A Brief History of THOM BROWNE ~ World Fashion Sites

Thom Browne is an American fashion designer. He is the founder and head of design for Thom Browne, a New York City-based menswear and womenswear brand.

Browne studied business at the University of Notre Dame, where he was a competitive swimmer. Following graduation in 1988, he moved to Hollywood to become an actor and found some success working in commercials.

Though not formally trained as a designer, he left for New York City in 1997 to pursue a career in the fashion industry, first working with a tailor, then as a salesman for Giorgio Armani, and later as a designer for Club Monaco.

Browne launched a line of made-to-measure menswear in 2001, and his signature soon became impeccably tailored suits in traditional navy wools and gray flannels skewed with shrunken proportions.

His designs initially shocked the fashion world but soon came to lead the trend of slim-fitting menswear. He quickly gained an army of followers, dressed up as his signature mark.

Browne drew much of his inspiration from classic mid-20th-century American style and incorporated preppy details such as grosgrain trim and short trousers shown with exposed ankles.

In 2004, Browne launched his first line of ready-to-wear menswear, and in 2005 he was a runner-up for the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA)/Vogue Fashion Fund, one of the top prizes for emerging American designers. The following year the CFDA named him Menswear Designer of the Year. He also won in 2013 and 2016.

On September 8, 2006, Brooks Brothers announced its partnership with Browne as part of a guest designer program to create and distribute a 50-piece men and women’s high-end collection, Black Fleece by Brooks Brothers.

Browne’s first women’s pieces were designed as part of his work for Brooks Brothers’ upscale Black Fleece label in 2007, and he produced his own capsule collection of women’s wear that same year.

During that period Browne continued to focus mostly on menswear, and he won the GQ Designer of the Year award in 2008.

In 2008, Browne teamed up with the Italian sportswear company and down apparel specialist Moncler to design their men's top line Moncler Gamme Bleu. The men's collection was launched for winter 2009 after the women's collection Moncler Gamme Rouge - designed by Alessandra Facchinetti from 2006 to 2008, and thereafter by Giambattista Valli - had proven very successful.

Browne introduced his first full line of women’s ready-to-wear for spring 2011. Much like his menswear, the collection was a reinterpretation of classic styles with the addition of edgy, slightly subversive details: dresses, jackets, and trousers were shown in a classic American palette of red, white and navy—occasionally achieved by way of sequined ginghams and quirky mermaid prints.

In 2012 he was recognized among influential American designers from across all industries with the National Design Award from Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, presented to him by Michelle Obama. Browne remained largely unknown to most Americans until the first lady attended her husband’s inauguration in 2013 wearing a custom-made Thom Browne coat-and-dress combination in a menswear-inspired subtly checked navy silk foulard.