This year marks British fashion destination, Browns, 40th anniversary. The store has been credited for launching the careers of many top name couture houses including Alexander McQueen, John Galliano, and Rei Kawakubo’s Comme Des Garcons. To celebrate the store’s anniversary, a number of high end designers from Martin Margiela to Christian Louboutin have created exclusive pieces famous from their past and current collections for the fashion retailer. Some newer names that have made a mark with Browns include Nicholas Kirkwood who created a fantastic “butterfly” shaped shoe using his gravity-defying signature heel, and a structured LBD created by Scandinavian house, Acne.
History from Browns:
Joan Burstein created Browns with her husband Sidney in 1970. Once a small boutique housed on the ground floor at 27 South Molton Street, Browns rapidly became one of London’s most important fashion destinations and grew quickly, expanding through five connecting townhouses with number 23 being exclusively for men. Joan Burstein is credited with discovering such talents as John Galliano, Alexander McQueen, Hussein Chalayan and Commes des Garcons. Her talent for spotting future fashion super stars, “is nothing more than a hunch, “it just happens”, she says. “People say, ‘How can you tell?’. It’s a gut feeling. It’s a gut instinct.”
Their complete anniversary exclusives can be found here:
