Brooks Brothers at Rockefeller Center

By Matthew Longcore

Recently my wife and I had the opportunity attend two special events with our friends from Brooks Brothers. The first event, the Fit For Fame Dinner, took place on August 28^th at the International Tennis Hall of Fame Induction Celebration in Newport, Rhode Island. The second event, the presentation of the Brooks Brothers Spring/Summer 2027 collection, took place on September 10^th at Radio Park, a hidden rooftop greenspace above Rockefeller Center in New York City.

Tennis champion Roger Federer, the recipient of a custom-made Brooks Brothers blazer, took center stage at the first event. For the second event, Michael Bastian – the creative director at Brooks Brothers – was the star of the show.

Michael Bastian has had a remarkable career in menswear, which has included positions with Polo Ralph Lauren and GANT. The book titled Ivy Style: Radical Conformists, published in 2021 by Yale University Press in association with the Fashion Institute of Technology, was edited by Patricia Mears with contributions from menswear writer G. Bruce Boyer and Ivy Style founder Christian Chensvold. Michael Bastian is one of the designers featured in the book, along with Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, and J. McLaughlin.

In December 2020, Bastian was introduced as the new creative director of Brooks Brothers. The following year, in October 2021, Monocle published an article by Hamish Anderson titled Preppy’s Return: Inside America’s Oldest Clothing Brand. The article describes how Bastian seeks to strike a balance between heritage and innovation:

Bastian is innovating but he says that heritage brands also need to remember what made them popular in the first place. At Brooks Brothers, “putting all the icons of the brand back” is part of his role. “I’m making things that I wanted but couldn’t find for a long time,” he says.

Five years later, the recent event in New York demonstrated that Bastian is continuing to combine classic styles with fresh new looks. Brooks Brothers describes this approach as follows:

For more than two centuries, Brooks Brothers has helped shape the way America dresses, introducing and popularizing many of the wardrobe essentials that have become indelible icons of American style. This season, Creative Director Michael Bastian builds on that legacy, celebrating the brand’s most iconic codes while modernizing them for a new generation of customers. The Spring/Summer 2027 collection revisits the signatures Brooks Brothers has spent generations refining: the famous OCBD (the button-down collar shirt that Brooks Brothers invented in 1900). Double-breasted jackets and sack suits. Seersucker, madras, critter embroidery, novelty sweaters. Icons that have long formed the foundation of the American summer wardrobe are here with fresh energy and new relevance.

The most impressive looks from the Brooks Brothers Spring/Summer 2027 collection have a cinematic appeal. The conservative grey flannel 3/2 sack suit worn by the gentleman below evokes the Mad Men era, while the more daring pink suit is reminiscent of The Great Gatsby.

The white pinstriped double-breasted suit from Brooks Brothers worn by the woman in the photo below is a feminine power suit with a dash of haute couture along the lines of The Devil Wears Prada 2. The seaside print skirt combined with the pink and white cabana striped shirt are reminders of the stylish women’s resortwear from the mid-20^th century featured in the Talented Mr. Ripley.

My wife loves this cream colored fisherman’s sweater, which the model is wearing with a pair of shorts in a nice shade of Nantucket red.

There are some items from the fashion show (not featured here) which are likely to appeal to a younger demographic, but are admittedly not my cup of tea. I am not into big splashy logos, and the Spring/Summer 2027 collection from Brooks Brothers includes a supersized version of the Golden Fleece, much like earlier collections from Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger, which have featured enlarged logos. I am reminded of the big polo pony shirts made by Ralph Lauren, the official outfitter for the U.S. Open. Personally, I would not wear this look, but I still love Brooks Brothers and Ralph Lauren – two of my all-time favorites – and the existence of these items which target the youth market do nothing to change that.

If Spring/Summer 2027 sounds far away, I encourage readers to check out the Fall/Winter 2026 collection from Brooks Brothers, which has some very desirable items high up on my wish list. I am especially pleased to see that Brooks Brothers is offering vests which can be paired with jackets and pants made of the same material for a polished three-piece suit.

As mentioned in my article titled Three Cheers For The Three-Piece Suit, I consider the three-piece suit to be the most attractive component of a gentleman’s wardrobe and I would welcome its return to fashionability. (Sorry to those readers who have expressed a difference of opinion, nothing will convince me otherwise).

At the Brooks Brothers event in New York, I had the pleasure of meeting Nicholas Arrington. You may recognize him from Summer House: Martha’s Vineyard from Bravo TV. In my opinion, Nick should have won an award for the Best Dressed Guest at the Rockefeller Center event. He looked incredibly sharp in this three-piece wool mini-houndstooth 1818 suit and repp stripe tie from Brooks Brothers that he personally styled. The jacket features a signature 3/2 lapel roll and is crafted from wool woven from the  Marzotto mill in Italy.

In the Fall 2026 collection from Brooks Brothers, my favorite item by far is the Glen Plaid brown wool three-piece suit, also sold as three separate parts:

Brooks Brothers Glen Plaid Wool Suit Jacket

Brooks Brothers Glen Plaid Wool Vest

Brooks Brothers Glen Plaid Wool Pants

As the kids like to say, I need that suit.

Well, I may not need it – but it certainly would be a welcome addition to my wardrobe.