In a way, I approach all my collections at a very high level, so it was almost taking that approach to the collection and officially putting it into the world of couture. 
L&rsquo;O: What do you remember of your beginnings in fashion?
TB: I fumbled through it. I learned a lot through the more commercial side with Giorgio Armani, and then in regards to design, working with the most iconic American designer ever [Ralph Lauren], but always knowing that there was [a story] that I wanted to tell myself&mdash;that&rsquo;s the reason I started my first collection. From there, I just instinctively figured out how I wanted to approach it and grow it in my own way, and make sure that it was important enough to create a world that could sustain itself for, of course, these 20 years, but hopefully for a lot longer. But the most important thing at the beginning is just creating an image that you had when you thought of the collection. 
L&rsquo;O: Why are uniforms so important to your vision?
TB: There&rsquo;s something very confident about somebody who seems to have adopted a uniform for themselves&mdash;there&rsquo;s the sense that they think about a lot more than clothes. The clothing is important, but I feel like the world that you surround the clothing with is also important. I think it also shows true individuality&mdash;you really see the person, as opposed to just the clothes.

Spread from Thom Browne, Phaidon’s monograph celebrating the designer’s 20th anniversary

L&rsquo;O: Your collections show a wide spectrum of inspirations: from the poetry of Baudelaire, to Noah&rsquo;s ark, and then there are punk influences, memories of your childhood, and more. What draws you to your cultural references? 
TB: It&rsquo;s really very personal to what I&rsquo;m living through at that time. I&rsquo;m very engaged; I never really get away from work, so I&rsquo;m always thinking about the next collection, the next idea. It just kind of happens when it happens, but it&rsquo;s usually what I&rsquo;m listening to at that time, or an art exhibition that I&rsquo;ve seen, or a book that I&rsquo;m reading. So it&rsquo;s very personal to what I&rsquo;m just living through at that moment.&nbsp; 
L&rsquo;O: The fashion shows are another trademark of Thom Browne. They are performative to the point of being theatrical works unto themselves. How did you cultivate this passion?
TB: I feel like my first introduction to an actual fashion show was three couture shows I saw back in 2004 or 2005. It was a John Galliano show for Dior, a Christian LaCroix show, and I forget what the other one was. But seeing those shows inspired me to think&mdash;if you&rsquo;re going to do a show, that&rsquo;s what you do. But then there&rsquo;s also a part of me that just likes to entertain, and I like to contextualize the shows and the collections within a story. It&rsquo;s a very personal thing. It&rsquo;s just my personal approach, and I love doing it. I like telling stories. I like [the shows] being a little bit more than just the clothing&mdash;I like them to transcend fashion.&nbsp;

A look from Fall 2023 Couture. Photo by John Bain Griffith

A look from Fall/Winter 2012

Silver satyrs at the Spring/Summer 2013 menswear show

L&rsquo;O: In your collections there is always a dose of irony; why do you feel the need to break the rigidity of elegance with this component? 
TB: I think when you do something really seriously, between how seriously I make the clothing and how serious the ideas are, you have to throw something in that makes it not so heavy and not so serious. And it&rsquo;s also my personality too. I like there to be a little bit of ridiculous humor or something that just makes it not so serious sometimes.&nbsp;
 L&rsquo;O: Do you think there is also a kinky side to Thom Browne?
TB: [Laughs.] I like to be provocative in different ways. I think it just keeps it more interesting. I do mostly play with very classic ideas. I think it&rsquo;s really important to make sure that I throw in something that makes you see it differently and not so classic.

L&rsquo;O: Stars have loved to wear your pieces on the red carpet: David Bowie, Adrien Brody, Julia Roberts, Michelle Obama, Jenna Ortega, and Timothée Chalamet, to name a few. How do you interpret their personality and translate it into the looks?
TB: The most important thing for me when we approach an athlete or celebrity is that it&rsquo;s a mutual relationship. You see me through what they&rsquo;re wearing, but you also see their personality. It&rsquo;s a very personal relationship. I want to make sure that they feel good in [the clothes], but also I want to make sure that it stays true to being something that feels like it&rsquo;s from me. But most of these people, we know them for a while and they become friends, so it&rsquo;s a very easy, very natural relationship, as opposed to something that feels forced.&nbsp;
 L&rsquo;O: What are you hoping for in the future?
TB: I think that really then comes to my Chairman&rsquo;s hat for the CFDA. I started [the brand] 20 years ago, and sometimes you don&rsquo;t realize what you&rsquo;re actually getting yourself into. So much work and time and emotion and effort goes into it, but we&rsquo;re in the most amazing world and we get to create the most beautiful, amazing things and we get to meet the most interesting people, so I think we&rsquo;re all so fortunate to be in this world. But we also have to realize that it&rsquo;s so much work, and you really have to want to do it if you get yourself into it. A lot of people see the glamorous side, but the most beautiful [part] sometimes is all the work that goes into it. That&rsquo;s what I feel like people need to see more of: the people who do all the work in our world.&nbsp;

Thom Browne Reminisces on 20 Years of His Namesake Brand

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