“It’s the men’s season that doesn’t seem to ever want to end,” Thom Browne said Tuesday night from the third floor of Bergdorf Goodman, where he was celebrating the men’s wear collection he’d shown earlier in the day. “Today was the finale.”
He had conceptualized an entirely separate show from the spring 2016 collection he unveiled in Paris two weeks ago. While that runway featured Japanese motifs and kimonos, in New York he paid homage to the uniform with variations on the grey suit. (It was also a nod to his new tailoring facility in Long Island City.)
“I wanted it to feel special and feel like I made the effort to really support the week here,” he said.
Considering he also designed and staged a show for Moncler Gamme Bleu within the past month, it was certainly an effort that added to Browne’s workload. “I just did it to support American fashion and this week in New York. Being an American designer, I thought it was my obligation to do it and I was happy to do it,” he said. “The CFDA has always been so supportive of me. It was more that I should do it.”
He added that the prospect of boosting business was not his primary motivation for joining the calendar. “I don’t really care. It was important for all of us to support it because there was a lot that’s happening here right now.”
Browne’s workload isn’t letting up anytime soon, with the women’s show in September quickly approaching. “I have to go back to Milan for work and maybe [I’ll spend] a couple of days in Como after that, but August is going to be busy,” he said.