Thom Browne - by Benjamin Wild

About the Book

In a little over twenty years, New York--based fashion designer Thome Browne has decisively and permanently changed the fashion industry. Through his clothes that are rooted in America's distinctive preppie style, he has challenged age-old conventions of tailoring by altering proportions and blurring gender boundaries.

Book Synopsis

In a little over twenty years, New York--based fashion designer Thome Browne has decisively and permanently changed the fashion industry. Through his clothes that are rooted in America's distinctive preppie style, he has challenged age-old conventions of tailoring by altering proportions and blurring gender boundaries. The cropped trouser, which has become a staple of people's wardrobes around the world, owes much to Browne's pioneering reinterpretation of the suit. Through highly choreographed catwalk shows, he has enlivened the presentation of fashion, creating soulful spectacles that variously critique and cherish common themes in human lives.
Browne's influence within the fashion industry has been recognised through various awards. The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) has named him 'Menswear Designer of the Year' on three occasions, in 2006, 2013, and 2016. Since 2023, Browne has served as the CFDA's Chair. In May 2023, Browne dressed nine celebrities to honour Karl Lagerfeld at the annual gala hosted by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
This book considers Browne's position as a fashion auteur by focusing on four collections that enable detailed consideration of his innovative clothing designs and catwalk presentations, situating them within their historical and social context and drawing out what makes them distinctive and influential.

Review Quotes

"A timely and intelligent account of one of fashion's most uncompromising figures. Wild cuts through the theatre and tailoring to show how Browne's vision has reshaped not just the suit, but fashion's systems of meaning." --Professor Andrew Groves, Director, Westminster Menswear Archive, UK.
"Both meticulously researched and highly readable, this volume draws on a wealth of materials to offer a judicious account of Browne's astonishingly iconoclastic and idiosyncratic achievements whilst also acknowledging his inconsistencies and blind spots. Wild delivers a fascinating tour of the American designer's rigorous and whimsical oeuvre to date." --Professor Kiera Vaclavik, Queen Mary University of London, UK.

About the Author

Benjamin Linley Wild is a cultural historian and Reader in Fashion Narratives at Manchester Metropolitan University. His research focuses on the function of stories and the utility of storytelling to spur social responsibility and steer systems change, chiefly within the fashion industry.