Thom Browne on his ready-to-wear spring/summer 2020 women’s collection

Following a decampment to show on the Paris women’s schedule two years ago, designer Thom Browne staged something of a homecoming this New York Fashion Week on the streets of the city’s Midtown district. Called “The Officepeople”, the flashmob-esque occurrence announced the arrival of Browne’s womenswear line to luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman and saw models—male and female—seemingly going about a casual workday lunch break. They walked in two military-precise lines, identically dressed in pleated skirts and blazers, with slick hair to match. 

While Browne lives in NYC, he’s currently back in Paris for Fashion Week. Working out of his Avenue Montaigne studio, he fits a far more fantastical creation on a model: her hips have been extruded almost a metre to her right and left to create a silhouette that pays homage to —the hooped architecture of formal French dress from the 18th century—the starting point of his spring/summer 2020 collection.

Browne’s pieces, though imbued with fantasy, are entirely wearable. The full, tweed skirts—propped up by said for the show—collapse into plush, easy-to-wear forms in the showroom. Sheer organza shirting and taffeta boxers are layered with coated seersucker corseting and opaque skirting. The classic white Oxford T-shirt is reinforced with boning and corsetry lacing at the back; and jackets with pleated backs, inspired by , trail in the wake of the wearer to reveal semi-transparent panelling. Reveal and conceal, play and polish—everything goes in the house of Thom Browne.

Here, the designer talks through his vision for the latest collection and the transformative power of fashion shows.

What was your starting point for spring/summer 2020?
Click Here: Germany Football Shop“The collection is based on my interpretation of 18th century dress, focussing on and and playing with them in ways that [bring them into] my world, infusing them with American, preppy sportswear. Proportion [is] very important, taking something classic and turning it to something maybe newer or not so understandable. And that was the reason for the , because I thought the proportions of a are so ridiculous!”

You engineer your fabrics in house. Could you talk us through some of them?
“I do work in the old fashion way from head-to-toe, everything is designed per look, so you’ll see that all the fabrications are specifically developed for each. The collections start from very classic ideas, this time in fabrication—seersucker. I think the heavy use of seersucker screams American sportswear. Even the tweeds have a lot of seersucker woven through and I love fraying them, making them not so precious. The work that goes into the fraying is not as simple as keeping it undone, it’s actually sewn into the fray. So it is a finishing detail that looks very random and haphazard, but [is in fact] completely intentional.”

After two years showing in Paris, are you feeling settled?
“For womenswear, it’s the fourth season and for menswear, I’ve been [showing] here for 10 years—and I love being here. There is more pressure; I’m very competitive. I think being here, you want to make sure everything is worthy of being in Paris, so we all challenge ourselves. As conceptual as I want to be, I also want to make sure the quality of what people see is at the highest level and I think Paris really appreciates that. But then Paris also appreciates the idea of telling a story [with] a true concept behind [it], not just commercial clothes. For me, I want the audience to see true fantasy and not always reality, especially in the 30 or 40 ideas that [I present]. I want them to see things differently.”

Is the transformative ability of a garment something you always consider?
“I concentrate on tailoring, something that be very banal and not so interesting, so I like to show it in ways people haven’t seen it before, to make it that much more interesting every season. There has to be something that breaks the seriousness [of fashion].”

So, you’re a fan of the spectacle of showing. How do your pieces translate to the real world?
“The shows are supposed to make people think and I want people to have an experience. Sometimes people don’t realise there’s a lot more reality behind what they see in the shows. [For this collection] I would like people to understand that you take this out and it’s amazing how [the garment] drapes—it can be worn without the as well.”