Last week Brooks Brothers unveiled its exhibit inside Grand Central Terminal, just a couple blocks from its Madison Avenue flagship. I checked it out on opening day, and found commuters of all stripes — some even rep — who stopped by to have a look. It certainly shows the breadth of the brand over the years, not just the Ivy era. And it might just attract some new blood to our cherished genre.
Noteworthy items include a 3/2 roll morning coat, a Lacoste-for-Brooks polo shirt from the ’50s, and a diamond-weave ’40s suit provided by Ivy Style contributor and comment-leaver Marc Chevalier. — CC
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The clothes on the mannequins look like they’re from The Great Gatsby collection.
Too bad it seems Thome Brown is being left out of the exhibition from what I gather from The Robb Report article. Mr. Brown’s Black Fleece collection modernized a stodgy, clubby brand stuck in the nineteenth century.
“Mr. Brown’s Black Fleece collection modernized a stodgy, clubby brand stuck in the nineteenth century.“
Mitchell, to quote the late, great William F. Buckley Jr.: “I won’t insult your intelligence by suggesting that you really believe what you just said.”
Brooks Brothers and Grand Central station seem to have a lot of the same memories for me; too bad Scott Fitzgerald and John O’Hara won’t be here. And Douglas MacArthur, AllenDulles and the original man in the Brooks Brothers shirt, Edmund Wilson, husband of Mary McCarthy. The clock at the Biltmore also. Throw in legendary necktie, belt and glove buyer Stan Birdsey and I would be in heaven. When I was very young, I used to wonder if there were a Brooks Brothers in heaven.
Vern — “I used to wonder if there were a Brooks Brothers in heaven.”
Also, perhaps true of J. Press. A friend told of overhearing her very young niece praying “Our Father who art in New Haven.”
Makes a nice change to have something other than kiosks and ticket booths in a train station. Also it’s canny marketing, inasmuch as it seems to me that BB’s hope will be that commuters may be inspired to look in on one of their shops.
To my eye those grey suits are lovely. Tell me someone, would a NYC commuter similarly enthused be able to pop into Brooks to buy something similar or the same?
Isn’t the third photo from the bottom Black Fleece? The tie certainly looks like it is, and the proportions look like early BF.
UNRELATED
@Charlottesville
I was happy to read that there was very little unpleasantness over the weekend in your lovely city.
Will
Will — Thank you for the kind thoughts. It was indeed a relatively uneventful weekend, considering what could have been. I think there were a grand total of four arrests at the protests; one of what looked like a refugee from Duck Dynasty for possession of an illegal weapon (a razor blade), one of a similar chap for a for a similar offence (I forget what), one of a masked Antifa goon who knocked a police officer to the ground for no apparent reason, and one of a sad local alcoholic for being drunk in public.
There were no injuries as far as I know, and the only complaint I have heard anyone make is that there were too many police officers deployed. My thought is that the overwhelming police presence was at least partly why there were no injuries this year. After last year’s debacle, my hat is off to our new police chief, RaShall Brackney. I think she did a great job.
It is so strange that this fairly quiet, generally left-of-center college town is now identified with white supremacists. My earnest hope is that the racists, fascists, militant anti-fascists, and other rage-filled louts will all give us a miss next year. There are so many better ways to spend an August weekend.
So Christian, do you have a Brooks Brothers pipe?
Nice articles of clothing on exhibit, especially compared to the way the spectators are attired.
Very beautiful. The waistcoat, shown with the white tie/tails ensemble appears to be ivory. I really like this style. It seems that up until the 1930’s, ivory waistcoats were considered equally appropriate to white waistcoats. In the 1800’s, it appears, ivory waistcoats were actually the standard (check out white tie and tails ensembles in Gone with the Wind, and other period costume movies). Does anyone know where is it possible to buy or order an ivory waistcoat, to be worn with white tie? Thank you!
Found this Brooks bespoke cheviot tweed suit on eBay in 2010.
Probably from the 50s. It could easily be in the exhibit. Note what appear
to be spalla camiseria sleeves. Not sure the image will reproduce.
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Found this Brooks bespoke cheviot tweed suit on eBay in 2010.
Probably from the 50s. It could easily be in the exhibit. Note what appear
to be spalla camiseria sleeves. Not sure the image will reproduce.
/var/folders/wk/hkkmj2h939j90yl000vcnc2r0000gq/T/com.apple.mail/com.apple.mail.drag/PastedGraphic-2.tiff
I had a Brooks pipe around ’95, when I was starting my writing career and working at a tobacconist near Berkeley. It was a little too banged up, so I unloaded it.
Brooks Brothers ”346″
Pipe Tobacco.
A BB product that was not in the exhibit and that some readers of Ivy Style might be unaware of:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/125378480@N07/14468686460/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/125378480@N07/14654987152/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/125378480@N07/14632397806/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/125378480@N07/14654996782/
I work right near grand central. In chatting in turns out that my assistant’s father-in-law was a long time Brooks salesman in the NY store. The stories were certainly interesting, including the different celebrities he helped. But it was quite different then, as he had real relationships with his clients and would check in seasonally knowing what tripped their trigger. I wonder if J Press, the Andover Shop, and some of the other trad shops we all like to talk about here couldn’t use technology to help recreate something like this…perhaps an ivy style box/subscription of some sort pulling from these different shops or helping us get to know a salesman at each?