Thom Browne shortens the pants on fashion

By: Siavash Raigani

Posted: 12/4/08

There are moments in life when someone comes along and changes the way we look at tradition. These influential people stand out from the crowd, and they perceive the world in a different way. They might even inspire hope, bring change to the political system - their name might even be Obama.

And then there are others who don't inspire hope but bring change in such a way that you laugh rudely, point and snicker. The fashion world's change-bringer is Thom Browne, a 40-something New York-based designer who's setting the fashion scene on fire.

He started in 2001 when he designed a simple suit. But this was no ordinary suit. It was very finely cut, tight on the chest and biceps with the sleeves stopping a solid two inches short of the wrists. And then there were the pants that often inspire passers-by to yell "Hey, Pee-Wee" at Browne. The pants "ride up" to reveal the wearer's ankles in a school-boy manner. A slim tie accompanies the suit, worn with a white Oxford shirt and tucked into the beltless pants.

This suit has changed the way designers look at their own suits and collections. The goofy, ridiculously tight and short suit has made Browne Designer of the Year, named by the Council of Fashion Designers of America, and has gotten him a prestigious deal to design special collections at Brooks Brothers, among other things.

But, what about Thom Browne himself? Men just don't change their lifestyle overnight and go around dressing like 13-year-old British boarding school boys for no reason. Browne, like a select few, is more artist than designer. Fed up with the jeans and T-shirt culture that had taken over the world, Browne quite his job at Club Monaco (he was also an unsuccessful actor) and started his own line. He designed his signature suit and wore it around town as a walking advertisement. Soon he caught the eyes of some important people and found himself being catapulted into the limelight, with critics left and right telling him what they interpreted his shrunken suits and shows to mean.

And these shows were not just any regular down-the-runway shows. Browne's shows were once described as "often influenced by women's wear and unnamed, dark forces" and as weird as that sounds, it is intriguingly true. Browne has had his models ice skate in a mini-rink while showing off his Fall '06 collection, had them parade around a circus ring (where he marched them on stilts and in three-legged pants) in his Fall '08 show and more recently walked them on freshly cut grass runways in his tennis-inspired Spring '09 show.

He claims the humor in his shows helps offset the seriousness of his clothes, and his clothes are very, very serious indeed. Everything is based off his signature suit (which he wears everyday), the color palette centered on gray and extending a stone's throw past black and white on each side.

Browne dreams of better days when men will wear suits for pleasure and status, not as a uniform as they do today. Simply put, classic and conservative is the new radical rebellion against conformity in fashion. And yet above all that, Browne is still very much a routine-driven man. A morning run in Central Park, followed by breakfast at the same restaurant, go to work and finish with dinner at another restaurant is the schedule that defines his day. Interestingly, Browne is one of a few designers who makes suits that old-fashioned way - in his New York factory full of old Italian tailors.

And yet, the Thom Browne Man stands unique on the battlefield between radical and conformity, knee-deep in belittled masculinity. The Browne Man is a simple man who enjoys the smaller things in life, the subtler aspects maybe, like a silver tie clip or a crisp white pocket square, details that are overlooked by the regular man in his quest for wealth, power and sex. Perhaps the well-known New York Times fashion columnist, Cathy Horyn, put it best when she called Browne a "Philosopher Brat."

In the end, whatever Thom Browne has done to men's fashion, it's inarguable that he's left a mark. And if he manages to persuade men to raise their pants just a quarter of an inch off their shoes, that quarter of an inch will be monumental.