American fashion designer Thomas Franklin Brigance was born in Waco, Texas on February 4, 1918. Brigance came to New York in 1931 to attend the New York School of Fine and Applied Art (now, Parsons School of Design) and the National Academy of Art. After graduating from Parsons in 1934, Brigance moved to Paris where he studied at the Sorbonne and the Academie de la Grande Chaumière, and later freelanced as a fashion designer for Jaeger and Simpson's of Picadilly in London. Brigance returned to New York and, after catching the attention of Dorothy Shaver of Lord & Taylor, began designing exclusive sportswear and beachwear for the department store. The Brigance name quickly became synonymous with swimwear and beachclothes, and Lord & Taylor boasted of the association in a 1939 advertisement appearing in Vogue, urging those in New York for the World's Fair to visit the Beach Shop, "home of creations by Brigance, one of our own designers, whose ideas enchant even the blasé Riviera."

Brigance left Lord & Taylor to join the military in 1941, and was decorated for bravery and leadership while serving in the Air Force Intelligence Service in the South Pacific from 1941 through 1944. Returning to Lord & Taylor after World War II, Brigance stayed until 1949, when he left to open his own firm. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, he freelanced for Sportsmarket, Sinclair, and Gabar (now licensed by Swimwear Anywhere, Inc.).

Brigance went on to design a wide range of women's clothing, and even designed Chrysler automobile interiors in 1955 (with Parsons alumna Claire McCardell), but his notoriety came from his sportswear designs, which garnered him the Coty American Fashion Critic's Award in 1953, the International Silk Citation in 1954, the National Cotton Award in 1955, and the Internazionale delle Ari Award in 1956. After retiring in the late 1970s, Brigance continued to lecture at design and fashion institutes up to his death in 1990.