A Bold Reset for the Brand

Thom Browne is frustrated.

After 25 years of creating his own collections, he’s tired of hearing people say they can’t wear his clothes because they’re too tight or too skinny or too this or too that.

“There are so many things that people don’t really understand about my collection, and how many people could actually wear my clothes,” he said during a preview of his spring 2027 men’s collection at his New York studio. “When you take the layers off, it’s just really, really good clothes. It’s time for people to see Thom Browne differently.”

It’s those really, really good clothes that he’ll be showing in Milan on Monday at 3 p.m. at Corso Venezia. The runway show is the first for his core brand, although he did show there from 2009 through 2017 when he was designing the Moncler Gamme Bleu collection.

But today, his company is owned by Ermenegildo Zegna Group, which is headquartered in Milan and also owns the Tom Ford business. Browne said he opted to show there to support the corporation’s executive chairman, Gildo Zegna, and because he simply loves the city.

“I promised Gildo that I would do a show in Milan for him,” Browne said. “It just needed to be the right moment, and this was a good moment. I think it’s important to have a representation of the group in Milan for this season, and seeing as they showed in L.A., it was an easy decision for me. Also, I love Milan at the time of year, so it was very easy for me to decide to do it.”

Zegna, which is usually a regular on the Milan Men’s Fashion Week calendar, opted to show its spring collection in Los Angeles this season, opening the door for Browne to take the lead in Italy.
The show will also mark a return to a men’s-only format for Browne, who shrugged and said: “I was just in the mood to have a men’s show.”

His goal, he said, is to show people the depth of the Thom Browne universe. “I still feel like I do something that is very unique in the world of men’s,” he said. “Twenty-five years later, it still feels really nice that I’ve created my own world that no one else can really do.”

He said at a time when other men’s apparel makers are offering unconstructed, soft pieces, his collection continues to be “focused on structured tailoring.” So don’t expect to see the canvassing to be taken out of his garments.

“You come to Thom Browne for a structured jacket, a structured piece of outerwear, and the bottoms that go along with that,” he said. “And there’s a true American sensibility to it. That’s something that I love playing with, I do it all the time, and it always looks interesting, it never gets old.”

This season he’s interpreting that through his distinct take on the preppy trend with American heritage fabrics such as cool wool, cotton, patchwork madras and seersucker that he offered in voluminous coats paired with shorts and suits. Checks and stripes are also a focus throughout.

“These are East Coast, American preppy ideas reinterpreted every season in regards to what the story of the collection is,” he said. “That’s what this collection is — it’s almost reintroducing Thom Browne again.”

Many of the pieces sport whimsical illustrations of different insects and amphibians such as dragonflies and frogs. Browne said the idea came to him after watching “A Bug’s Life” movie on a plane. “It was fun to play with the different bugs on embroideries or intarsia. It was a charming kind of nonsensical story that was fun to play with.”

While the bulk of the collection continues to be in Browne’s signature shades of gray, white and black, there are also pops of color in pieces such as a red wide shoulder trench in lightweight mackintosh, a silhouette Browne frequently reinvents, and a bright green asymmetric trench in Cordura with navy herringbone tape. “The collections always start with the classic gray idea, but I use color all the time,” the designer said. “It’s one of the opportunities for growing the business.”

But whether gray or scarlet, the fabrications throughout the collection are of the highest quality. That’s one of the perks of being under the Zegna umbrella. The company was founded in 1910 as a woolen mill and still operates a robust luxury fabric division.

“You can see the level of fabrications and production that I get to utilize with their resources throughout the collection,” he said. And while each of the three apparel brands — Zegna, Thom Browne and Tom Ford — use the same resources and develop the fabrics in the same place, each has a distinct identity. “You can see a real differentiation between the three of us, and I think that makes the group so much stronger,” he said.

The show will be held outdoors at Palazzo Serbelloni, a neoclassical palace in the center of Milan that also houses the Thom Browne offices. And although the designer wasn’t tipping his hand, there will undoubtedly be a contingent of bold-faced “friends of the brand” in attendance from the worlds of sports and entertainment. “We usually have some people at the show if they’re in town,” he said with a smile.

“The show is for a purpose — to tell a story and show the purity of what I have in my head,” Browne added. And it will serve, in a way, as a reset for the brand.

“Sometimes people get too locked into this specific story, or thinking that they need to wear Thom Browne head to toe,” he said. “I’m a designer, and I do design from head to toe, but there are so many simple pieces you can take and wear on their own with other things. That just takes personal style, but I love the idea each one of these pieces can be worn individually if you so choose.”

That’s where the sales staff at his 125 stores come in. Browne said they almost have to be stylists, and help customers interpret the pieces for their own wardrobes. “The story needs to be told,” he said. “That’s what a good salesperson does.”

Browne said he’s noticed that the men’s market is in the midst of a resurgence and it’s showing in his sales. “People in the U.S. are spending money on clothes, and they’re spending money in the stores, which is nice,” he said. “Being an American designer, it hasn’t always been so easy. They were always going either Asia or Europe, but now it’s the U.S.”

In April, the Ermenegildo Zegna Group reported revenues for the company as a whole in the first quarter rose 2.5 percent to 470.2 million euros. The Thom Browne division, however, posted what the company referred to as a “traumatic” loss of 100 million euros as it works to streamline its wholesale channel and focus on its own direct-to-consumer. In the period, the brand posted sales of 58.2 million euros, a decline of 9.4 percent, with a near 10 percent gain in the DTC channel and a 59 percent sales decline in the wholesale business.

This continued focus on DTC will continue to be visible going forward when Thom Browne opens additional stores in Chicago, Korea and Harbour City in Hong Kong.

Leading that charge is Sam Lobban, the former Nordstrom executive who was named chief executive officer of Thom Browne last July. He has yet to reveal his turnaround plan and the company declined to make Lobban available for an interview, saying it wanted to keep the focus on the collection.

Looking beyond Milan, Browne said he will show his women’s collection during New York Fashion Week in September. As the current chairman of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, the designer believes it behooves him to have at least one show in the States.

“We still have showrooms in Paris and Milan, but it’s important because of my position to have a presence in New York at least once a year,” he said. “And women’s is easier because there isn’t a men’s week.”