Allow Thom Browne to Re-Introduce Himself

Thom Browne’s grey shrunken suits and pleated skirts in various shades of Shetland plaid have become synonymous with a certain kind of taste: smart, subversive and maybe a little intimidating.

This exacting aesthetic, honed over more than two decades, was what propelled the business into the elite tier of homegrown American fashion labels. A 2018 acquisition by Ermenegildo Zegna Group valued the brand at $500 million, and was followed by a period of torrid growth, fuelled by out-of-this-world runway shows and a never-ending parade of celebrities, from LeBron James to Doechii, donning Browne’s artful variations on the grey suit.

Now, Thom Browne wants to convince fashion outsiders that the brand is for them, too.

“I’ve always felt like Thom Browne has been designed for everyone and that is what people don’t understand,” Browne told The Business of Fashion. “I think sometimes you see a lot of the conceptual ideas in the shows and you see a lot of the more metropolitan kind of grey suiting … but there is so much more to what I do that sometimes people don’t even know about.”

For instance, the brand does sell clothes in colours other than grey and other neutrals, as well as separates that feature less restrictive tailoring — what Browne calls “unconstructed pieces.” Womenswear, in addition to newer categories like accessories and footwear, feature heavily in the brand’s plans to reach a wider audience, chief executive Rodrigo Bazan added.

The challenge, as Browne and Bazan see it, is first connecting with new customers, and then convincing them to give these more accessible items a try. In an effort to venture outside the fashion bubble, a North American marketing campaign rolling out in May features bright, preppy imagery that feels like the designer’s spin on a J.Crew or Ralph Lauren catalogue. A handful of new stores offer a warmer, more inviting take on the Midwestern bank branch-meets-corporate cubicle aesthetic of the brand’s original retail spaces.

Thom Browne’s new playbook comes at a pivotal moment for the brand, which saw revenue drop by 17 percent last year to €315 million ($356 million) after more than doubling since the Zegna acquisition. The decline was chalked up to the label pulling out of many wholesale retailers, a gamble that it had the name recognition and credibility to forge a direct relationship with its customers. The new campaign, along with a number of store openings worldwide, will play a central role in determining the outcome of that strategic decision.

But the image makeover also comes at a challenging time for luxury brands of all stripes, as aspirational shoppers spend less, and the tariff-induced market slump creates a sense of gloominess among even the most affluent consumers.

The savviest luxury players, including Prada Group and Hermès, have still managed to drive growth. Each of those success stories took its own approach. For Thom Browne, shedding its image in the eyes of mainstream luxury shoppers that it is a label that only exists on runways and red carpets will be the key.

“Fashion people love Thom Browne but it needs to break through the threshold,” said TD Cowen analyst Oliver Chen, a self-proclaimed longtime fan of the label. “There’s this epic challenge between artistry and commercialisation, and for Thom Browne, it‘s about finding the right balance.”

Reaching the Masses

The upcoming campaign, which includes shots of polo-clad models posing against a sunny, green manicured landscape, conjures at first glance a New England preppiness at odds with the brand’s often satirically dark and surreal aesthetic. Past campaigns made more use of Thom Browne’s avant-garde, gender-fluid wares, such as a 2021 football-themed capsule campaign shot by Andrew Jacobs that put models in kilted suits paired with oversized shirts meant to resemble field jerseys.

But upon second look, there is still a sense of the peculiar, even in the bright new imagery. In one shot, the Ivy League-chic models peer into the camera holding reporter notepads, as if breaking the fourth wall to scrutinise the viewer. In another, they stand rigidly upright in a line — a common theme in Browne’s exploration of the concept of discipline and uniforms. Only this time, they’re wearing pastels.

The campaign was conceived by Browne and his in-house team, and photographed by Kito Muñoz. The images represent “small tweaks [made] by Thom without compromising the original design intent and ethos of the brand,” said Bazan.

