“The new masculine drag, a beefy model in Thom Browne,” reads the caption of a look from Thom Browne’s spring 2007 collection in issue #23 of Butt magazine, which featured an interview with the designer.
Browne’s work has been described as theatrical and conceptual. It has been over-analyzed and over-simplified, both critically acclaimed and criticized for being too niche. This year, the designer is celebrating 20 years in business, which he’s marking with a monograph authored by his partner, the chief curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, Andrew Bolton.
“I hope people never saw it as drag,” Browne said in an interview, “drag is great, but that’s not what I do. I make clothing for provocation, but in a different way.” Browne likes to say that his work is over-intellectualized. He once told me that people ask him what his subversion of the suit means, and whether he’s making a point about the insidiousness of the patriarchy or the queering of masculinity. He insists it’s not that serious. But does that risk trivializing it?
“Yeah. And I don’t mind, in a way. There is intellectual thought that goes into that, but I don’t like my shows or collections to feel overwrought because it becomes pretentious.” Or, God forbid, “boring.”
There are two key elements to understanding Thom Browne, the brand. The first is that his label is deeply autobiographical: “It’s such a part of me that it has to be, but then I stretch it into different ideas to take the most interesting parts of my life, the mundane I keep to myself.” The second is that Browne has a perverse interest in provocation by way of the mundane: “I fundamentally come from mostly classic ideas, but I have zero interest in showing a classic idea in a way that’s safe.” Despite the severity of his famous uniforms, Browne has a rebellious side that is just as salient as his self-discipline. Perhaps this is the first hint at understanding Thom Browne, the man.
Here, the man ruminates on the last 20 years of the brand by touching on its most iconic moments, plus a deep cut or two.