There’s a prevalence of men showing bare ankles in fashionable circles these days, and we have one man to pin it on: Mr Thom Browne. The Allentown, Pennsylvania-born US designer, whose own rigid uniform is a testament to his bestselling aesthetic, rose to fashion fame when he started his own label in 2001. It was because of the new proportions he introduced to the men’s market: tight, upright, proper suits that were just a wee bit shrunken. Whereas Mr Hedi Slimane’s silhouette at his first spell at Dior Homme was tight yet subversive, Mr Browne’s look is tailored yet seemingly conservative. In the years since his label debuted he’s won such awards as the Council of Fashion Designers of America Menswear Designer of the Year andGQ‘s Designer of the Year. His shows are some of the most anticipated on the menswear fashion circuit: he has shown men in 18th-century inspired clothes for a royal feast in a ballroom in Paris; in New York he did a show inspired by the sport of tennis and showed suits paired with huge crinolines; in Florence, and this was perhaps my favourite show, he had 40 identically dressed men at a phalanx of desks looking more dapper than a whole season of Mad Men. For Mr Browne’s most recent show in Paris, he presented a colourful collection of layered cropped jackets and short shorts in patchworks, neons and prepster appliqués. To welcome his eponymous label to MR PORTER, I caught up with the designer to talk about the convenience of wearing suits every day, political style and what he thinks makes for a snappy dresser.
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