One of the most dreadful side effects that the quarantine has had on style is the sudden and dramatic reemergence of rules. The idea that certain tops are for Zooms, certain pants are for lounging, and certain bags are for toting your small essentials to wherever harkens back to the old world of fashion diktats like “Don’t wear white after Labor Day.” Ugh! We don’t need to be told expressly where, when, and why to wear sweatpants. 

You know who else breaks rules? Thom Browne. Today, the designer is launching his first activewear range, a series of compression pieces designed specifically for running. Inspired by his own jogging regimen—“it averages around eight miles a day,” the designer says over a video call—the compression collection brings sweat-wicking, high performance gear into the Thom Browne universe. The collection took Browne and his team almost 18 months to perfect, and releases to the world with all the rigor of a Thom Browne suit—and the added bonus of four-way stretch.

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But more than merely outfitting Central Park runners in cropped navy shells, this new collection offers up an exciting way to subvert the new rules of WFH style. “Of course they were designed to be used to run in, but they are really good looking and I would love for them to be used as a layering piece with the tailoring,” Browne says over Zoom. It’s not hard to imagine TB shoppers turning the navy items into their own versions of Marine Serre moon suits, layering them underneath everything and anything from blazers to bustiers to roomy basketball shorts—all things already provided in the Browne oeuvre. 

The integration will be seamless, as proven by the cast of friends Browne assembled to participate in a virtual celebration of his annual Thom Browne football game. Cole Sprouse, Dan Levy, Ashlyn Harris, and Ella Balinska, among others, wear suits, sweats, and leggings in selfies from Browne’s new football-themed capsule that nod to the Thanksgiving Day game, where Team Navy and Team Gray have battled it out in the park for the past five years. “We’re family at work, and it was nice to kind of create the football tradition within our family here at Thom Browne,” the designer says of his digital activation.

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While he and his friends will be celebrating at home this year and not on the football field, Thom Browne fans everywhere can consider how to style their own running looks, football looks—or any looks really. “I think that’s the most inspiring to see people doing it their own way and not listening to, you know, what they feel like people are expecting or not expecting,” the designer says. “I think the unexpected is so much more exciting.”