The American designer Thom Browne specialises in clean, pared-down tailoring. As well as his own menswear collection, he collaboarates with the Italian skiwear label Moncler to create Gamme Bleu, its premium menswear line. The fourth Gamme Bleu collection was presented in Milan this week.
You are credited with inspiring a younger generation of American men to wear suits for pleasure, not just for work. Why are you so into suits?
I start every collection with tailoring. I’m very comfortable in it, it’s what I wear all the time, and it will always be the most important place for me to start my collections. The interesting thing is that too many people thought suits were a uniform, as opposed to really good-looking, elegant items of clothing that could be comfortable and just as cool to wear as jeans and a T-shirt. That’s what I wanted young guys to see. There’s something interesting about a guy who’s confident enough to look classic and timeless and doesn’t seem like he thinks to much about it.
What was your inspiration for this Gamme Bleu collection?
Guys who snowboard. There’s something so effortless and easy about the way that they snowboard, and they way they live their lives.
Do you think that sportswear has undermined tailoring?
I think they work with each other. I think that tailoring has changed sportswear, and vice-versa. There’s a lot of crossover. I bring a lot of tailoring to this collection, because I think that people would expect that.
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Whose wardrobe — past or present, fictional or real — would you most like to steal?
I’m not one to know about historical wardrobes. I like to keep things clean and it makes it easier to design.
Will you be snowboarding in this collection yourself?
No. I’m a skier. I’ve tried snowboarding, but I’m just not very good at it. It’s tough — it’s an age thing, I think. Once you’re over a certain age it’s difficult to get it.
Is there any aspect of fashion that you dislike?
I don’t like it when people follow trends. I like when people do their own thing and design purely from a design point of view. Sometimes when you see people following others as opposed to just being themselves, that’s not so good.
See the Gamme Bleu collection at moncler.com