“We’re rounding out the world of Thom Browne so that you can see the balance between the high concept and also the more commercial ideas that I design for the collections, which maybe people have not been seeing,” said Browne. “There is a real focus on making sure people see the whole world and that both sides are equally important.”

Like the campaign, new stores marry the original codes of the brand with a more inviting tone. Where Browne’s original store concept came with fluorescents, desks and venetian blinds, the newer locations feature warmer lighting, softer marbles and fixtures that evoke a sense of home.

“In the new stores you’ll still get that [office] sensibility but you’ll see it evolving toward a more functional way,” Browne said.

There will soon be many more of these new-concept shops. The brand’s store count will soon reach 120 worldwide, from 86 in 2023, including new outposts in Los Angeles and Palm Beach, Florida. The coming weeks will see two planned openings in New York, and one in Tokyo.

The new locations in LA and Palm Beach also reserve central shelving space for the brand’s brogues and dachshund-shaped purses. While not exactly cheap — the Hector handbag retails for just under $2,000 — they are the items that first-time customers tend to gravitate towards.

“Gucci has its Ace sneakers and Coach has the Tabby bag,” said Chen. “You need something that your random guy friend might be able to recognise, and then that‘s when you know you’ve made it.”

The idea is partly to appeal to customers unfamiliar with the brand. But stores are also another way to reach Thom Browne’s most loyal shoppers. Clienteling accounts for a significant portion of sales, including what the company calls “re-sees,” or private appointments with VICs — very important clients — for viewing a new collection during fashion week.

The new outposts will also be merchandised to their specific markets, said Bazan. In the Palm Beach location, for instance, womenswear will make up the largest segment of sales. Overall, sales are evenly split between mens and womenswear.

“It‘s a sophisticated client [in Palm Beach] who goes and buys four colours of cardigans and five colours of polos,” Bazan added. “And that‘s the beauty of Thom’s creations, where he’s equally passionate about the perfect polo all the way to the looks on the runway.”

Authentically Thom Browne

While Browne and Bazan are reluctant to put a number to their growth target, it‘s clear that the brand has ample runway to scale. Thom Browne is about a quarter the size of its sister brand Zegna and and a twentieth of that of Ralph Lauren, the first and largest American lifestyle brand.

Thom Browne is slowly building out its own version of a brand universe, including a growing custom and made-to-measure clienteling segment, as well as a personalised knitwear programme that it will launch soon, the company said. It sells a smattering of home items, including towels and barware.

Today, the brand’s website prominently features simple poplin shirts, tailored outerwear and form-fitting knits — precisely the kind of easily sellable merchandise the company now wants to emphasise, all tagged with Browne’s signature striped grosgrain ribbon or adorned by four stripes, which has become his de facto logo.

When it comes to worldbuilding, however, larger-than-life fashion shows remain the focal point. The designer’s theatrical productions include, for instance, his Autumn 2023 collection, staged as an homage to the children’s book “The Little Prince,” complete with a life-sized model airplane and a circular runway in the outline of a clock. Notable looks included a quilted space suit, tailored tweed in blow-up proportions and pieces of pinstriped and jacquard suits woven together in the form of jumpsuits, dresses and one celestial ballgown.

Thom Browne is hardly alone among luxury brands in pursuing a strategy of sending fantastical creations down the runway while generating the bulk of business selling more prosaic items. The question now is whether growing by toning down its cerebral style will come at the cost of the magic that has garnered the label its ardent admirers.

Browne himself is adamant that this next phase of the brand is not a reinvention or even reiteration. It is, however, an evolution, he said. Rather than being the only representation of the brand, his penchant for the abstract — the crinoline-caged gowns, embroidered animal suits and the highly thematic fashion shows, which often run triple the length of a typical runway show — can now serve as something that lends meaning and depth to his more commercial work.

“Fundamentally, Thom Browne is about making beautiful clothing that may start from a conceptual idea but then ends up in the stores in a very wearable way,” Browne said. The strategy now, he added, will be “almost like a re-education for people on something that has been there really from the beginning.”