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On Tuesday evening, Thom Browne ’88, dressed in his signature gray shirt with matching shorts and knee-high socks with four-mark white stripes, addressed a packed crowd of students in Jordan Hall at the Mendoza College of Business.
Brown, who graduated in business 35 years ago, is a Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study (NDIAS) artist-in-residence, chairman of the Council of Fashion Designers of America and a former GQ designer. . The work, which mimics the traditional gray suit, is complimented by an innovative approach to design. His designs have been recognized by museums around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art.
Associate Dean for Innovation and Inclusion Christine Collett-Schmidt began the evening by introducing Brown and Michael Haynie ’86, former deputy editor of GQ magazine, who moderated the discussion.
“We join you here tonight at the intersection of art and business, where innovation and entrepreneurship meet, to celebrate the creative experience and expertise of one of the industry’s most talented fashion designers,” she said.
Before Brown and Haynie took the stage, a short video highlighting Brown’s creative work was played for the audience. The video featured Brown’s runway shows, celebrities including LeBron James and Michelle Obama wearing his designs, and a photo shoot of a fall football game in the South Quad.
Brown says he likes to start these kinds of conversations with some images of his work because “there are so many stories in those 20 years [of work]He said.
In the year After graduating from Notre Dame in 1988, Brown took a job at an accounting firm in New York. He then moved to Los Angeles and tried his hand at acting, when that failed, he moved back to New York to work as a designer for Giorgio Armani and then Ralph Lauren before pursuing his own career.
Brown said he’s glad he didn’t know what he wanted to do after college because “I tried a lot of different things and was open to meeting a lot of people through it.”
He began his career in 2003 making five gray suits in a tailoring shop in New York City’s West Village. Brown was someone who did not come from a traditional fashion or design school, so the color gray represented non-fashion. At first, he promoted his designs by walking the streets of the city, hoping people would ask him where he got his clothes from.
“I dressed myself. That’s how people saw it. [my work]” said Brown. “I didn’t have a business plan. I had no plan other than I knew exactly what I wanted to do.
Brown says you have to be your own best advocate to be successful. He describes himself as a best seller, designer and producer. At first, being a fashion designer was not very glamorous. It was a tough job and in 2009 the company almost went bankrupt.
But he said he loved the business and knew “someone would find it eventually,” so he continued to make his clothes.
“If you create something that’s true and that’s your own, no one can take it from you or knock it off or steal it because no one can be you,” Browne said.
“He wanted to do something, something,” Brown says, not just being a fashion designer. Through his fashion, he hopes to tell stories about the world and what is happening in the world. Fashion is more than making clothes or buying expensive clothes.
Through his creations, Brown hopes to challenge people’s perceptions of fashion and how they view the world around them.
“It’s important to get people thinking,” he said. Why not take something they understand and give it back to them in a way they don’t fully understand?
For those who look at an outfit and wonder, “Who’s wearing it?” Even for those who think so.
“I don’t care if someone wears it [the] The idea is just to get people to see things differently,” Browne said.
In the year In 2018, Ermenegildo Zegna, an Italian fashion group known for its menswear, acquired an 85 percent stake in the company. Browne says he is working with the Zagna team to make the brand accessible to more people by implementing sustainable and ethical practices. In the future, Brown says he wants to continue expanding into the visual and digital realms of the fashion business.
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