Brooks brothers

[A Harris]

Has anyone been into the New York Brooks Brothers store lately? I've been impressed with the quality of some of their recent merchandise. Suits by Isaia, shoes by Crockett & Jones and Alden, even seven fold ties. It seems they are becoming a credible source for well made menswear once again. What do you guys think about this trend?

 

[Mike C.]

This past summer I went shopping there and was quite impressed, despite all unfavorable sentimate towards them on this board. They offer good quality business casual wear at affordable prices; which is great for students and 20-somethings to build their wardrobes without breaking the bank or opting for JC Penny.

  I picked up a pair of flat front, wrinkle free, navy blue wool blended pants. They ran me about $55, which is extremely resonable considering the quality is above its competitors in that price range (Polo, Dockers, ect...).

  I was also surprised by the price of shoes there. I couldn't find a pair for under $200. Though I didn't know they were C&J or Alden.

 

[hermes]

i believe the rise in brooks brothers quality stems from the fact that after marks & spencer sold off the chain due to financial reasons, the italian company that purchased, i cannot recall the name but it is run by the del vecchio family who owns ray ban sunglasses, it had 'better quality' as its number one priority in mind, hence why after the sale was concluded in novemberish 2001, they said watch brooks brothers after about a years time to sort out their quality issues and it will be a better product once again

 

[Mike C.]

the best quality no-iron product I have ever seen and they are of the same quality as any dress shirt I have ever bought in the same price range such as RL or Facconable.  The shirts seriously come out of the dryer looking like they came from the dry cleaner.  Even if you are more sophisticated than a young buc like myself-- I would seriously recommend picking up one of these shirts for $65 and giving it a whirl if even for casual wear.

Those shirts peaked my interest last time i was in a BB (around Christmas). Although I didn't end up buying any. The patterns on them were pretty nice as well. How is the fit, simillar to Facconable and RL (baggy)?

 

[hermes]

For clarification, here is what I pulled off the net:

British retailer Marks & Spencer on Nov. 23 sold New York-based cataloger/retailer Brooks Brothers to Retail Brand Alliance. Enfield, CT-based Retail Brand Alliance, which owns the Casual Corner and Petite Sophisticate women's apparel retail chains, jewelery manufacturer Carolee, and womenswear brand Adrienne Vittadini, paid $225 million for Brooks Brothers. When Marks & Spencer bought the upmarket men's and women's apparel marketer in 1987, it had paid $750 million .... Retail Brand Alliance, a private company controlled by Claudio Del Vecchio, whose family runs the Ray-Ban sunglasses business.

For some reason I had thought Del Vecchio was Italian based, perhaps he is, but the corporation itself is US based.

 

[Joe G]

First of all-- I am relatively certain that B.B. was purchased by the company that runs Casual Corner and a few other chains...

Your both right. The dude is Italian, and he's an heir of the Luxotica fortune.  Luxotica make everything from Ray-Ban to Bulgari frames, and own the LensCrafters and Spectica/Optique eyewear chains.

However, I have recently gone back because of their no-iron dress shirts.  This may not do anything for some of you more senior guys on here who can afford T&A or Zegna shirts and drycleaning expenses are a drop in the bucket expenses wise;

Don't dryclean good shirts. Machine wash them and hang them up to dry. (I cheat and throw mine in the dryer for about 15 min, usually.) And then, of course, iron by hand. (Any good thing, be it a nice shirt or a tube amp, needs to be taken care of.)

but for a younger guy like myself these shirts are by far the best quality no-iron product I have ever seen and they are of the same quality as any dress shirt I have ever bought in the same price range such as RL or Facconable.

The only problem I've had with BB is that their sleeves tend to shrink. That's happened to me on shirts in fabrics ranging from chambray to oxford cloth to their better shirting fabrics. I don't know if I've ever had a Facconable shirt (I don't have any now) but the one RL shirt I have (a polo-collar oxford) has not had any such problems. Comparably priced Banana shirts I bought at about the same time did not suffer sleeve shrinkage.

So if you buy BB, you might want to buy overlong sleeves. Until they fit properly, you can look "cool" in the Eddie Slim/Dior manner. And after that, you'll have a properly-fitting shirt.

Also, you can find good shirts cheaply if you look. For instance, I recently bought an Alan Flusser for Saks shirt for under 20 bucks.

Peace,

JG

 

[Jantzen fan]

Joe G - I suspect the reason why your BB shirt shrank is because the fabric was not pre-washed/shrinked in the manufacturing process.

This is a question that you should ask when making a purchase. I don't know why makers don't pre-shrink their stuff (maybe a short cut).

 

[tricket]

I used to think BB shirts carry their signature soft-roll button down collars that rolls the best in the world (maybe I'm a dumb but this is what they said in their ads) but now I find some of the Italian shirts come with button down collars that roll even better.

 

[Jantzen fan]

tricket - BB was the pioneer of the button-down collar. Like you, I don't agree their collars provide the best roll. The Italians and Japanese make good rolling collars as their collars are longer and wider allowing for a bigger roll. BB rolls are just the staple. It's like cutaway collars, for more dressy shirts the collars stand much higher and are bigger, which I prefer as it makes your shirt stand out more and creates 'body' and character.

 

[Wolfador]

Originally Posted by Uncaring

I've never seen Isaia at Brooks. Was this long ago?

This thread was started in 2003.....