suit up! Formerly a menswear-only maker, Thom Browne has women jumping for joy over two new collections (one for Brooks Brothers) tailored just for them.

Byline: Lynn Yaeger

The whole idea was to take a men's tailored point of view and make it sexy for a girl," explains Thom Browne, discussing his recent foray into womenswear. Browne, who on this particular afternoon is wearing his characteristic just-a-little-too-short drainpipe trousers and a button-down shirt with a round French schoolboy collar, wrote the book on the tailored point of view-the menswear he introduced in 2001, and which quickly developed a cult following, inhabits a delightful country somewhere between natty and nerdy. Now Browne is bringing his distinctive aesthetic-faintly Pee-wee Herman-esque ensembles executed with strict Savile Row-worthy tailoring-to women's clothing, with a small line under his own name and a larger capsule edition for Brooks Brothers called Black Fleece. Both collections showcase the whole range of Browne predilections, from velvet collars (on chesterfield coats) to grosgrain-ribbon trim (on lapels and even the undersides of sweater cuffs).

In 1818, when wild pigs running in the streets was Manhattan's biggest problem, the first Brooks Brothers store opened on Cherry Street, offering classic menswear that would remain essential for the next two centuries. (If you have any doubts, go into your father's and grandfather's closets immediately and check the labels.) Though the store, which made Lincoln's second inaugural coat and F. Scott Fitzgerald's button-downs, has offered traditional women's clothes since the 1970s, the really cool girls have always skipped over to the boys' department for polo coats, Shetland sweaters, and, most famously, pink cotton shirts. So it's more than a ...