SirBalon's: Knowing Men's Fashion Trends

[SirBalon]

12 minutes ago, True Blue said:

I nowadays rarely purchase something new for myself. Our shops are very very limited to a variety of taste, most of the shops have a certain style of clothing and they are all so very similar. The one's that are perhaps with a better label are expensive, i can afford them but i refuse to pay a nonsense price for a shirt or a pair of jeans.

How much does a pair of Levi's jeans cost in Bosnia?

[True Blue]

3 minutes ago, SirBalon said:

How much does a pair of Levi's jeans cost in Bosnia?

Depending on the shops to be honest. As we have the cheap and the mega expensive (expensive for our region). Think some mid price is 70 euros+

[SirBalon]

33 minutes ago, True Blue said:

Depending on the shops to be honest. As we have the cheap and the mega expensive (expensive for our region). Think some mid price is 70 euros+

So their price is what the general price all over Europe is.  What's the average wage in Bosnia mate?

[True Blue]

12 minutes ago, SirBalon said:

So their price is what the general price all over Europe is.  What's the average wage in Bosnia mate?

500 euros

[SirBalon]

25 minutes ago, True Blue said:

500 euros

I would expect that's per month.  Well if that's the case, then indeed at €70+ for a pair of Levi's then it's extremely expensive over there. I can only imagine what a pair of Diesel Jeans would set someone back over there as they tend to start at around £140 (€152) for basic ones. All that without going onto serious designer brands.

[True Blue]

2 minutes ago, SirBalon said:

I would expect that's per month.  Well if that's the case, then indeed at €70+ for a pair of Levi's then it's extremely expensive over there. I can only imagine what a pair of Diesel Jeans would set someone back over there as they tend to start at around £140 (€152) for basic ones. All that without going onto serious designer brands.

Yes per month, then again you can buy decent jeans for 10-15 euros, depending on your wages and depending in which shops you buy. I think that is pretty much the same in every country. There are shops for the wealthy, for the middle class and for the poor.

[SirBalon]

12 minutes ago, True Blue said:

Yes per month, then again you can buy decent jeans for 10-15 euros, depending on your wages and depending in which shops you buy. I think that is pretty much the same in every country. There are shops for the wealthy, for the middle class and for the poor.

Those shops exist everywhere mate.  Jeans that cost €10 to €15 will have reasons as to why they cost that much.  I've gone into the multiple reasons as to why this is the case but without a doubt on something like clothing one should only spend what they can. There are plenty of more important things in life money is required for.

[SirBalon]

GAP + GQ

Partner for coolest hoodie and sweatshirt collection ever!

The coolest designers on the planet

 

The hoodie is going haute couture.

GQ and GAP released their 2018 limited-edition Coolest Designers on the Planet capsule collection Wednesday.

In the current world, where everything old is new again and logos rule, it’s no wonder that one of the original ’90s brands is getting in on the trend.

“It represents the very best of the Coolest Designers on the Planet program and the global influence of menswear in the thing we all really want to wear: a classic sweatshirt,” says GQ Editor-in-Chief Jim Nelson.

Staying true to that statement, the collection includes eight different hypebeast-to-runway brands: Balmain, Dsquared2, MSGM, No Vacancy Inn, Officine Générale, Opening Ceremony, Stampd and Surf Is Dead each created a sweatshirt that represents their brand’s aesthetic and features their logo merged with the Gap’s iconic college letter logo.

The designs run the gamut, including American stars and stripes, brightly colored modernizations and nostalgic reboots of pullovers from the past.

The sweatshirts range in price from £49.95 to £99.95. Check them out:

NO VACANCY INN

Termaine Emory, Acyde and Brock Korsan: "Water and WI-FI [the No Vacancy Inn tagline] is the space between nature and technology, humanity and consumerism."

 

DSQUARED2

Dan Caten and Dean Caten: "We went through the GAP archives and decided to incorporate all the logos; each one really brings back a memory.  The side-zip detail and cotton shirt underlay put Dsquared2 touch on the silhouette."

 

BALMAIN

Olivier Rousteing: "I'm French, but America's style, heritage and culture are key influences for my designs.  The beauty of the American flag played a big part in my spring collection, so I reworked what I showed on that runway."

 

MSGM

Massimo Giorgetti: "It's quite literal - and slightly crazy idea of colaborating.  The fusion of the brands into one single piece results in a sort of genetically modified 2.0 sweatshirt with two hoods."

 

OPENING CEREMONY

Humberto León and Carol Lim: "The diamond hoodie is the first garment we created for Openeing Ceremony in 2002, and forms the base of this sweatshirt."

 

OFFICINE GÉNÉRALE

Pierre Mahéo: "My first thought was to create a hoodie that resembled the one I bought in the late '80s - weathered and slightly distressed, like a vintage one!"

 

STAMPD

Chris Stamp: "I went for versatility and tonal wearability. With the zipper detail (the sleeves zip-off), we we wanted the wearer to have styling options as well as bring the nostalgia of the logo I always thought of as timeless and wore as a teen in the '90s."

 

SURF IS DEAD

Christopher Josol: "Paris, Japan, Melbourne and Hawaii are a few places my team and I travelled to around the world that we fell in love with, so we call this graphic the Surf Tour Tee."

 

I love what these guys have done in this collaboration to be honest and with an iconic universal brand like GAP.  I’m sure most of us have owned one of their pieces at one point in our lives. It brings various worlds of the fashion industry into one from various spectrums of iconic status by using one of the everyday pieces of clothing that probably everyone has in their wardrobe, the hoodie/sweatshirt.

I’m not sure which one I like best although the MSGM (red one) really does take my fancy. 

[SirBalon]

I may aswell use this thread as the portal for buying clothes...

Ive just bought a few items for winter and Christmas for myself...

Done my most of my shopping at the US brand JCrew who provide top quality by comparison for the top brands but without paying extortionate prices.

Three pairs of chino trousers (Dusty Khaki, Aviator Blue and Rusty Red) with a cashmere indigo coloured hoodie.

The other item was (as in my last article on this thread regarding GQ + GAP, I got myself the red MSGM/GAP hoodie which came in at £69

Chinos came in at £68 each while the cashmere hoodie was a bit more expensive at £158.

[SirBalon]

10 minutes ago, Cannabis said:

Picked myself some more Calvin Klein underwear during their Black Friday sale, bought some a few years ago and instantly threw all my other brands out as nothing compares. Managed to get three pairs for just under £70 which is amazing considering one decent boxer is £30-£35 normally. They took the piss with the delivery, taking about a week to get here but arrived this morning .

All US brands take ages to deliver here to the UK for some weird reason mate.  I've ordered from CK plenty of times and indeed they take a considerable amount of time and the brand I've just ordered from, J Crew which are a US brand also take time, more even than Calvin Klein.

But you're totally right with Calvin Klein underwear for men... I've tried other brands much more expensive than CK and they don't compare on quality and longevity...  They're literally the kings of both men and women's underwear where quality v price is concerned.

[nudge]

2 minutes ago, SirBalon said:

All US brands take ages to deliver here to the UK for some weird reason mate.  I've ordered from CK plenty of times and indeed they take a considerable amount of time and the brand I've just ordered from, J Crew which are a US brand also take time, more even than Calvin Klein.

But you're totally right with Calvin Klein underwear for men... I've tried other brands much more expensive than CK and they don't compare on quality and longevity...  They're literally the kings of both men and women's underwear where wealth v price is concerned.

Always thought of you as someone who just goes commando all the time 

[SirBalon]

Just now, nudge said:

Always thought of you as someone who just goes commando all the time 

I turn them into crotchless underpants 

[SirBalon]

Just bought this Sherpa zipped vest from J Crew for £120. I've been wanting one of these for a very long time but couldn't find one that really took my fancy.

[Faithcore]

On 12/12/2018 at 15:53, SirBalon said:

Just bought this Sherpa zipped vest from J Crew for £120. I've been wanting one of these for a very long time but couldn't find one that really took my fancy.

Sometimes when I'm looking for clothes, I see things and ask myself "Who the hell buys stuff like that?"

Thanks to this thread I have received some answers that will certainly be helpful in my life.

[Bluewolf]

1 hour ago, Faithcore said:

Sometimes when I'm looking for clothes, I see things and ask myself "Who the hell buys stuff like that?"

Thanks to this thread I have received some answers that will certainly be helpful in my life.

Yea it will, so you know will know if it's safe to answer the door or if you need to quickly duck down behind the sofa and pretend you are not in... 

[Danny]

@SirBalonI have seen some shocking clothes in here but that Reiss Cuban shirt number, I’ve got my eye on one of those bad boys

[SirBalon]

Men's Workwear Trend: The Complete Guide

To This Season's Biggest Look

Why tough-as-nails menswear should be your Autumn/Winter look

 

In menswear, the clothes that truly seem to endure are the ones that offer the person wearing them some kind of function. They are literally fit for purpose. That’s the reason so many so many military pieces make the transition from the front line to the runway, and it’s also the case with workwear.

Items originally designed for carpenters, dockhands, fishermen and labourers are wearable in the truest sense of the word. They’re comfortable, layered – perfect for autumn. And, in more ways than one, they’re made to last.

“The appeal of workwear is that it doesn’t date,” says Chris Gove, founder and creative director of British menswear brand Percival. “It was never designed for a particular era or movement, so the purpose and appeal of workwear remains relevant, transcending trends.”

Functional workwear items like Red Wing boots, Dickies trousers and Barbour jackets have been fashion statements since the late 1990s, sold first through independent menswear stores like American Classics in London and Manchester’s Oi Polloi. These days, workwear is as ubiquitous on the high street and in department stores, with many fast-fashion brands even offering capsule collections of blue-collar staples like chore jackets and selvedge denim jeans.

Carhartt’s Work in Progress line offers a more fashionable take on the look, and is a firm favourite of fashion industry insiders. “I think it’s even more relevant right now due to the nostalgia that workwear holds towards simpler times, where people had a craft and the pace of living was slower,” says Gove.

Workwear offers desk-bound men a whiff of the romance of semi-skilled labour without, you know, actually having to get your hands dirty. Indeed, much of the workwear canon, especially the Americana of labels like Dickies and Carhartt, romanticises the kind of work which is being made redundant by automation or outsourcing to developing countries.

It’s no surprise that workwear’s surface textures are predominantly matte: heavy cotton drill, thick wool, deep indigo denim, butter-soft flannel, chambray, slub linen and waxed cotton. These are fabrics which neither glow or shine, or draw any attention to themselves, but are instead quietly handsome, taking on character with use and wear over time. Gloss and ‘newness’ is for the shiny world of the internet and luxury emporiums, which is what the appropriation of workwear is partly a reaction against.

The New Rules Of Workwear

Relax When It Comes To Fit

The appeal of workwear is that it is functional, so even if you’re just running for the bus or riding your bike (as opposed to making a log cabin), it quite simply works. Key to this is a loose and easy fit. Robust workwear trousers such as a pair of carpenter’s pants or raw denim jeans should ideally be worn in a more relaxed cut.

“Just make sure what you’re wearing is fit for purpose,” says Enzo Cilenti, a designer for British workwear brand Carrier. “For instance, fisherman trousers are cut extra wide so that they can be rolled up easily for getting in and out of the water. Make sure it’s practical.”

Mix It Up

Unless, of course, you really are a dockhand or lumberjack, it’s best to avoid doing the whole look from head to toe. “Pair workwear with cleaner, tailored pieces to avoid looking like a pastiche,” says Gove. “I like the contradiction of styling a lived-in piece of vintage workwear with something sharp and polished to feel modern.”

For instance, a washed denim or blue chambray shirt looks brilliant when paired with a tailored jacket or blazer. Equally, flipping the balance on its head, the right kind of jeans can provide a solid foundation for a more suited looked up top.

Toughen Your Accessories Up

A good way to channel workwear’s ruggedly masculine aesthetic is with a bit of clever accessorising. Fisherman beanies may be almost insufferably hipster, but they’ll keep you warm, while a solid pair of work boots keep your feet dry.

Commuters of all kinds should also look to outdoor brands for day-to-day bags that are built to withstand bad weather and even worse public transport while keeping personal belongings safe.

Use Colour (Carefully)

Workwear tends to lean towards neutral shades such as navy, khaki, sand, green and brown. All of these can work worn tonally as part of a more streamlined look, but when it comes to workwear’s thicker, boxier cuts, it pays to lighten up.

“Pops of colour help break up the workwear palette,” says Gove. Knitwear in a bright colour, like a red fisherman jumper, with a blue chore jacket and deep indigo jeans, will help to break up the outfit, making you look distinctive and different – but not too different. Workwear does its best work with a sense of cool understatement.

Key Workwear Pieces

Flannel Overshirt

The flannel overshirt in red and black check is the most instantly recognisable workwear piece. Although most commonly associated with woodsmen, flannel shirts were also a favourite of jazz modernists, like the saxophonist Gerry Mulligan.

Pair them with raw denim jeans or cotton khaki trousers. To soften the look, avoid work boots and try a pair of brown or burgundy loafers or chukka bootsinstead.

Cargo Trousers

The nineties comeback no-one even knew they wanted, cargo trousers have been a surprise re-entry to wardrobes in recent seasons, and it’s easy to see why.

A pair cut from a robust cotton, with or without pockets on the leg, should be loose fitting and hemmed up slightly, and can be worn with a pair of classic sneakers for a laid-back all-American look.

Chore Jacket

The chore jacket – as worn by legendary New York Times street style photographer Bill Cunningham – is a tough as nails menswear staple typified by a slightly boxy cut and at least two large front pockets. Owing to its rugged design and structured shape, it expertly bridges the gap between formal and dressed-down.

Layer it under a wool coat in the winter or over a T-shirt or sweatshirt in the summer, and you’ll have a solid smart-casual piece you can wear year-round.

Worker Boots

It stands to reason that work boots come into their own during the winter months. Rain and snow won’t do your loafers and ice white sneakers any favours at all, so lace up in some reassuringly sturdy shoes to keep everything on solid footing.

These are best worn with a pair of raw denim jeans and a thick heavy coat, but a slightly more polished pair can also be used to bookend a suit to save your Derbies.

Padded Gilet

Despite spending some time out in the menswear hinterland, the padded gilet has once again established itself as an eminently useful bit of clothing and one very popular among Italian men, with whom we don’t usually associate workwear.

Overseas they use it as a layering piece underneath a tailored coat or jacket, which we can’t help but commend, but it can also be worn on its own over a cable knit jumper or flannel shirt for an added layer of insulation.

Denim Shirts

If there’s one fabric with real workwear pedigree, it’s denim. The indigo stuff has been a firm favourite of blue-collar blokes, US ranchers and railroad workers since the 1800s, owing to its tough, hard-wearing construction and the fact that it can stand up to serious a battering.

Try coupling a denim shirt with chinos and chukka boots. Or, if you’re feeling brave, go full workwear and embrace the double denim look. Just make sure you go for contrasting shades, the aim is not to look like you’re in a pair of overalls.

Beanies

Have you ever tried doing a full day’s manual labour outside in the darkest depths of winter without a beanie pulled firmly down over your ears? Us neither, but it probably isn’t much fun. That could go some way towards explaining why these woollen head warmers are such an important part of the workwear uniform.

It can be quite a task to find a beanie that works for you, but there are plenty of styles out there to keep you busy. For something classic, go for a simple cuffed version, or experiment with a smaller fisherman-style for workman-at-sea vibes.

[nudge]

Haha so pretty much nobody wants to do manual labour and trades anymore yet they all dream of a "working man" look... Reminds me of how all hipsters suddenly grew lumberjack beards 

[SirBalon]

35 minutes ago, nudge said:

Haha so pretty much nobody wants to do manual labour and trades anymore yet they all dream of a "working man" look... Reminds me of how all hipsters suddenly grew lumberjack beards 

Totally agree...

It all started before the hipster movement about 7 to 8 years ago with the total rebirth of denim in every shape and form...  This Infact was the prelude to the hipster movement which is a male ego-trip based on an artificial sense of understanding the working classes in an inverse form.

One must disassociate the hipster movement and boom versus what the reality of fashion trends really are to everyone else.  But without a doubt those odd creatures (hipsters) have become synonymous with an element of this kind of trend.

You could Infact also include today's populist syndrome that's infected practically the whole western world into having people that don't belong associating themselves with a class they know nothing about.

[Danny]

I’d never normally buy a Superdry top, normally in that Henleys bracket of brand. But me mum bought me a Superdry top for Xmas so can’t complain, and it’s actually a surprisingly decent. The print may not be as fashionable as some of the tops from your H&M’s, Topshops etc...but it’s not a bad top and the material feels of actual quality (cue  @SirBalon to tell me it’s made out of catpiss)

[Rick]

I'm pretty much exclusively dressing like a "workman" if that's the label it's getting. I've got a rustic style, I like jeans with a good pair of boots and then thrown over a checked overshirt. 

I couldn't wear half the shite that's "in" these days. The skinny joggers and chunky trainers....or every fucker walking round with a Levi tee and a pair of vans. Naff off. I'll dress my age, and leave all that crap to the 1 dimensional fuck boy types.

[SirBalon]

9 hours ago, Danny said:

I’d never normally buy a Superdry top, normally in that Henleys bracket of brand. But me mum bought me a Superdry top for Xmas so can’t complain, and it’s actually a surprisingly decent. The print may not be as fashionable as some of the tops from your H&M’s, Topshops etc...but it’s not a bad top and the material feels of actual quality (cue  @SirBalon to tell me it’s made out of catpiss)

SuperDry is surprisingly pretty good quality actually a d they're not that expensive where brands are concerned.  Their jackets/coats especially are top notch and trust me, you're saving a bucket load of cash with their jackets on trying to acquire the equivalent in quality somewhere else.

The only issue I have with SuperDry is that they print their brand name all over the bloody place.  Sometimes oversized too.  Aside from that, you're talking a brand that delivers pretty good quality without the extortionate prices.  Although at that range I prefer GAP which are more or less on their price range and aside from their hoodies, they don't print their brand name on knitware etc... etc...

 

Talking about jackets/coats etc... I don't know if anyone here has heard of a brand name called Canada Goose (ironically, roast goose being what I had for Chrsitmas Lunch yesterday)... You can go onto Canada Goose's website and verify for yourselves how extremely expensive they actually are.  Obviously not as much as Moncler (which I will include in this comment)... Both those brand names manufacture top of the range down coats or the equivalent in winter apparel.  Like I said, they're extremely expensive and your talking about £700+++ for a starting price on one of their parkers or down jackets.

My issue and where I'm going with this is the sudden boom I've seen in the past three to four months seeing people wearing this stuff on the street.  I know what I can be accused of here with where I'm gonna go with this but if you stand back for a bit, don't be judgmental and think clearly, then tell me how you feel...

The type of people I'm seeing wearing this sort of stuff (in some cases I know by face some of these people in my area for example) are people that are considered to be on benefits or on the breadline.  I have Infact seen one particular person that I know gets offered food from a food-bank at my local Waitrose.  Honestly...  What's going on?  Where are the priorities?  I earn a decent salary as do most people in my social circle and neither I or anyone I know would spend that amount of money on that sort of clothing because you can buy the warmest parker coat at GAP or ZARA for just under £200 and your getting very good quality.  Then you see these guys buying savaloy and chips for their children so as to kill their hunger instead of cooking them a meal made from fresh ingredients (apart from everything else you learn as a kid when food is cooked at home).

Anyway... Let me leave it there before I go overboard.

[SirBalon]

9 hours ago, Rick said:

I'm pretty much exclusively dressing like a "workman" if that's the label it's getting. I've got a rustic style, I like jeans with a good pair of boots and then thrown over a checked overshirt. 

I couldn't wear half the shite that's "in" these days. The skinny joggers and chunky trainers....or every fucker walking round with a Levi tee and a pair of vans. Naff off. I'll dress my age, and leave all that crap to the 1 dimensional fuck boy types.

It's just the name that's been given to the style mate.  Like I've always said, everyone falls into most styles that are in fashion at any given moment.  Overshirts (shirts worn as jackets for layering) are a very modern concept that came into fashion about three seasons ago and now many men are wearing them.  They're very functional and keep you warm.

As for your super-skinny jeans, joggers, chinos etc... they're mainly directed at teenagers and maybe your early 20s demographic.  I wouldn't wear that stuff obviously because of my age, but it doesn't look good on everybody that's for sure.

[SirBalon]

With a glance backwards, Brooks Brothers looks to the future

 

In early 2002, just a few months after he officially took over as the new owner and chief executive officer of Brooks Brothers, Claudio Del Vecchio confronted the reality that the classic American retailer had largely lost its way.

Mr. Del Vecchio knew that many of the clothing fabrics were no longer of high quality, that too many of its shirts were ill fitting and that there were often disconcerting irregularities, like a rack of navy blazers that weren’t the exact same shade of navy.

And longtime customers had noticed.

Among Mr. Del Vecchio’s first acts as owner was to read a stack of angry letters from Brooks Brothers loyalists who griped about how the merchandise quality had fallen under the previous owner, the British retailer Marks & Spencer. They also balked at the limited selection of classic blazers and suits in the stores.

Those letters confirmed much of what Mr. Del Vecchio, a wealthy Italian entrepreneur, had seen for himself and stiffened his resolve to return to the company’s roots. “I saw the business opportunity to increase sales,” he said. “I knew how to fix this.”

A new executive team shifted into crisis mode. Led by an experienced chief merchant, Eraldo Poletto, with whom Mr. Del Vecchio had worked at Casual Corner (a women’s wear retail chain that Mr. Del Vecchio sold in 2005), they began to corral the company’s best suppliers to revamp all the store’s merchandise. Hundreds of garment styles required new specifications, better fabrics and apparel factories. It took about six months for the first shipments of the improved garments to arrive in stores — swapping out the oversize khakis and shapeless polo shirts.

Among the upgraded versions were luxurious three-ply Italian cashmere sweaters, replacing the two-ply Mexican cashmeres, and three styles of blazers and khakis, instead of just one. By April 2003, the store had completely overhauled its merchandise — and its loyal fans started coming back.

By 2004, Mr. Del Vecchio said, the privately held Brooks Brothers was modestly in the black, reversing a series of money-losing years that had begun in the late 1990s.

The history of Brooks Brothers and the tenure of Mr. Del Vecchio — who has been wearing Brooks Brothers for more than half of his 61 years — will be celebrated on Wednesday evening, when the company will host a black-tie gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center for 1,000 of its best customers, friends and celebrity guests to mark its 200th anniversary. The all-American jazz program, produced by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra’s artistic director, Wynton Marsalis, befits the all-American clothier, which has been the group’s corporate sponsor and official clothier since the 1990s.

“Brooks Brothers is a special place,” Mr. Del Vecchio said during an interview in his upper-floor office at the 346 Madison Avenue store, where an antique grandfather clock owned by the store’s founder, Henry Sands Brooks, stands across from his mahogany desk. “This is a great institution with a heritage.”

Elegantly attired in a Brooks Brothers navy tweed sport coat, a white button-down shirt, a burgundy knit tie, slim gray slacks and brown oxfords, the chief executive spoke about what he saw as his mission.

“I am here to reinforce a culture,” he said. “I have to make sure that we are building a company that will last after me. I don’t want to be here another 20 years. Forget about another 200 years. It’s really about trying to build a culture that will last longer than the business. That will make it very hard for the next guy to screw it up.”

Bought at a Discount

Claudio Del Vecchio grew up in Milan, the oldest of six children of Leonardo Del Vecchio, the self-made billionaire founder of the Italian eyewear giant Luxottica Group.

Mr. Del Vecchio, like many other Italian men, first learned about Brooks Brothers through the stylish Fiat patriarch Gianni Agnelli, who started wearing Brooks Brothers original oxford shirts in the early 1960s. (He customized his shirts by leaving the collar points unbuttoned.) Generations of Italian men idolized the dashing Mr. Agnelli and copied what he wore.

When Luxottica sent Mr. Del Vecchio to New York to run its North American operations in 1982, the young executive headed straight to Madison Avenue to buy his wardrobe at Brooks Brothers. Later, in 1992, he got to know the store’s executives when he signed up Brooks Brothers to be Luxottica’s first eyewear licensee in the United States.

Over the next few years, however, he observed with increasing alarm how Brooks Brothers was abandoning its long tradition of being the standard-bearer of American business classics, one that came with its status as an outfitter of the nation’s presidents. It has clothed nearly all of them, including Donald J. Trump for his 2017 inauguration.

Under Marks & Spencer, which bought it in 1988, Brooks Brothers enthusiastically embraced the casual wear boom of the 1990s, as the store’s merchants were told to copy the business-casual look of Banana Republic. (Staff members jokingly called their store “Banana Brothers.”)

In the mid-1990s, the company’s executives even eliminated the signature Golden Fleece logo from its cotton knit polo shirts, which Mr. Del Vecchio, as an influential supplier, says he was able to talk them into restoring, he said.

By 2001, it was clear that the British-American marriage wasn’t working, and Marks & Spencer, suffering from a global recession and a downturn in its home business, put Brooks Brothers up for sale. With American retailers shaken right after Sept. 11, Mr. Del Vecchio was able to swoop in and grab Brooks Brothers for $225 million, less than a third of what M & S had paid 13 years earlier.

After those frantic first years, when management worked on both quality and public perception, retail sales began to steadily improve. By 2017, Brooks Brothers had 244 wholly owned stores in the United States, up from roughly 160 in 2001; in both cases, half were factory outlets. It also had wholesale accounts with stores like Bloomingdale’s, Lord & Taylor and Dillard’s.

Globally, Brooks Brothers had blossomed with sales in 50 other countries, accounting for 35 percent of its total revenue. That was up sharply from 2002, when it operated international stores only in Japan, still its biggest overseas market.

Online and in Airports

Today, Brooks Brothers is typical of most retailers: Online sales now represent its largest percentage of revenue and is now the company’s fastest-growing category. As more people have migrated to shop online, Brooks Brothers has provided more detailed product descriptions and has featured photos of people in lifestyle situations, as opposed to models in studios, which a company spokesman said had helped increase sales.

Mr. Del Vecchio credits Brooks Brothers’ 27 airport shops, operated by a licensee, for helping win back businesspeople who had rejected Brooks Brothers in the 1990s. He calls the shops a “great showcase” for the brand. (In the 2009 movie “Up in the Air,” George Clooney’s traveling businessman character lingers over a display of striped ties at a Brooks Brothers airport shop.)

Brooks Brothers has also reached out to established fashion designers for exclusive, high-profile capsule collections — Thom Browne from 2007 to 2014; Zac Posen for women’s wear since 2016 — but its business remains rooted in its classic men’s wear, which accounts for 80 percent of its business.

Dress shirts, now in about 1,000 varieties, have long been the calling card of Brooks Brothers, accounting for 30 percent of its sales. In a nod to contemporary trends and to buffed, young guys, the shirts come in four fits: the Traditional, the Madison, the Regent and, the slimmest, the Milano. (Mr. Browne, famous for his tightfitting men’s suits, helped steer Brooks Brothers toward slimmer silhouettes, said Lou Amendola, the store’s chief merchandising officer. “Today over 50 percent of our business is now in slim shirts and slim suits,” he said.)

Charles Moore, founder and president of the Banc Funds, a private equity firm in Chicago, said he had stopped wearing Brooks Brothers dress shirts for several years because “the quality of the shirt fabric suffered and the collar wasn’t fitting.” He shifted to $200 custom shirts until a few years ago when he returned to Brooks Brothers, for its trim Regent silhouette, which was new to him.

“I like the fine Supima cotton and the way the shirts ride on your neck — the spread collar and the button-down collar,” he said. For around $80, “they’re great value for the money.”

‘We Are Authentic’

The privately held Brooks Brothers has posted profits for 13 of the last 17 years. For the past three years, annual sales have hovered around $1 billion, with profits at a break-even level, according to figures provided by Mr. Del Vecchio. (In the current challenging retail market — with Ralph Lauren Corp. and Abercrombie & Fitch closing down stores, and J. Crew getting rid of its entire top management team to try to reverse that company’s revenue slide — steady results can be considered something of an achievement for Brooks Brothers management.)

Drawing hip, millennial shoppers inside America’s oldest retailer isn’t easy — even to check out novelties such as Brooks Brothers’ latest machine-washable merino sweaters, designed without side seams, and its lightweight hooded outerwear, rivaling labels like Moncler and Canada Goose.

“We have a level of technology and performance that they can’t even dream about,” Mr. Del Vecchio said. “We are authentic, and we have the stories. We just need to do a better job with social media and the influencers.”

Still a big believer in physical stores, Mr. Del Vecchio sees promise with Brooks Brothers’ latest concept, Red Fleece boutiques, featuring midprice casual wear. Its popular Flatiron location recently added a downstairs cafe, now a hangout for the tech workers in the neighborhood.

“We need to refine it to create synergies between the cafe and the boutique,” Mr. Del Vecchio said.

Even with a challenging economic landscape, Brooks Brothers, with its freedom from public shareholders and the pressure of quarterly financial disclosures, “is suddenly the retailer that everyone wants to emulate,” said Robert Burke, a New York retail consultant. Notably, Nordstrom, which had $15.48 billion in revenue in 2017 and which over the past year had tried to take itself private, finally pulled the plug on that effort in March after the board rejected the founding family’s $50-a-share bid, saying it wasn’t high enough. (Retail stocks, as whole, gained just 2.52 percent in 2017, well behind the 25 percent rise in the Dow Jones industrial average and the 19 percent return of the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index.)

“Claudio has been very disciplined and measured on how he has grown Brooks Brothers, focused on where the brand will go, upping the quality, not going for the quick sales and not opening too many stores,” Mr. Burke said. “He’s elevated Brooks Brothers without deviating from its heritage and tradition.”

Mr. Del Vecchio said, “I am naturally a long-term thinker, and I don’t see the benefit of going public.”

Made in America

Though much of Brooks Brothers’ apparel is imported, including its best-selling no-iron shirts (made in Malaysia), Mr. Del Vecchio says he remains committed to producing many signature items at home, including its made-to-measure suits, in company-owned factories where he has invested in new machinery and in the training of workers.

Its ties, for example, are manufactured at a factory in Long Island City, with a label embroidered with an American flag and the words “Brooks Brothers. Proudly Made in New York United States of America.”

There are two other domestic factories. One is in Haverhill, Mass., which makes men’s suits, sport coats and trousers, and has produced clothes for the designer Todd Snyder and uniforms for United Airlines. It employs 550 workers, up from 300 in 2008. The other is in Garland, N.C., where 250 workers produce the classic $140 oxford shirt — and is the only domestic factory that operates at a loss, Mr. Del Vecchio said.

“Part of the Brooks Brothers institution are its factories and what it means from a social standpoint to put things together,” he said. “Not every consumer can afford to buy ‘Made in America.’ But we have a brand that can justify that cost, and there are enough customers who understand this.”

Mr. Del Vecchio said he knows that closing the Garland factory would erase the livelihoods of half the town, which has fewer than 1,000 inhabitants.

“Many of the decisions we make are with that in mind as well,” he said. “We keep saying every year this is the year we aren’t going to lose money, so that’s the reason to keep trying to improve. But until the day I can’t afford it, we won’t close it.”

The philanthropic-minded Mr. Del Vecchio began the practice of hiring English-language tutors to teach the immigrants who work at his factories. In Haverhill, the workers speak 30 languages, from countries including Afghanistan, Poland and Myanmar.

“We don’t hire illegal immigrants, but now there are the laws that stop immigrant refugees, which were a great source of skilled labor for our factories,” he said.

He and his wife, Debra, and members of his executive team visit each factory every Christmas season, donning blue aprons embroidered with “Brooks Brothers” to serve lunch to workers. Mr. D., as they call him, joins in to dance and to speak Italian and Spanish with the workers. He also gives out certificates for graduates of the English classes and awards for years of service.

“Whenever he walks into the factory, everybody claps,” said Adriana Lucin, the production manager at the tie factory. “He’s like a star. Everyone wants to take a selfie with Mr. D.”

Correction: April 21, 2018

An earlier version of this article misstated where Brooks Brothers’ made-to-measure suits are manufactured. They are produced at the company’s factory in Haverhill, Mass., not in Italy.

 

Source: New York Times

Fashion Journalist: Teri Agins

[Bluewolf]

I was thinking of buying this jacket as it's my turn to call out the bingo numbers down the club this week...  what do you reckon.. a bit much?? 

I was also thinking of buying these as well but really need @SirBalon to advise me??? are these jeans fashionable?? First impressions are that they will look like I got knocked down and run over while painting white lines in the road... 

I really do need some sensible advice and tips???