Thom Browne’s New Golf Capsule Collection Is a Stroke Above the Rest
Thom Browne Golf
The formalism of Thom Browne’s suiting might not seem analogous to the freedom and fury of the sports world, but Browne’s great strength as a designer is the ability to seamlessly shift between strict and spirited. After dressing the Cleveland Cavaliers and FC Barcelona—both professional teams of the highest echelon—and releasing a tennis capsule collection last year, the designer is launching a golf line for Resort. Releasing in Thom Browne stores and on Farfetch.com today, Browne’s golf collection takes the argyles, high socks, and dimpled balls of the links and places them in the designer’s topsy-turvy world. “It was really just playing with those old iconic ideas and reinterpreting them in a way that made them feel relevant for today,” he says of his men’s and women’s collections, name-checking Arnold Palmer as a particular inspiration.
For men, there are tam-o’-shanter hats with tricolor pom-poms and capri-length golfing trousers—best worn with argyle knee-high socks, naturally. The women’s collection includes tartan blazers and asymmetrical pleated skirts as well as a pair of spectator heels with a golf ball suspended on the stiletto. One golfing item you won’t find? A green Masters jacket. “I think it’s kind of trademarked,” says Browne, with a laugh. “So, I think that may not have been so appreciated by the Masters group.”
The designer does hope that some golfers take note of the collection, however. “I do watch golf and I thought it would be interesting to see [if some of the players wore the collection],” he says. “I think they’re definitely more in tune with how they’re looking. You never know, maybe Tiger will call us up.”
Until that happens, you’ll have to keep an eye on your local golf course—or maybe country club dining room—for Browne’s latest collection. Just don’t expect to see Browne there. He admits that while his family members are ardent golfers, he prefers other sports. “I went more the tennis route than I did the golf route growing up. It took a lot of patience, and growing up, I didn’t always have patience,” he says.
Still, sports of all strokes remain a central tenet of his brand—and not just because the designer feels an affinity to the rigor, unity, and strength that sports require. “For me, sports are something that a lot of people understand, even people outside of fashion. It’s a good way to bring people into the things that I do,” he says, noting that by adding these sports-inspired capsule collections during pre-seasons he can make sure that stores have a constant influx of new merchandise that meshes with main season collections. In the lookbook, the golfing items are photographed at the Philip Johnson Glass House alongside Browne’s parrots, dogs, and lawn gnomes—the fantastical and functional merging into one. “I think the two worlds do relate in a really interesting way,” he says. “I would like people to see that there’s that much of a diversity in regard to what I do within my collection.”
