American designer Thom Browne has made a career of taking archetypal American menswear and turning it on its head (or, as with his hallmark tailoring, shrinking it in size).
Preppy signatures have long run through his work, seeing Ivy League tailoring and varsity uniforms shifted through strange, enveloping new proportions, unconventional adornment or teamed up with gleefully surreal accessories – including Browne’s signature dog-shaped handbags, based on his beloved dachshund, Hector (above left).
Thom Browne’s gleefully surreal accessories
A look from Thom Browne’s Spring 2026 collection, featuring a version of the Hector bag. His collections play with wardrobe archetypes in surreal style
A new take on the penny loafer – a perennial symbol of preppy style – is altogether more classic, though an elongated grosgrain loop tab in signature red, white and blue marks it as one of Browne’s non-conformist creations. In white, they offer the invitation to break another all-American style rule: no white shoes after Labour Day, a line immortalised by a screaming Kathleen Turner in John Waters’ 1994 movie, Serial Mom.
‘I always say that I don’t really work in fashion. I do because it’s the world we find ourselves in, but I try to create work that transcends fashion,’ Browne previously told Wallpaper* as he celebrated 20 years of his eponymous label. ‘For me, the most important thing is to tell stories and make people think in new ways.’
‘I want to make people think,’ he continued. ‘The kiss of death is when someone thinks that my work was just OK.’
The August 2025 issue of Wallpaper* is available in print on newsstands from 10 July 2025, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today
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