Thom Browne and his partner Andrew Bolton recently acquired an 18th century country pile named Teviotdale in the upper Hudson Valley. Although it appeared in a 1980 Architectural Digest spread, Teviotdale can also be viewed in this collection: To relish its Palladian proportions simply eye the bag in look 13, or focus on its facade by considering the cardigan in look 18. Teviotdale, like Hector before it, seems set to become a totemic feature of Browne’s precision-tailored American fashion landscape.
The house is both an original classic (as a Georgian-era Georgian-style house) and a piece of revival design, given that Georgian architecture was a riff on Renaissance architecture, which in turn riffed on the Greco-Roman “original,” which, of course, was a synthesis. Browne, kind of similarly, has built an original classic of his own: Brownian tailoring was his invention, a distinct intervention in fashion’s timeline, yet it also echoes down the ages and across the oceans to the snobs of Savile Row and fiery sarti of Italy. Or as Browne said on our call: “My classic is based on 20 years ago when I introduced that proportion that was shorter at the top and slimmer at the bottom. That is really what is classic for me.”
Just as will no doubt be tastefully applied at Teviotdale, Browne established his tailored classicism through layering revelatory modernization upon bygone convention. Those pillar proportions as ever held up the roof of this collection, but beneath that core canopy Browne continued the tinkering with silhouette and fabrication that began at last summer’s couture debut in Paris. These experiments included a softer shoulder and (even) slimmer jacket shape intended to break on the top of three buttons. As per, Browne roamed way beyond his gray flannel, cashmere, and tweed metier via excursions to cricket-casual (as interestingly dislocated in the US as Georgian architecture), some fine shooting short-suits, and a severely unironic turn of WASPy embroidered animalia prep. And as is lore, Browne interjected elements of the conventionally “feminine,” both in styling and garment choice, to upend and refresh the conventionally “masculine” flavor of his tailoring base.
Browne’s canonical English-made Goodyear welt brogues were a key footwear foundation, however there were also more flexible, Italianate versions of the Norwegian split-toe boot, the penny loafer, and the insulated duck boot to step into. Apart from the Teviotdale tote, there were versions of the newly introduced Mr. and Mrs. Thom bag in classy canvas and burnished black leather. The rose and raven embroideries that climbed and swooped around the clothing and also manifested in bag form were toasts to Edgar Allan Poe, both his poetry and the ritual around his resting place. Poe lies under a gravestone that—spookily—quite strongly resembles a Mr. Thom handbag. “It’s a collection of good classic ideas,” said Browne with classic understatement.
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