Thom Browne has made a name for itself as the go-to luxury brand for slim-fitting menswear, counting NBA superstar Lebron James and former Gilas Pilipinas coach Chot Reyes as members of its cult following.
A New Yorker article offered some insights about the popularity of the brand among athletes. The answer, the magazine says, is on what the iconic stripes stand for: people wearing them are “game for fashion risk-taking.”
What makes Thom Browne more relatable to people like Reyes, who proudly donned designer outfits from the brand during the 2023 FIBA World Cup, is its designer’s past in sports.
Browne was an accomplished swimmer during his youth. He translated the colors of his medals’ straps into what has now become the brand’s emblem of red, blue, and white stripes.
His style, which has now become mainstream, was described by the New Yorker as drawing “on codes of American conformity—the trope of the ‘man in the gray flannel suit’—but also quite literally undercut them. The result was something impish and a little bit kinky: all that male cleavage, out on display.”
“The gray suit was once the ultimate cloak of anonymity. Browne has turned it into a badge of conspicuous consumption,” the magazine wrote.
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