Thom Browne

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Thom Browne A/W09 Pitti Uomo presentation
Thom Browne A/W09 Pitti Uomo presentationPhotography by Dan and Corina Lecca

The latest subject in Donatien Grau's column is Thom Browne, a name that is widely acnkowledged as synonymous with sartorial refinment and performative daringness...

Thom Browne’s name is widely acknowledged as synonymous with sartorial refinment and performative daringness. After serving as creative director for Club Monaco and Ralph Lauren, he created his eponymous line in 2001, and has since achieved considerable acclaim. His collaborations include Brooks Brother’s Black Fleece collection, which he has been designing since 2006, and Moncler, since 2008. As of today, Browne’s designs are distributed all around the world, most notably in the United States, Europe and Asia.

How would you connect fashion to elegance?
I don’t really. Fashion sometimes isn’t elegant at all. Elegance relates more to the person that’s wearing the fashion than to the actual fashion. In a way, fashion sometimes has nothing to do with elegance at all.

What is the role of history and art history in your conception of fashion?
Especially with what I do, I never use references literally. In regards to art history or costume history, I would never claim to be an expert in any of those fields. Of course, subconsciously they do play a role, but not consciously. However, I do have references from films, from so many different sources. But it’s always subconscious. I don’t know if I should say this, but I do think that sometimes ignorance is a bliss: in order to create new things, it’s so much better not to have direct references, because then, subconsciously, you take too much from what you are looking at, whereas, when you remember, then you forget enough that enables you to invent something else. Even with people that work with me, I never let them look at magazines, or have any type of mood board, which is very foreign for young kids who come out of schools. They were actually taught to proceed that way... I always think that it makes it so much easier to design when you don’t have something right in front of you, almost limiting you into that one inspiration.

Would you describe fashion as a language and a discourse, as Barthes did it?
I think so, yes. That’s why you see how I show my collections: I do want people to leave and have something to talk about, as opposed to leaving with no opinion at all. I want people to love it or hate it, as opposed to just, "I liked it".

"I have no interest in showing just what people can wear. I want to show things in a way they haven’t seen before and I like to do things that make people talk about what I do."

The word "intellectual" was coined in a time of great political distress. Does fashion have a political role? And in which way?
I don’t use what I do for any type of political reasons. For some people it could have a political role, but for me it doesn’t.

How would you relate the concept of  "fashion" to the one of  "style" ?
It’s the same as elegance: style has more to do with the person that has it.

What does fashion have to do with intellectuality?
I don’t intellectualise what I do – a lot of people like to do it for me. I approach it more instinctively. Of course, there’s a lot of thought that goes into it, but it’s not for intellectual reasons. If I were to think too much about it, I wouldn’t do some of the things I do, and that would be a shame. It limits people: it’s like having too many literary references. It limits you. When it’s too intellectualised, it makes it impossible to create something new.

You seem to play with tradition in your designs. What role does it play in your work?
Every collection starts with what I started with: this grey suit. So the tradition of something very classically made is where the collection really starts. That is actually the reason why I feel confident doing some of the more provocative ideas that I put in front of people. I know it started with something real, very traditional, very classic, that everybody understands. And then it goes off in a direction that people maybe don’t understand. Where it starts makes it relevant. People do say, "Why is he doing that?". But the reason is that I am trying to make that tradition more interesting every six months.

The presentation of your collections often takes a strong performative form. Why?
I love to mix what the collection is with a story. I like to leave people with a real experience. I love the clothing, and I am very serious about how it’s made, but I also like to have fun with it. I have no interest in showing just what people can wear. I want to show things in a way they haven’t seen before and I like to do things that make people talk about what I do.

In two weeks Donatien Grau will be interviewing the fashion designer Olivier Theyskens.