Thom Browne Reveals New Swim Campaign, Celine Returns to Paris
MAKING A SPLASH: Thom Browne swam competitively when he attended college at Notre Dame. And now, he’s taking that love of the water and applying it to his latest ad campaign, which launched June 8.
The campaign, which was shot by Richard Phibbs, is the first time the company has showcased swimwear in its ads, a category Browne has been offering for more than a decade.
More from WWD
The campaign is intended to highlight board shorts and matching blouson jackets, but in typical Thom Browne fashion, he twists the gender codes of the pieces by showing men wearing bikini tops and women in just the shorts.
The images are meant to be reminiscent of classic American photography and show models posed as statues in swimwear that is either slung low or worn high, tied or untied.
The board shorts are made in Italy using proprietary swim tech fabrics and are offered in red, white, navy and gray with a four-bar stripe and adjustable drawstring. The blouson jackets offer the same stripe on the left arm.
The previous campaign, which was shot by Tina Barney and featured David Harbour and Anh Duong, highlighted uniform dressing.
Browne said swimwear has consistently performed as a top category for the brand across all regions since the launch and has now grown to become a core part part of the collection.
“I’ve been designing swim since 2011,” Browne said. “I initially created it because I wanted a pair of swim trunks. Just like the rest of my collection, I often design to fill a void in my closet.” — JEAN E. PALMIERI
Courtesy Photo
LAST WORD: Hedi Slimane and Celine will close Paris Men’s Fashion Week this month with a live runway show.
According to the official calendar published by the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, French fashion’s governing body, Celine has the 9:30 p.m. CET spot on June 26, capping off six days that will feature 76 physical events out of a total of 84. The men’s shows for the spring 2023 season are scheduled for June 21 to 26.
One of menswear’s ringleaders and showmen, Slimane is known for exacting physical displays featuring dazzling mechanical contraptions and lighting, original music and a very specific casting that skews tall, young and very thin.
The designer pivoted to fashion films during the pandemic, taking his roving drone cameras to French castles, skate parks and motor-racing tracks, and has been slow to return to the runway. He unveiled Celine’s women’s collection for fall 2022 online on May 4 just as other European brands began destination shows for their resort 2023 offerings.
The return of Celine adds another marquee attraction to the upcoming Paris Fashion Week, which will see a slew of prominent names returning to the men’s calendar, including Comme des Garçons Homme Plus, absent since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Junya Watanabe Man, Thom Browne and Givenchy.
In addition, Los Angeles-based Mike Amiri is slated to make his Paris debut at 4:30 p.m. CET on June 23.
London-based Craig Green, who had moved his presentation to Paris in January 2020 and eschewed digital formats throughout the pandemic, and Antwerp-based Namacheko, will also showcase their spring 2023 collections in a runway format, as reported.
The entire spring 2023 schedule will continue to be available through the FHCM’s digital platform, with livestreams and pre-recorded films dropping during each brand’s scheduled slot. — MILES SOCHA
Best of WWD
Sign up for WWD's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
