Tailoring, Prep, and Some Animal Accents from Thom Browne’s Pre-Fall Collection

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In this year of questioning and chaos, few qualities are as inspiring in a leader as certainty and trustworthiness. (Americans feel this especially, coming off four years of hard pivots and lies.) Who in American fashion is more certain, more worthy of your trust, than Thom Browne? He is a perfectionist, an Olympian of tailoring—and as a follower or customer, you can trust that each season will come with red stripes and blue ones, gray suits and navy ones, a bit of sport, a bit of subversion, and a playful two-strap bag in the shape of his beloved pup, Hector. Browne’s most appealing quality in this topsy-turvy time is that he does not reinvent the wheel each season; he offers consistency with a sprinkle of new delights. No wonder his sales have been holding steady amid a global slump.

Zooming in from his gray office, wearing his gray suit, on quite a gray New York day, Browne said that his mid-season collections are both a pure expression of his creativity and a time to really focus on product. Every look is designed top hat to tailcoat, and the 30 on view here each tell their own stories about Browne’s career-spanning interests. The opening pair of looks carries on the designer’s work of translating womenswear to menswear with Shetland plaids and American rep stripes cut into grosgrain-tipped coats, jackets, corsets, and pleated skirts.