Inside the Mind of Mr. Thom BrowneThe American designer on why the Google generation is missing out on the journey to real creativity
American designer Thom Browne has a madcap imagination that ceases to diminish, despite 13 years of acclaimed fashion shows that are as much a performance as a catwalk show. Unlike so many of his peers who are obsessed with echoing the mood of the moment, Browne’s world is one where the current zeitgeist is almost an irrelevance.
The day after his recent Spring Summer 2017 show, Browne is ensconced in a plush armchair in the lobby of the newly refurbished Ritz Hotel in Paris; the American designer confided that he has always discovered things almost by accident. “I would rather happen upon something as opposed to almost knowing that I'm looking to discover something,” he said. That's one of the reasons why he has never really hopped onto the Internet bandwagon. Sure he sends emails and has a professional Instagram account, but he never Google’s anything. That's why, for example, you will never come upon a moodboard in his office. “I don’t want to be crippled by specific things or images,” he said. “I don’t over-intellectualize or research things.” He just has ideas that he translates on his runways.
Most of these images spring to his mind not in New York, where his thriving company is based, but in planes where, released from the burden of work, he also avidly watches movies. A former aspiring actor himself, Browne has a particular affection for silent movies. A frequent flier who dreams of discovering Africa and India, he has developed a particular affection for three cities: Paris, New York, and Tokyo.
His love for France comes from innate the sense of refinement he finds there, and he has a favourite antique furniture shop on the Rue Jacob. Furniture is one of the rare things the designer shops for, and Firstdibs is the only website he visits. In New York, he works with people handpicked for their curiosity and intelligence, and who report back on what's new and hot and for him, Tokyo marked by the Japanese's rigour and penchant for provocation.
Rigour and provocation actually accurately define Browne's aesthetic, which consists of shortened grey suits presented in offbeat shows and the designer modestly attributes much of his success to Rocco Ciccarelli, the tailor who crafts his now-cult signature style. “The most important people in this business are tailors and patternmakers,” he says, adding that truly good ones were extremely rare.
Thom Browne, is a rarity in today’s internet age, a man and a designer that embodies the spirit of ‘living in the moment’, seeking inspiration wherever it comes and crafting collections that impart the wearer with a true sense of idiosyncratic style.
