Thom Browne Hosts Dinner at Mr. Chow to Celebrate Saks Beverly Hills Women’s Collaboration
Diane Keaton, Janelle Monáe and more joined the designer on the West Coast.
"Can you believe all these people!" said Diane Keaton, weaving her way through the crowd thick with tweed at Mr. Chow in Beverly Hills Thursday night, where Thom Browne was cohosting a dinner with Saks fashion director Roopal Patel to celebrate a new women's capsule collection and installation in store just down the street.
Like Browne, Keaton has made suits her trademark, and she looked fab in a red, black and tan check one cinched with a wide belt that was on the more California casual side of the designer's ouevre.
Janelle Monáe, Danai Gurira, Andrea Riseborough, Aurora James and Manny Jacinto were also among the group that took over the restaurant, alongside old friends from Browne's days living in Los Angeles in the 1990s, including Libertine designer Johnson Hartig and modelturned-jewelry designer Sarah Jane Wilde.
It was Browne's first big L.A. event in nearly two decades, celebrating a new Saks women's capsule of young, wearable tweedy sportswear pieces like pleated miniskirts, shrunken varsity jackets and summery slingbacks, for which he designed an in-store colonnade and fountain installation incorporating a seersucker palm tree and some other runway props, alongside a showcase for his made-to-order animal-shaped bags.
L.A. fashion plate Mary Martin had one of those in tow, a little lamb, at dinner. "It's lucky I don't take it to bed with me," she said, petting the furry friend. (Later in the evening, Browne autographed the tag of daughter Holly Martin's pup bag for her.)
Continuing the pastoral theme, Patel was wearing an embroidered storybook landscape suit by Browne, depicting his family farm.
"We met at Club Monaco in 1999 when I was a visual merchandiser, just after it was bought by Ralph [Lauren]," she said. They didn't get along right away. "But something happened one day and we've been best friends ever since.
"Thom challenges us to see fashion through a different lens, to consider what is fashion and what is art…and he's always tapping into what is happening in culture at the same time," she said. "I think he's revolutionized tailoring in general, and the little gray suit has become iconic in fashion. What resonates with me after his shows is his creativity has no bounds, it lingers with me for days. He's changed even what it means to be an American designer."
The love and the Champagne were flowing at the dinner of Mr. Chow faves including green prawns and gambler's duck. It was Ruinart Blanc de Blanc to be exact. (Browne chided me for downgrading his Champagne choice for our cocktail meeting on Monday at the Bel Air Hotel. My bad, it was Dom.)
"I feel like I had really formative years in L.A. I still hold to this day because I'm standing here seeing two of the most creative generous people in the world in my friends Johnson Hartig and Sarah Jane Wilde, who really inspired me from the days around the pool talking about what we wanted to do," said Browne.
"And I wanted to do this with Saks because of Roopal. Sometimes I don't care about the business...and I want to just create interesting beautiful things, and she's always supported that. I think occasionally she's rolled her eyes, but she's always understood," he said. "Being here now is one of those moments where I feel like I've come home."