How I would have staged the 'GQ Bowl' with Thom Browne

If you're a fashion aficionado, New York transplant, or high-society snob, you likely knew Thom Browne made an appearance this weekend at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. Outside of our annual SFFILM Festival and Outside Lands, Browne staged easily the most star-studded event debuting his Fall 2026 RTW collection. Noted celebrities included Queen Latifah, who needs no introduction, and François Arnaud of recent "Heated Rivalry" fame.

GQ made a big splash with it, putting a countdown atop their website and changing the masthead atop their YouTube page.

What I like about Browne is that he's an American designer with an appropriate mission — redrawing drab suiting into something actually interesting to wear and own. I am a ballgown designer, and so often when women approach me at galas for private commissions, they cite Óscar de la Renta, Dior, or Chanel as their inspiration. Whatever happened to supporting local?

If you don't know Browne, you might still remember some of his weirder looks becoming a meme:

To see beyond this insanity is to realize these garments are impeccably assembled theater that won't soon leave your mind. Amid that are also a lot of ready-to-wear pieces Browne sells that I frankly find rather dull: pleated skirts and pinstriped jackets, all with a small Thom Browne logo in a striped red, white, and deep blue.

Unfortunately, Friday's showcase featured more of those silhouettes, not that it didn't stop the rapturous applause for it. I would have greedily clapped, too. When does something this chic happen in San Francisco?

I didn't attend the show, but I don't believe in writing something without doing some reporting. Here's what I learned from "unnamed sources" (I didn't ask anyone to go on the record):

• The parties who hosted the show had rented the Legion of Honor, so the guest list was short, private, and not broadly San Franciscan. But they did squeeze in Laura Camerlengo, curator in charge of costume and textile arts at FAMSF. Local Substacker Viv Chen also went, along with someone from Vogue, SF Standard, and SF Chronicle. I heard Ken Fulk also made an appearance, as did SF retailer Sherri McMullen.
• Browne did use some local producers, as well, to help dress models and run operations backstage. I'll ask them if they want to be named here.
• There was no dress code. I'm rather floored, honestly, that the entire crowd dressed in monochrome in a show of deference to Browne.

So this all makes me mildly happier than I was when, for example, Zac Posen invited Ashlee Simpson to show a GAP collection. Forgive me for saying these things — or don't — I am not attempting to fling poo on designers I actually respect. I just think these international stars talk about the beauty and creativity of San Francisco; but then, they so often don't live here, they use our city as set dressing, and they bring in out-of-towners to fill their pews.

The "GQ Bowl" was appropriately timed to coincide with the Super Bowl, which is held in Santa Clara this year for who knows what reason. The Super Bowl is a competition, though. Shouldn't, then, Thom Browne's event also be a competition? What if they put Browne up against Zac Posen? Not in his capacity as GAP's creative director, but maybe Zac Posen for GAP — when he dressed Cynthia Erivo, Anne Hathaway, Da'Vine and Demi Moore.

This is a face-off I would like to see. I am, however, happy for any publicity coming to San Francisco at all. It wasn't long ago people would not stop trashing us in Facebook posts and FOX News headlines about our unhoused population and crime. All of a sudden, it's cool to like San Francisco again.

I am happy Thom Browne paid homage to San Francisco and the Bay Area. I hope he sticks around long enough to find something concrete to love about us before jetting back to the East Coast. For more on what happened at the party, read:

• Stephanie Gerson for SF Standard
• Angela Tafoya for Vogue

And of course, the livestream happened on YouTube - its recording is still there.

Saul Sugarman is editor in chief and owner of The Bold Italic.

The Bold Italic is a not-for-profit media organization, and we publish first-person perspectives about San Francisco and the Bay Area. We operate under a fiscal sponsorship of a 501(c)(3).

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Photos in this story are from a variety of sources, including Instagram, stills from the YouTube stream, and the Thom Browne website.