Thom Browne Plants a Pink Palm Tree at Saks in Beverly Hills Store Takeover

At a dinner celebrating Thom Browne‘s 20th anniversary and his just-launched capsule collection at Saks Fifth Avenue, the designer told the guests — who included Diane Keaton, Janelle Monáe, Logan Lerman and Danai Gurira — that the night felt like a homecoming.

“L.A. is almost my second home … I do feel like I had five really formative years here that I still hold dear to this day,” Browne explained during a toast at Mr. Chow restaurant in Beverly Hills Thursday night.

Years before he launched his label, the designer of now-iconic suits that have redefined suiting had trekked to Los Angeles while searching for a professional passion. The late interior designer Paul Fortune, whose clients included Sofia Coppola and Marc Jacobs, befriended Browne and later offered his guesthouse as a residence. It was there, adjacent to a pool under the California sunshine, that Browne began to contemplate his future.

“Sitting around that pool, I remember saying I had no idea what I was going to do,” Browne recalled to the assembled guests (some carrying the designer’s playful animal bags), who also included actors Andrea Riseborough, Moses Sumney and Manny Jacinto, Brother Vellies designer Aurora James and singers Del Water Gap and Leo Reilly.

Fast-forward almost three decades, and it’s clear Browne not only discovered his passion, he’s forever altered the way many fashionable men (and women) approach style. Among the many stars who love the brand are Oscar Isaac, Alexander Skarsgård, Jenna Ortega and Christine Baranski.

Among Browne’s earliest friends was Roopal Patel, who since 2015 has served as senior vice president and fashion director for Saks Fifth Avenue. “Roops,” as Browne affectionately called her at the April 4 dinner, said she knew the luxury retailer had to pull out the stops for the 20th anniversary of the designer’s label.

“Thom is an iconic American fashion designer leading American fashion,” Patel told The Hollywood Reporter. “So the idea was to come together and celebrate him and all that he’s achieved as well. A 20th anniversary is quite an accomplishment, but it’s also quite a career. So to celebrate it, we thought, why don’t we do a capsule, why don’t we do something special?”

That idea intersected nicely with a desire to also showcase the reimagined design of Saks Beverly Hills’ women’s store, and the results are a limited-edition capsule collection exclusive to that location, surrounded by visual installations highlighting past and present Thom Browne designs. The installations will be available for public viewing through April 22.

The capsule collaboration is a nod to Browne’s signature designs, notably his widely lauded gray suits with seemingly shrunken silhouettes and crisp, abbreviated details, blended for the 20th anniversary with a decided SoCal vibe.

Pieces also include women’s shoes, handbags and ready-to-wear, the latter employing a new tweed Browne developed for the limited-edition collab.

“If you look at the collection, it’s pulling from the archives and recreating silhouettes in whimsical colors like mint green and yellow, while also keeping the iconic codes of the house intact,” Patel explained. The installations, meanwhile, take their cue from a range of the designer’s inspirations, from a pastel-hued palm tree created for a previous Art Basel Miami Beach event to a selection of mannequins highlighting designs from Browne’s Edgar Allan Poe-themed Fall 2024 collection. The capsule celebration also enables clients to order made-to-measure and bespoke suiting, while Patel noted that her favorite element from the collection is the ability to purchase customized, made-to-order versions of Browne’s beloved animal bags.

In addition to thanking Patel for three decades of friendship and support, Browne also reminisced about how he arrived at his current place in the world — which, incidentally, includes (as of January 2023) the venerable position of chairman of the Council of Fashion Designers of America.

“I want fashion to transcend fashion,” he said at Mr. Chow. “Sometimes I don’t care about the business of fashion; I just want to create interesting, beautiful things that make people think and maybe see things differently, and Roopal has always supported that. I think occasionally she rolled her eyes, but always deep down, she understood and realized the reasons why I did what I did over the last 20 years. I want to recognize that I love being here and I love doing this, and that it’s a special moment because of our relationship.”

For Patel, the feeling was mutual. “[Thom’s] little gray suit has become iconic to fashion, and you can see it in cities across the globe,” she said. “He has challenged how we view fashion; the line between what is art and what is fashion is blurred. It’s like stepping into a dream, to step into Thom’s imagination, and it haunts you and lingers with you for days. That is the power of Thom Browne.”

Scroll on for more photos from the Saks and Thom Browne dinner party at Mr. Chow in Beverly Hills: