Generations of Style

THE WHIFFENPOOFS, 1915 also remain ed popular, and the custom shir t depar tm ent co ntin -
ued to do co nsiderable business with a number of wom en who
ifBrooks Brot hers' introduction its t~Polo " button-down collar shi rt wa nted men's shirts and unden'Vear.
ifaround 1900 marked t he beginning the collar-attached shirt in
In 1939 Brooks President Winthrop Brooks wrote his custom ers
Amer ica. By J 91 5, both the shirt and the company's N umber One something of a manifesto. He opens by poking gen tl e fun at vari-
o us new styles tempting the contem po rar y ma.le shoppe r: "the
sack suit lI'erefirmljrentrenched as aJashion in Eastern colleges, as modern version of the Kampus or Kollege Kut Klothes of the days
befo re the Wo rld War," and the "country-sq uire ... woolley and
is evidenced by cheJaa that all cf Yale 'sJa mous sinaioa aTOUp are horsey and lo ud as the law allows." He ended by claiming that at
IVcarina these sianawre Brooks items. Writes Georse Plimpton in Brooks "rarest perhaps of all , arc to be fo und clo thes of the time-
Gentlemen's Quarterly, 1959: "Some years ago, so the story BOes, less kind, not ' British,' not 'Am eri can,' not'Broadway,' not 'French;
the lace 1jrone Power stepped into Brooks Brothers to ask a question not'Coloni al,' not ' Hollywood,' or ' College,' but the kind that men
about men'sJashion. He lIIas preparina]or his role in "The Razor 's o r good taste , nur tured by generations of g racio us li ving and
daily contact with others of th e sa me mode of life in their own
ifEdge" and wondered the store had some photoaraphs which would and other countri es , wear and have worn for years - as naturaLly
as they do their skins o r their eyebrows, and arc as loth [sic] to
show what the correctly dressed man wore in 1914. He was shown change in essential s as might be the leopard to change hi s spots."

to the c1fice cfWinthrop Brooks by a salesman who thoua ht the To be situated closer to the leopard's lair, the company esta b-
lished a Wa ll Street presence in May 193 1. After several years of
if ifpresident the company and the great grandson the store'sJounder discuss ion - and , some said, eno rm ous mi ssed opportunity -
a sal es office opened in the IrvingTrust Com pany buildi ng, a
1I'0uid enjoy meeeinB theyoung actor. Mr. Brooks was deliahted. so-sto ry skyscraper at the juncture of Wall Street and Broadway,
looking west over Trinity Churchyard. Eventually, th e sales office
ifHe talked at length wit h Power, and at the conclusion their was converted into a full retail ope ration and remain ed at th e
sam e site until 1976.
con versation, answered th e actor's question by pointina at a a roup
NEW LEADERSHIP
photoaraph ojthe Wh!JJenpoifs. theJamous Yale sina ina society
As always, various Brookses held positions at alll evcis orthe
to which Brooks had belonsed when he lVas at the university. 'Those company. But during the Thirties, that Niagara of Broo ks sons and
nephews which had stocked the executive offices had somewhat
are examples cfthe style ojthe day," he told the actor, uand what's dw indled . Fo r reasons of seniority, the Brooks presidency had
been held o utside the family since 1903 , wh en Francis Lloyd
'!Jmore," he concluded, you lVant one ojthose suits, take the eleva- assum ed the position. When Lloyd di ed in '92 0, he was foll o,ved

tor to t he secondfloor, see a salesman, and ask to buy our N umber

ifOne sack suit. That's whO[ all us have on in that picture."

Winth rop H. Brooks, president cfBrooks Brothersfrom 1935 to

1946, is shown secondJrom the riahr..

64- THE CHALLENGE 0 1: C I'I ANG!>

W I NTHROP HOLLY BROOKS

(life) President ifBrooks Brothers,

1935- 1946, the Jase l!Ilhe Brooks
family to lead lhe company.

THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE 6S

THE WElL-USED
CUS TOMER LOUNGE
The clothino industry was not immune
to war-rime farionino qJorrs; both cattan
and wool were neededJar military uniforms
and bandooes. Brooks Brothers' re/iance
on EnOlish suppliersJurrher ciffecud their
shortaoe at the li me. This circular seatino

area ar the 346 Madison A!'cnue store,
complete with readino moufial, allowed
customers to waitJor precious nell' iums.

by Eugene Mapes, who held the presidency W1til he retired in 1935. of the nrm ,Winthrop 's job could hardly have been easy: No
Upon Mapes' departure, partially in ord er to quell rumors that soo ner had he man euvered the company out of th e Depress ion
the business had passed outside the fami ly, the post was assumed than Brooks, and Ameri ca, faced another world war.
by Winthrop Holley Brooks, a great-grandson of the fOWlder.

It is said that Winthrop H. Brooks never intend ed to join the DOI NG WITHOUT
busin ess, and hi s early life seem s to bear that out. After graduat-
ing from Yal e in 1915 , he married and settled in Wyoming, where By the late Thirties, Rooseve lt's Nev.., Deal began to jtunp-start
he raised cattle on a ranch given him by hi s father, Freder ick. the sagg ing economy, fueled at least in part by gearing up for and
Four years later, however, he was brought back East by the death then supporting a prolonged and costly ca mpaign against
of his mother and hi s father 's wish to have him enter the firm. Germany and Japan. "For five long, desperate years large chunks
Legend has it that Winthrop never quite scraped the last cowpi e orthe world were battlegrounds .... Peopl e fought for fr eedom ,
from his wingtips: When th e rod eo cam e to town each year, his dug for victory, prayed for liberation. It was an age of heroi sm
Wyoming friends would drop by th e store to swap stories and and brutali ty, of triumph and suffering, of bravery and cowardke
catch up . It apparently took Winthrop a week or so thereaft er to ... of determ ination in the best and worst of causes."
regain his patrician restraint.
Once American soldi ers shipped off to the Pacinc, Europe and
Although Winthrop Brooks' son, Frederick, had begun working NorthAfrica, the recovering economy didn't matter, as life at
in th e mail room after graduation fro m Hotchkiss, and AshbelT. hom e was governed by restraint and sacr ince. Ever ything ,vas
Wall, another fifth- generation descendant, would join the com - rati oned for the war effort: tires, automobiles, m eat, gaso lin e,
pany in 1940, Winthrop H. Brooks would be the last of the famil y sugar and typewriters. Until the boys came home,America
to preside over Brooks Brothers. Despite the continuing success learned to do \-vithout.

66 THE CHALLEN G E OF CHANGE

Th e clothing business was no exception: Rationing coupons gov- like Fred Astaire (a nother devotee). In "CasabJonca," Hum phrey RUDOLPH VALENTINO
ern ed even essentia l items like shoes, and most v"l'i eti es of cloth Bogart may have cri ed in his gin like any other jilted lover, but
he did so wearing a tux , It was a return to glamour. Actor and hcofflhrob Rudolph 1~/C"nrino
rell under tight regulation as well. Such shortages afTected st),l e :
OUT OF TH E FAMILY was parllclllarb' enamored ifBrooks' hats,
As all availab le cotton and wool went toward bandages and uni -
forms, Washington actively discouraged the sale of pleated GivcnAmerica's thirst fo r e legance, o ne might presume that post- among ot her Ire ms,
trousers, and \'cstcd and double-breasted suits, It was fo rbidden. war Brooks Brothers wou ld be ha\ri ng its finest hoUT. In fact,
in fact, to sclJ trousers in a length sufficient for cuffing - that contending with the shortages of the war had rendered the com-
ex tra three inches could sa\'C a life . Further, Brooks Brothers pany somewhat exhausted ancl vu lnerable. As a result, Winthrop
suffered more than most clothiers because of thei r dependence Brooks, the reluctant preSident w ho had already piloted Brooks
o n English suppliers. aturally, Britain was facing shortages and through a depreSSion and a wor ld war, over saw one mo re diffi cult
rationing as well, but more importantly, trans-Atlantic shipping mom ent in th e company's histo ry: In 194 6, Brooks Brothers was
was a dangerous enterprise and was thus curtailed even when sold to Julius Garfi nckcl an d Co mpany of Washington, D. C.
goods \vere ava ilable.
According to The Wall Strcet.Journal, Brooks custo mers "kept
Brooks customers, as one might ex pect, took th eir own approach phones ringing wi th anxio us (Iuerics about the store's future,"
to this deprivation. At the time, the first fl oor of the Madi so n Brooks addresse<1this Aurry ofconcern with customary restraint.
A\'enue storc featured a circular area of benches and chairs with Winthrop Brooks' formal announcement docsn't mention who
reading material prOvided for waiting customers. Joe Mancini , a bought controlling intcrest; instead, he straightforwardly assures
salesman who joined Brooks in 1926 , relates the follOWing tidbit: readers that Brooks had no intention of changing anything.This
"At the time, clothing was brought onto the £1001' in wagons. assurance was backed by two facts: SC\'eral of the Brooks family.
People would sit around reading magazi nes until they heard the including Winthrop, would remain in key leadership positions,
wagons come out from the back room .Th ey'd spring to their feet and "we now co nfid ently beli cve , .. as regu lar British importa-
and get to the clothing before it eve r got stackcd on the tables." tions are resumed." that the Cll1Tcnt post-war shortages wi ll
be steadily co rrectcd , ... l'
A R ETUR N TO GLAMOUR
J OHN C. WO OD
In 1945, Amer ican s res ponded to peacetim c so me\-"hat differ-
cntly than they had after the previous war:Their ex ubcrance In April 1946, Ga rfi ncke l's appointed John C. Wood as the new
lacked tile innocent , somewhat infantile Ravor of the JazzAge. president, a decision which may ha\lc kept the company alive.
The Frenzy of the Charleston gave way to the elegant sonorities A Dartmouth man and former executh'c at B. Altman, Wood
of Glenn Mi ller and Frank Sinatra.The tinny artificiality of understood the company and its customers, and drew early praise
Rudolph Valentino (a Brooks customer) was largely forgotten for making "Brooks e\'c n Brooksicr." The sturdy, gravel-voiced
as America celebrated victory in "Top Hat, White Tie, and Tails" six-footer with a somew hat chilly ex te rio r set the company in

TIlE C H ALLENGE OF CHANGE 6,

BUSINESS AS U SU AL? a new, more aggress ive stan ce. A trad e paper referred to Mr.
Wood as "autocratic and starchy." Wood proud ly had the arti cle
DespilC the assllran ces expre5Scd in this reprinted. Inject ing a badly needed dose of hard core business
advertisement, Brooks BrOlhers struBBled reali ty into a perhaps too- sedentary culture, Wood rej uvenated
e remljl durinB H-Orld 1,lflr /I to maintain an organi zation badly in need of focus and energy. The Brooks
iu usual European f!!forlnss. IUan)1 Brothers' stafT was rapidly filling with young war veterans
EnSlish mills were serl/ina t,he war1Joft, (many of whom would stay for life), and it was an apt time to
and trans-Atlantic shippina was perilous. raise standards.

"BUSIN~SS AS USUALI" In Wood's customary bluntness, hi s first communi cation \vith
the Brooks custom er ex pressed the co mpany's renewed promise
Despite any current irregularities in transatlantic sail- to deli ver : "Now yo u can order anything, even an Africa n bush
ings, Brooks Brothers' importations of Woollens fr om coat if yo u have it custom .made.You ca n get it when you need it,
England and Scotland continue to arrive in this coun- it w ill be the best of its kind, and it will be correct for the locale
try as heretofore. Recent shipments make possible, as wh ere it is to be worn ." Not every Wood decision stuck, how-
u.sual, the a,nnounceme nt of new British materials ever. Not long after he took office, Broo ks removed the button
and the continuation of old favorites . .. along with behind the collar of their button-down shirts and sho r tened the
ever-improving selections of domestic Woollens .. . in shir t-tails, which had tracUti onaUy reached down to the kn ee.
Custo mers - o r course - immediately registercd horror at this
R,ady-Mad, S"ilJ Jor Fall, $55 to $90 monumental dcviation. The long shi rt-tail was at once restored
and policy was changed to allow anyone who wanted a button
SUiJl }lIr CrllIlge UIfJrrgrilJuilUJ, U"1'u Formers behind his coll ar and a buttonhole to have o ne.
n/1,{ H)unger Mm, $+2 I, Si2
BR OO K S AN D BRITA IN
MADISON AVL COL fORTY-fOURTH STUn· NEW YORK
BOSTON . SAN F RANCISCO. LOS A NGEl.ES Wood also set abo ut re-establishing and rein vigorating relation -
shi ps with supp li ers.They, too , were going to be held to higher
standards, and to ensure same, Wood began annual voyages to
Europe to oversee those relationships. Wood , an infamous crea-
ture o r habit, not on.ly insisted on the sam e London hotel -
The Ritz - but the same room: # 203. In o rd er to ensure pre-
di ctable and pro per transpor t , he had his Cadill ac shi pped over
for each visit. During an off-load once at Cherbourg, the Caddy
was aCCidentally dumped overboard, causing the fastidious
Wood no end of consternation.

68 THE C H ALLENGE OF C HA NGE

Wood was hardly the first Brooks leader to take an active inte rest FO UN D ED 1676
in sourcing. The company's presidents and buyers ""ere always
notoriously curious about the manufactur ing side orthjngs .While LOCK & COMPA NY
other companies would be satisfied with inspecti ng the final
product, Brooks' peo ple wanted to understand eve n the basest Richard Slephenson 's areat-urear-orand.
raw mater ials. Andrew Drechsel , a devo ted Brooks customer as
well as head of St. Andrew'sTextiJes, an agen cy that represe nted falher bauShl Lock &..Compan)' in J 850.
Brooks Brothers with European mi lls for decades, recently
commented, "Brooks Brothers always wanted more and more Here, he clemonsrrOlCS a del'iccJor mcos-
knowledge - not just about the;r fabric but any fa bric."
IlrinO heads. The instrlll!1enlll'lIS IIscdjor
By the end of th e 19405, many Brooks suppli ers had se rved the
co mpany for generat ions. Brooks had been working with a /1laki/J8 custom /)(1/.1. •

Scottish shirting mill , D & JAnderson, and an English fine-gauge

kn itter, AHen Solly, since the middl e or the 19th century. These
relationships, however, had never bee n limited to those provid-
ing high-quality fab rics for Brooks' factories. Over the ycars the
company wisely forged exclush'c re lationships with makers or
high-quality European branded furnishings and other haberdash-
er)'. O ne stich suppli er was "Lock & Co. Hatters, St. James
Street, London ."

Lock was fo unded in 1676, and is on record as having exported
its first hat to Amer.ica in 1781. (O ne wonders if Henry Sands
Brooks retu rn ed fro m one of his Lond on trips wearing Lock's

THE C HALLENGE Of CHANGE 69

" OWN MAKE"

Brooks Brothers' reputationJor quality and consistency has always
depended on its dual role as both makers and merchants. As Brooks
President Winthrop H. Brooks stated in 1939: "Clothes sold by us
... are desiBned and cut by hand in our own store and mamifac-

iftured entirely by ourselves, with an unusuaJ!'y large proportion
ifhand sewing, from woolens our own importation and selection."
ofUntil expansion made this no longer possible, much the manifac-

turina, such as ties, took place on the upperfloors ifBrooks'flaBship

ifstore at 346 Madison Avenue, an apt illustration how closely

makins and selling are linked in the company's heritage. This devo-
tion to quality extended to Brooks' longstanding relationships with
suppliers, mOllY <ifwhom created branded items under exclusive
agreemen ts with the company

70 THE CHALL ENGE OF CHANGE



j,

~

PEAL & cO.eD

BV " ~ PO( ..T .. ~..V ' NC ORPO RAnNG B Y "~PO' ''TM~T
T O T He .....TO: ~". o o ~ O " OIE V T O T..' ""' .. CO: O ~WuU , g l o·,o n
BARTLEY & SONS
It. o . ~ ~.. .
.13oofmak...,
JRP/AC
48. WIGMORE STREET T!:~HO HIE

(COR N ~ It or W [ . . lEeK 8TRIE[ T) HU "T~" 2 0 '5e/o

LONDON, W . l

4th January, 1965 .

John C. Woo d , Esq .,
Office of t he President,
Broo ks' Brothers,
Madi s on Avenue Cor. 44th Street,
New York 17,

N. Y.,

U. S.A.

PEA L & COMPANY Dear Sir,

ifThrouohout much t he 20lh century . On the occasion of handing over our name to
your Company, we would like to express to you,and
Brooks enjoyed an exc!us;\"C Iicensina your Bo ard of Manag ement, our good wishes for the
aareement. wit h the JistinBuisheJ London future . We are happy to s ee our name pass int o
fi rm qf Peal8LCompany. Peal, in business good .h ands . .
since IS 0 2 , had bui it custom- maJe shoes
Al s o, at t h is t i me, we would like t o thank
Jor Lords WdlinBton an d Mo umbatten, you and your sta f f fo r your kindness and co- operation
Winston Churchill, Fred Astaire and th e extended t o us over the many yepxs of our bu s ines s
Duke qf Windsof. Americans seeking associati on.
Peal 's reo(lj'-made shoes m uldfi nd t hem
on!! a/ Brooks Brorhers. When Pcalwent Si n cere ly yo urs~
out qfbusiness, Brooks p urchased the
name, as ndl as Peal's lasts and pauerns. ?'~~

~.~ f.....J .

~((~
£~f"c:

7' TH E C HA L LEN G E O f" C H ANGE

elegant silk top hat.) Brooks Pres ident Francis G. Lloyd initiated True to form, virtually all business agreements with suppliers
this long r elationship when he dropped by the St. James Street were sealed w ith a mere handshake, reflecting a relationship
store in 1905. (Lock remains in the same building today, and in refined over generations. An unavoidabl e anecdote illustrating
fact has been at that location since 1765".) Lloyd had rented an these extraordinary relationships comes from Raymond T. H.
estate in Sunderland for grousing, and testified to Lock 's owner, Jones, who ran Brooks Brother s' London office from 19.5"1 to
Mr. G. J. Stephenson, his conviction that 'wearing a Lock hat- 1990 .That office was charged vvith the oversight of all buying
\vhi ch he had first encountered at the hunting lodge - improved activi ties in the United Kingdom, from raw materials used in
his accuracy. factori es to Brooks' ready-m ade prod ucts - shoes , hats,
scar ves, leather goods and gifts. One of Brooks' hat suppli er s
In an Wlcanny echo of Hemy Sands Brooks himself, Lloyd returned \vas Herbert Johnson of Bond Street , which was run by the
to New York sporting his new purchase. "When he arrived there Glazier family. During World War II , a Glazier son, Max, joined
and went into his store, the hat was so much admired that on the Green Jackets Infantry Regiment and was subsequently
his next trip to Europe he was asked to bring back others for hi s captured by the Ger mans. Hearing the news, Brooks Brother s
fri ends. He arranged ""ith Mr. Stephenson for three dozen to contacted the British Red Cross to ascertain the location of his
be conSigned to Brooks Brothers .... Within hours of his return POW ca mp and subse'luently sent him food parcels fo r the
hom e he dispatched a cable: ' Duplicate my ord er.'" duration of the \ivar.

Brooks enj oyed a similar relationship 'with another distinguished , ~~you DO N 'T CHA NGE THE OATS
family-mvned London establishment, Peal & Company, which ON A WINNI NG HOR SE ."
suppli ed Brooks' best lin e of r eady-made shoes. According to
City of London records, Samuel Peal was licensed as a "cord- At the end of the Forties, Brooks found itsel f stronger than ever.
vvai.ner" (a certified shoe-and-boot maker) on April I , IS02, and Both its new owner and its new, stro ng- minded leader honored
established Peal 's first shop soon thereafter on Tottenham Court Brooks' core values and respected the company's sometimes
Road . As early as ISS9, Peal sent re presentatives to America to idiosyncratic ways of doing business .While Wood certainly raised
co ll ect orders for "bespoke" (custom-made) sho es from elite the standa rds of the company, those standards were still Brooks'
clientele. When footwear was being built for Lords Wellington standards. Defending some drastically inefficient but particularly
or Mountbatten ,Winston Churchill, Fred Astaire and the Duke Brooksian business practice, Wood once declared , "You don't
of Windsor, someone named Peal oversaw ever y stitch. Brooks
received the first agency appointment in Peal's long history; when 4$change the oats on a winn ing horse." He \,raS right.
Peal & Company fe lt it could no longer find workmen skill ed
enough to create their shoes, the company regretfully closed their
doors in 1964, at which time the Peal name , along with its lasts
and patterns, 'were so ld to Brooks Brother s.

THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE 73



FRED ASTAIRE

llRO O KS BItOTHERS C li STOMER

KNOWN TO WEAR :
REPP TIE. 100% IMPORTED SILK, BROOKS BROTHERS ITEM N ~ 6 181

F RE D AS T A l R E is arguably one of the greatest enter tainer s in American history.
Fred was known to have worn a Brooks Brother s tie, not only around hi s neck ,
but also around hi s \va ist.



BROOKS BROTHERS
TI E FACTORY

BROOKS AS BOTH
" MAKER AND MERCHANT.-
THE TIE FACTORY ABOVE

THE RETAil FLOORS
AT 346 MADISON AVE.

COLLEGE

THE EMERGENCEofthe

IVY LEAGliE LOOK

BROOKS BROTHERS IN THE

BUSINESS .. GI BILL .. STATUS SYMBOLS .. IVY

LEAGUE LOOK THE MAN I N THE B R OOKS BROTHERS SHIRT
BROOKS'
IDI OSYNCRATIC STODGINESS WASH & WEAR

BROTHERS MEANS SOMETH I NG SPECIAL" WE ARE

DEFINITELY NOT IN THE WOMEN'S CLOTHING BUSINESS

IT ' S ALL ABOUT THE CLOTHING

THE EMERGENCE OF THE IVY LEAGUE LOOK 79

he energies and expectations which would characterize the Fifties
began soon after the Allied victory in World War II. In 1945, Bankers'
Trust Company published a small publicity booklet which in many
ways captured the mood of the country, and particularly New York. The first
chapter - appropriately entitled "New York Means Business" - portrayed an
ambitious, self-confident city bursting with momentous projects upon which it
would forge an extravagant future. Jan Morris's evocative account of the period
describes plans for "huge new hOUSing proj ects, the largest bus terminal in the
world, an airport eight times as big as the one they had already, an immense new
sports center, terrific new museums, huge new hotels, lavish new nightclubs,
skyscraper offices , department stores , dozens of new schools, marvelous new
hospitals, roads, tunnels, piers, parks, markets, truck terminals, telephone systems,
TV transmitters, radio relay stations, a magnificent new civic center. During the
next few heady years the city was going to have to buy 148 million board feet of
lumber, 22 million barrels of cement, 440 million bricks, 1.3 million tons of steel,
263,573 doors and I 1,648,000 square yards of asphalt paving surface, besides
nearly a million new automobiles. This was more than mere speculation. There
was no doubt about it. 'NewYork has made up its mind ... NewYork won't wait.' "

i OI'T III~80 T H E HME RG ENCE I VY LEAG U E I.OO K

THE EMERGENCE Of THE IVY LEAGUE LOO K 8 I

LEI SURE IN STYLE
As this srore window will ouest, t he Fifties
had no shonaac in sl)'le. poniwlarlj'
when it came to beina ouifJrredJor any
number qfleisure ocril'iti es.

As th ose stati stics attest, what drove Am eri ca's post-war ambition s Brooks Brothers' door. Veterans were taking advantage of the
weren't idle dreams but roll-up-your-sleeves determ ination . GI Bill to prepare th em selves for a place in th e rapidly expanding
FulfilLing such expectations demanded both broad should ers and white co ll ar world. Born into a stratifi ed \vorld of m o re limi ted
a deep wallet: The dri ving force behind much of what we associ- cultural and occupational horizons, most of these men were
ate with the Fi ft ies is th e fact that more peo pl e had more money strangers to th e vagaries and hidden codes of corporate America,
than any prev ious American generatio n. A Ga llu p poll taken at many of wh ich v\'ere imbedded in the appropriate corporate
the tim e found that 90 percent of New Yorkers consid ered uniform. Brooks Brother s provided the com pass and map neces-
them selves happy, and that giddiness rad iated at least partially sa ry to navigate thi s uncer tain ter rito r),.
from mon ey in the bank and expectati ons of m ore to com e.
"[Bl y Jtme ' 945 the liquid assets of clJe people, at S'40 billion, But for these nevI.' custo mer s, as readers of Sloa n Wi lson's ' 9SS
totaled three times th e en tire national incom e in 1932 - all in novel , "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit,"might recall , wearing
all , it is said , a quarter of a trillion do ll ar s \vas waiting to be a Brooks sui t Signifi ed more than sar to rial correctness. For this
sp ent on consum er goods." upwardly m obile middle class, less secure in the tr appings of
success, "status symbo ls" took on greater weight than in any
Importantly, a broad er spectrum ofAmer ica fou nd access to this period in Amer ican history. Those w ho li ved during the Fifties
new influx of capital. As a result o f thi s increasingly wides pread remember the oft- repeated urgency behind "keeping up with
prosperit), - and the sense of individual opportw1it)' \vhich the Joneses," and wear ing Brooks Brothers' iconic lab el signifi ed
accom panied it - a new lind of custo mer began appearing at that ),ou were well ahead of most of the Jon eses peopling the
executi ve lunchroom .

82 THE EMEll.GENCE OFTHE IVY LEAGUE LOOK

THE I V Y L EAG UE LOOK CAS H M ER E

For vete rans, th e econo mic boom of the late Fo rti es and Fi fties This acll'crt isel1l ~'llrJrom (he [wties indi-
cales thai. eren bifore the lrifomous pink
was accompani ed by an educati onal windfa ll : Har vard ,Ya le and shirr. wamen wert' laokina fa 8raoksJar

other prestigious schools opened their doo rs - and in fact finr! apparel.
expand ed thei r capacity - to accommodate these new veterans.
AcrossA meri c3, the fas hio n secti o ns of many Fifties periodi ca ls "'omen and girls shopping for rhcmsc lvcs or for ·
set the ir photo spreads on these same campuses, g iving rise to the Christmas Gifts ... and men frantically looking for
"Ivy League Look," whi ch was, in esse nce, pure Brooks Brothers. really good-looking and usefu l prcscnts ...will nat-
Wi thin the busin ess world, the natu ral understatement of Brooks urally think: of Brooks Sweaters. Soft Cashmere, and
gray and blue sack 5ujts - d r ipping w ith status yet never sepa- in a wonderful choice of colors, Light Bluc, Navy,
Cherry, Yellow, Aqua, Natural, White or Black.
rati ng the wea rer from his corporate brethren - aptly ex pressed Sizl."S 36, :I8 and .\-0. PuUovcr, $ I.\-. Cardigan, $16.

America's tand em desires for status and conformi ty. In a societ), ~
in whi ch social asce nsion had becom e som ething of a feti sh,
the Ivy League Look - and all the cul tural dynam icS surround - ~~~
ing its po pu lari ty - perfectly reflected Brooks' mission to crea te
the kind of cloth ing toward whi ch o ne asp ires. ~WJ'~~i;l!rIl;g mls~iIlg!l, ~~alhOt5

THAT I N FA M O U S PI N K SHIRT Offi CERS' UNIFORMS. FU RNI SHINGS AND ACC£SSOR IES
H6 Mi\OI SOS '\ " t-:S tili, COR. HTII ST., 1':EW "OR" 17.:-1. Y.
Mar y McCarthy may have satirized uThe Man in th e Brooks
Brothers Shirt" in her fa mous '94 ' short story, but a decade latc r 46 s~:wntiR\" COli.. RJ;II.Kt-:U" S1'Rt:l:T , 1I05TO:-; 16, MASS.
wo men wer e taking that shir t vcry serious ly - tile pink vcrsion,
in par ticu lar. Pi ctured o n the cover of I!0Bue in August 1949, I.OS .\NOEU·_~ • S.\!'.' FIl,\SCISCO
the shirt whi ch had been o n sa le at Broo ks since [ 900 beca me all
the rage fo r wo men bu yers. At $8 each, Broo ks coul dn 't stock
eno ugh of them.

As previous ch<l pters have no ted , Brooks had never catered to
wom en custo mers and would retain this stubborn stance unti l
the Snenties. Listening to John C. Wood on the subject, onc
would thin k selling a shjrt to a lady threa tened th e very co re of
the orga ni zat io n: "In the end , after 1110nths o f soul -searching,
we resolved to risk a resty led pi nk shirt fo r wom en, but never
anythi ng else fo r women. We are defi nitely not in th e wom en's
clothing business. Thus far shall we go and no farther." Anothcr

THE EMEIlGEN C IO OFT H E IVY LE .-\ G UE LOOK 83

THE BROOKS WOMAN Brooks executive of the period referred to dOing"a more or less
und er -the-cowlter business" with 'Nomen, as if Brooks \"'ere
Brooks Brothers' strons identification dallying in the drug trade.
with men's clothing made them relucrant
to acknowledge how popular certain items At any rate, Brooks seemed more surprised than anyone that a
were with women - especially shirts and woman would want to buy their gar ments , when in fact many
Bermuda shorts. In the Fifi:ies, [he com- women quite frankly admired what men had always appreciated:
panyfinally decided to end this "under the Brooks clothing had better quality and stability than what they
counter" trade by ~fJering a limited selec- co uld pur chase elsev"here. Consequently, wom en tolerated
Brooks' idiosyncratic stodginess .They loved Brooks' Bermuda
iftion women's wear. shorts, so much so that the co mpany finally narrowed the waist-
band by two inches to accommodate the femal e figure. But there,
EXCLUSIVE, ATTRACTIVE ITEMS FOR WOMEN they dre\\' th e li ne : "The ~i pper in the front of the short remains
- if only to remind the wearer of her usurpation of male attire."
all taken from our own men's styles
WASH AND WEAR
\
In the Fifties, "convenience" becam e increasingly valued in ever y
aspect of living: Vegetables came frozen or canned, cakes came (
from mixes , and new applian ces simplifi ed life for every "modern"
homemaker. Refl ecting this trend, "wash-and-wear" clothing \
made of man-made fibers were already on th e market. Early ver-
sions, however, had yet to figure out how to provide wash-and- \
wearability without sacrifiCing the quality of th e cloth itse lf. By
'952 , however, DuPont, in combination with a domestic shirting I
mill, had developed a Dacron -and-cotton blend ed fiber capable
of the performance standards expected of a Brooks Brothers'
product. The two companies teamed up to create Brooks' revo-
lutionary "Brooksweave" dress shirt, which, after much testing,
went into stores in March 19S3. The shirt managed an heretofore
impossible combination: a garment witl1 the soft natural feel
and porosity of a regular cotton oxford "",hich was at the same
time qUick to dry ancl needed no press ing. "The Brooks\veave
shirt can be washed by hand at night, hWlg on a hanger soaking
wet, and be dry, fresh looking and ready to wear the next morn-
ing," crowed President Wood.

84 THE EMERGENCE OF THE IVY lEAGUE l OOK

WOMEN AND THE IVY
LEAGUE LOOK
In the Fifi.il!1, women were attracted to
more than jusr Brooks' pink shirts. As this
lassorstudent in her Brooks sweater iJlus-

oftralCS, the popularity the I,), Lcanue

Look on eastern collene campuses applied
to women as well.

THE EMERGENCE Of THE I VY LEAGUE LOOK 8f

answering some questions gbout The runaway success o f Brooks' wash-and -\·vear sh ir t, first
8ROOKSW EAVE* introduced in a white button-down version, inspired furth er
innovatio ns: Dacron and cotton broadcloth and evening shirts
our revolutiongry Qnd amazing new shirt a year later, soon followed by Brooksweave wash-and -wear suits
of blended ·Dacron and long s,gple cotton and sports\-vear. Again, Brooks hadn 't set out to pr~ve itself an
innovator, but mere ly meet the needs of its custom ers, who,
Q . I tI what way is it revo{l/tiollo,.y? refl ecting th e business boom of the Fifties, we re traveling much
A. I t is the first time Ihe soft fcd of colton and th c rmgic more often. For th e Brooks custom er, a high-q uality wash-and-
wear suit was a godsend.
qualities of Dacron have been combined in a shirt.
In l eisur~ wear, the middl e of the decade saw the co mpany
BROOKSWEAVE Q. What are Dacron's magic qllalities? introdu ce Brooks flann el, a speCially woven lightweight flannel
for sport shirts, tartan c~l orings in str ipes for shirts and sport
The demandJor easier clOlhino nwinre- A. Thanks to Dacron, the shi rt launders e ~ si l y and drys jackets, Argyll socks, and a 'whimsical "Kil t jacket," a shorte r
nonce a rell' in popularity tiurino the sport jacket to wear w ith Bermuda sho rts.
FifcieI. While Brooks Brothers SOli' (his in 6 to 8 hours., .(l1Id it requirCl 110 prcsiing.
as a need fa be mel, il lI'ould be done in "BROOKS BROTHER S
a way so as nOlIO compromise qualily. Q. H ow is it larllldered? ME ANS SOME THI NG S P EC I A L "
The answer was Brooksll"eol'c - a blend
A. \Ve recommend hand-laundering, but it can also be Throughout the decade, President Wood continued to fine-tune
ifDacron and COllon which yielded every element of the business until it humm ed like a Bentl ey.
laundered commercially. ' Lucki ly ror the com pany, it was still Brooks ' Bentley, with Wood
a sqfi shirt thor \ros e0-9' 10 boch wear the pri Vil eged driver. W ith many more \var veterans joining th e
and wash. Q. Why is cattail blellded w ith Dacroll? organi zation, Wood made sur e these new arri va ls understood
A. The cotton contcnt makes Brooks we~ve porom and the uniqu eness of the company which, for many of them, wou ld
be their li fe's vmrk. In 1951, Brooks Brothers produced a train-
eomfortab le ... and gives it the appearance Olen like. ing film ca ll ed "Own Make," which deta il ed how Brooks' role
as manufacturer affected ever y aspect of the business. Wood
Q. How does it wear? oversaw every detail, down to scripting new shot sequences and
A. It will give. unusua lly long wcaT, and is therefore additional visua ls even after filming was underway. Wood, in
fact, appears in the opening of the fi lm , talking to his secretary:
economical as well as practical.
Secretar y:"Everyone knows that being conn ected with Brooks
The shirt itst::lf is made in our workrooms on Otlr famous Brothers means something special - but it's a little hard to
button-down collar styl e. Brooksweavc is a world-wide realize just how speCial when you don 't live near enough to visit
exclusiveof Brooks Brothers. the factories."

In'f.L·hit~1 wi,h iillgkcujJs, siw 14-3214 17 Yl -36, $12.50

UlAlLlSHlD 181'

~~cfli}A6JY/'

Cc:a;:~ =K.-.~j-j=M-J ~--~~-=~

Il:iIm's J,!'urnishings,li\!IIIS If ~ho es

146 MADISON AVENUE, COR, 44TH ST., NEW' YORK 17, N, Y.

111 IIROADWA\', NEW YORK 6, N. 'I. (
805TO)<l • CHICAGO ' LOS ANGELES ' SAN fR..\NC t~CO
· n . !. ,", ....ob....... 10 a I"'d.· ... ,~ "f a..,..,b lra!~.". I•••

86 THE EMERG ENCE OF T HE IVY LEAGUE LOOK

Mr. Wood: "Well, since we can't bring them all to New York to
see fo r themselves, I think it's a good id ea to try bringing New
York to them."

Th e fi lm 's narrati on makes its message quite clear: "Those of us public rela tions program, an area of the business which earlier A CHI CAGO STOR E
who are fa miliar w ith the hi story of almost a century and a half internal docum ents referred to as "infrequ ent" and "perful1 c-
during whi ch we have maintained unbroken leadership among tory.'T o Wood's mind, a comprehensive PR and adver t iSing John C. ll00ds strafenic planning, public
Ameri can clothi ers of good taste. know what 'ow n make ' means strategy would strengthen Brooks' national identity and thereby
in terms of obtaining the best material, cutti ng them according provide a key dri ver for fur the r expansion. After opening the rc.lat.ions and advenisins .urafelV'
to our own disti ncti ve designs, and applying the most ex pert Bosto n store in 1928, Brooks waited until '939 to establish small s/'renot.hened Brooks DrOlhcrs' national
work man ship and detailing.This is the key to our ex istence , and showrooms in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Wartime and new
to o ur success, as an institution. It is so mething we want ever y- ownership required a furth er hiatus before Brooks estab lished rifidentif)'. This spurred til.: openins the
one in o ur o rganizati on to appreciate." Wood knew that an edu - its nex t branch - Chicago in ]9)0. Thereafter, the company
cated customer almost invariabl y resulted in a li fctirn e custo mer, maintained its custo maril y carefu l expansion regimen, opening ChJcaoostorc in 1950. and set the Sta8'"
and that the edu cational process depend ed upon an info rm ed a Full-s ized San Francisco sto re in ' 959. fo ll owed by Pittsburgh J orJurthcr expansion in tile Sinics.
sta Ff. Without an eye educated to Brooks'b uil t-in , three-dim en- a year later, and a full -service Los Angeles branch in 1964 .
sional quality, a Broo ks garment could look like its many less
worthy im itations. By the end of the decade, Wood's rigorous leadership and deep
understanding of the o rganization enabl ed Brooks to think
While many of Brooks' staff would have found such info r matio n more comprehensively and strategicaUy abou t itself as a busi-
new to them. more than a handful needed no reminder of Brooks' ness.W hil e the company's core valu es remained Wlchanged , it
her itage at aU:They were already part of it. In 19H, Brooks became at the same time more conscious of business necessity
Brothers had just over 1000 employees. Of them. 29 co uld claim - something \"hi ch wou ld hel p it immensely as it confronted
between 40 and 50 years of ser vice, 14 between SO and 60 years,
and o ne memb er, D. W. Guiry, had been with Brooks Brothers the "love beads and sandals" world of the Sixties. i@
fo r 62 years. (The record continu es to be held by Horati o Kiernan,
who ser ved the firm 67 years, fo\lO\ved close ly by salesman
extraordinaire Joe Mancini, at 66.)

WESTWARD Ho

Perhaps Wood's greatest contribut ion to the organi7..ation was
his emphaSiS on strategic thinking and plann ing. heretofore a
practice so mewhat underrated in Brooks' cul ture. O ne notable
exa mple was Wood's focused and systematic adverti sing an d

THE EMERGI:ONCf. Of T H E IVY LEAGUE LOOK 87

THE CUSTOMER AND THE SALESMAN

of"The relationship between a salesman and a reaular customer is one the
ofmost notable - indeed Ieaendary - featu res Brooks Brothers."

- Georae Plimpton

The preternaturally understated Brooks Brothers has never been ways literally true: Many of the sales for ce joined as young men
much for heroics. But if there's a true hero w ithin the organiza-
tion , it would be Joe Mancini and the many other veteran sales after Wo rld War n and remained thro ugh the Eighti es. Regular
associates like him , who have provided the glue which has held
the company together over the generations. Since April 7, 1818, custom ers are called Ileus." They ar e the ones who com e in and
Henry Sands Brooks knew that providing quality clothing was ask to "see you ," a particular sales clerk, by name. Sales clerks
merely the first step toward ensuring the store's success. The final return the devotion by noting ever y detail of their custo mers'
- and definitive - moment occurred between the learned and sizes, peccadilloes, and sartorial prefer ences in black , leather-
genial sal esman and the satisfied custom er. For examp le, onc of bound books. (Gianni Agnelli , the former scion of the Fiat empire,
Mr. Mancini 's "pro udest m om ents was during New York City's bought from Brooks only once a year, butTom Davis, his sales-
1965 power blackout, when the store went dark , and ever yone man , can recite Agnelli 's sizes off the to p of his head .) Those
evacuated . Everyone, that is, except Mr. Mancini and a fussy client, "CUs" are valuabl e relationships. "During a sale, it was all 'see
who chose two sui ts by the glow of a cigarette lighter." O f such yous,'" said Mancini. "I wouldn 't see a stranger unti l the fourth
m om ents, legends are mad e. day." The payoff wasn 't money, but pride in one 's wo rk : Until
recently salesm en worked on a straight salar y. (O r, as The New
The traditional centrality of the Brooks ' sal es associate deri ves Yorker put it in 1938 :"The salesm en are paid straight salar ies ...
from his unique role within the company. A Brooks Brothers' their orders are to play the partstraight, no swank being allowed .")
organizational chart fro m any peri od placed the preSident at the
top and the salesm an, well , som ewhere below the middl e. But "In the o ld days, you had your banker, your broker, and your
that linearity doesn 't reflect how the company thou8ht.To cap- clothing sale~man ," noted a salesman, who went on to tell a
ture that , one needs circles, not tidy vertical lines. Everything stor y o f one of his custom ers who had left hj s wallet in hi s o ffi ce
radiated from the customer.The sales associate a:Iways stood in the and needed r eady cash. Finding himself near the flagship sto re,
center of the ci rcle - right next to the customer - because he neither he no r the salesman found it odd when he sto pped by
knew the custom er best . the stor e for a qUick loan . Such familiarity also breed s a certain
license. A stor y is told abo ut a man who once b rought in a
Though the salesman and custom er may have come from differ- 30-year -o ld derby to be renovated. He wandered through the
ent walks of life, they held one thing in common : Brooks. "Ther e hat departm ent , peering intently at each salesman . Finally, he
was almost a rule," noted one sales veteran ."The custom ers always hailed one. "You 're the man w ho sold me this derby w hen I was
came back and the salesman stayed for life." This was in m any demobilized back in 1919," he said. "Have it spruced up a bi t,
won 't you?"

8 8 T H E EMER GE N CE OFT H E I VY LEAG U E LOO K

- -I I T~'u[~ff.vd~b"
__ - -.....-tiA_*,"* ""

,

THE EM ER.GEN C E OFT H£ IV Y LEAGUE LOOK! 89

NOT JUST A BUSINESS, BUT A FRIEND

THE OLDEST INSTITUTI ON of its kind, perhaps, in the United States,
it is natural that Brooks Brothers has developed a personality so dis-

}\

tinct .. .and to thousands of men and boys all over the country, so
individual and so pleasing . .. that a great many people have come .to regard
us, not merely as a business, but more as a lifelong family friend.

In one form or another. .. from short pants to long trousers, from battered
corduroys to striped worsteds, and from Eton collars to Ascots .. .we've quite
literally attended the christenings, schoolboy beginnings, graduations, bach-
elor dinners, weddings, golden anniversaries (and everyday occasions) of
families for generations. We have uniformed their young men (and our own)
as American Army and Naval Officers since 18 18. ViTe have known the great,
great, grandfathers of boys who will outfit for school here this Spring ... just
as well as we hope to know the great, great, grandsons of the new friends who
are opening accounts for the first time with us today.

Customer relationships like these aren't the ordinary, perfunctory, com-
mercial sort of thing at all. They are friendships ! And like any friendshi p
worthy of the name, they demand more than ordinary loyalty and depend-
ability and responsibility. A friend is one you can coullt on always to do the
very best he can to help you (and if he knows his business, he may be very
helpful) .. .like Brooks Brothers.

ESTABLISHED 1818

OffiCERS' UN I FORMS, FURNISH INGS AND ACCESSORIES
346 MADISON AVENUE, COR. 44TH ST., NEW YORK 17, N. Y.
46 N EWBURY, COR. BERKELEY STREET, BOSTON 16, MASS.

SAN FRANCISCO· LOS ANGELES

, EMF.~CEN C E!90 THE Of THE I VY LEAGU E LOO K

If one asked any Brooks long-time salesman, he 'would undoubt- Th at was probably an overstatement, because no salespe rson in
edly agree that creating those lasting relationships isn't always any retail enterprise knew as much about what he was selling as
easy. The Brooks customer is, in many ways) as unique in habits
and disposition as the company itself. "Most of my customers are the traditional Brooks salesman. Virtually, none of them started
creatures ofhabit,U one salesm an noted, which decrees that they
are notoriously resistant to change.Years ago, one elderly customer in sales, but worked their way lip through jobs which demanded
was angered when Brooks Brothers started putting zippers on hands -on exposure to Brooks products . In [926, 14 -year-old
trousers. Brooks satisfied him by special-ordering his pants with Joe Mancini started at Brooks working alongSide his father in the
a button fly. One loyal Brooks Brothers customer "felt slightly tailor shop for $[3 a week. (That sam e year he bought his first
alarmed about some changes he noticed in the Brothers' famous Brooks Brothers suit for S7.50 during an employee sample sale.
button-down shirts. They seemed, r emembers the Connecticut At 90, he still wears nothing but Brooks, and claims to have
comm uter, to be cut slightly less full. To casual observers, these never even set foot in another men's cloth ing store.) Others
might seem like slight adjustm ents. But to a Brooks Brothers spent as much as IS or more years stocking or filling mail orders
aficionado ... they marked the beginning of the end. He r ushed before being invited to the sales floor. Me ntorship also played a
out and bought 200 of the o ld- style shirts in one day. ' I ",'anted strong part in the education of a young sa les associate. Tom Davis,
to be sure I'd have them for the r est of my life.'" who started in 1967, hung on the words of salesman Jolmny Deere,
,vho had started with Brooks the year before the store moved to
As the stories above illustrate, the typical Brooks regular is some- Madison Avenue in 19 15. "IFthey sa\\" yOll \vanted to learn, they'd
thing of a hou nd fo r consistency.This is one reason why for year s tell you what you needed to know," said Tom. "Each buyer would
the company built its stores to look the same and car ry the same have product knowl edge and you were req uired to know it too,
items, no matter ,""here it was located. As Frank Reilly, the Brooks even if you \veren't in that department, like what kind of button
president in the Eighties, once claimed , '''vVe don 't sell ten-gallon goes on a certa in bl a:l.er and why. They taught m e things no one
hats, even in Texas. Not everybody wants to be a cO\vboy." would think I needed to know, li ke testing the quali ty of ,'mol by
touch and smelL"
What the Brooks customer v,,·ants to be is well dressed. And to
achieve that end, he was will ing to be educated. And the sales- And there's no better education than taking the product for
man often performed t he ro le of professor of clothing. Mancini a test drive. One salesman, after the introduction of the new
once noted, "They depended on our advice. Brooks clothes didn't wash-and-wear shirt in the Fifties, wore the same shirt e,·ery day
look that good until they were worn, and better after th ey \-ver e for a year, because, he cla imed, he "wanted to make sure it really
worn for five years. It \vas through us that the customer und er- washed and reaUy wore." They were, li ke their customers,
stood the quality of what they ,,,ere buying." But once the customer a dogged lot.
latched onto this concept, they were renowned scho lars.
"Customers used to often com e in asking for items by number
-in shoes, they woul d wanta 770 or a 763, or they'd say, '1
need six # 10 shirts' or ' a gray fl annel #1' .They knew as much
about our products as we did."

TilE EMERGENCE OF THE IVY I.EAGUE I.OOK 91

GENEI{ATIONS

STYLE

ifAn illustrated history Brooks Brothers style since 1818

Brooks establishes hi s emporium Apri l 7, and The grow ing popu larity of Brooks Brothers' Brooks Brothers advertises ready- to-wear
earns early recognition for fin e custom t,li - ready-to-wear clothing firmly establishes clothing for "the Califo rnia trade." Elias
loring, such as gentlemen 's tailcoats and Brooks as one of the country's most impor- Howe patents a sewing machine in [846,
other day and evening wear. In addition, he tant and influential innovators in the clothing w hich marks the beginning of the Industrial
soon gains praise as a pioneer in the ready- trade. As well as cater ing to the carriage Revolution in the American clothing indus-
made clothing business . Brooks prambes trade, Brooks now re presents an upper mid- try. In [851, Brooks Brothers opens a large
(according to an adver tisement in the Mamina d le class clientele. Men are now beginning to empor ium at Broadway and Grand Street s.
Courier) "to have on hand a very large stock wcar frock coats for day wear, replacing the Short jackets and capes arc na\v being worn
of ready- made clothing just manufactured tail coat, which is rescncd for evening wear. for daywear, particularly in the summer.
with a due regard to fashion, and e mbraci ng
all the various styles of the day." The impor-
tant phrase "stock of ready-made clothing"
Signals the beginning of the modern store.

1900

Brooks Brothers makes uniforms for the By 1915 the clothing trade will be the coun- The ideal American male is a youthfu l, stylish The economic free- fall that began in
Union Ar my. Manufactu ring time is cut in try's third largest industry, out ranked only and casual. During the week he wears two Septembcr 1919 continues to engulf the
halfby the use of machines, and Brooks can by steel and oil. More Americans now have and three-piece natural shouldered SUilS. nation and the world . By 1934 EsqUire maga-
now make a first-rate overcoat in three days leisure time to enj oy entertainment and Weekends call for tennis flannel s and a blazer zine is promoting new spring fashions with
instead of the six re'luired by manual labor. summer holidays become common for a or bright sweater. Earlier in the century, the explanation that, "Since a good appear.
The Broadway and Grand store becomes the growing midd le-class. Brooks begins to Brook5 introduce5 the English "wait" coat, ance is about all that is left to the capitalist
principal place of business for the firm dur- o ffer complete lines of leisure and sporting a long belted coat originally worn between anyway, why not go ahead and enjoy it?"
ing the Civil War years, and it was from this apparel, adopting the fabri cs and stylings of chukkars at polo matches. This sporty camel Brooks introduccslightweight tailoring in
store that Abraham Lincoln ordered his frock golfers and sportsmen in Great Britain. For hair garment - soon to be known as the cotton seersucker, tropical worsteds, and
coats - one of which he was wearing when the businessman, Brooks introduces its "nat· "polo coat"- becomes the rage on college rayon (the fi rst o f the synthetiCfibers). These
he is assassinated in April 186S. ural look" sack suit.The store soon introduces campuses during the RoaringTwentic.'I. new fabr ics weigh a mere 8 ounces per yard
their button-down collar "Polo Shirt" in The Brooks' catalogue now includes casual, or less, compared to previous summer fab-
several fabri cs. This innovative oxford cloth sporty items that become classics: white r ics weighing up to 13 ounces , thus red ucing
button-down shirt, like the sack suit, becomes buckskin oxfords and canvas tennis shoes, the weight of a summer suit from over four
part of Brooks' heritage. driving and golf glo\"es, Panama hats, Shetland pounds to less than three.
sweaters, tweed hacking jackets and cor-
duroy shooting coats.

The gray flannel suit becomes the uniform A new style of casual, conser vative dress The Age of the Menswear DeSigner is in full Italian designers enter the US market with a
of choice for businessmen . American writers defines the country: khakis, Shetland crew· throttle, with a new sartorial flamboyance loose, flowing Silhouette using unisex rabrics
Mary McCarthy, John Cheever and John necks, and button-down shirts set the tone. fo llowing in the wake of the London Mod ror tailored clothing. Brooks introduces a
O'Hara fam iliarize the world with the image A new era of youthful elegance arrives Look, Nehru suits, brocaded Edwardian Women's Department in 1975, aimed at the
of the Eastern Establishment Brooks Brothers when 43-year-old John Fitzgerald Kennedy jackets, Chelsea boots, fl owered shirts, bell emel'ging profeSSiona l woman. Th~ range of
man. The Fifties become the decade of new is inaugurated President . Campus style bottomed trousers, and other exuberances. clothing includes tailored business wear and
synthetic"miracle" fabrics that are lightweight, predominates, with the corporate "Man in Brooks responds by int rodUcing its new sports wcar for the contell1 porary woman ,
wrinkl e resistant, and easily laundered. The the Gray Flannel Suit" now being replaced "Brooksgate"linc for the entry-level customer. who wi ll no longer havc to shop in the Boy's
"Brooks Brothers Look" - a natural-shoul- by the more casual dress: penny loafers, Brooksgate offers a slimmer silhouette, a Department for button-downs, Bermuda
dered gray flannel suit, oxford button-down Argyle socks, and tartan plaid sportcoats slightly suppressed waist on its two·button shorts, Shetland crewnecks, and ribbon belts.
shirt, and repp-striped tie - rises to major and shirts .The followi ng year Brooks opens coat suits, wider lapels, and a subdued Rare
fashion impor tance on Madison Avenue and its "University Shop" for the younger man to its trousers.These suits are introduced
college campuses. DuPont chooses Brooks just beginning his career and in need of less in a newall-worsted stretch rabric, called
Brothers to develop a wash-and· wear shirt- expensive but still classic clothing. BrooksEase, and a new knitted suiting rabric
ing fab ric utilizing its trademarked Dacron called Brooksknit, a polycster-worsted blend .
polyester fibe r. Brooks introduces the
Brookswea\'c"wash·and-wear shirt" in 1951.

1979 1992 2003

The Disco Era of pastel pol)"cster suits is a A slock market tumble docsn't impede the "Casual Fridays" become casual everydays at Thc"dot.bomb" of the late Nine ties, fo llowed
tTend with the young, but Baby Boomers go new breed o("Young Urban Professionals" som e businesses, whose employees abandon by a sustained econo mic downturn and a
ofT to work in traditionally tailored clothes. from ex perimenting with expensive, widc- the suit and tic in favor of T-shirts, jeans, worldwide war on terrorism pl'Ompt a drastic
The United States is now an international shouldered suits from Europe. Europe soon and hype r -designed sports shoes. The casual change in the mood ofAmerica. Businesses
marketplace where m en dress in a variety of grows ti red of this over -sized silhouette and trend emphaSizes that most businessmen adopt a more serious de m eano r and presen-
American, British, and Italian silhouettes. begins to manufacture a garment modeled arc really interested in more comfo rt, easy tation. "Casual Fridays" arc te mpered by this
Broo ks Brothers opens its fir st international on the original Brook.s Sack Suit Number maintenancc, and varicty in their dress. new reality, and m o re o rganizatio ns return
store in Tokyo.The h'y League look becomes One. Italian shirtmakers become enamored Brooks Bro thers ' new BrooksEase suits of to a more traditional dress code.The"new"
the biggest fashion trend in Japan. A year with the button-down collar, introduced virtually seasonless loa-percent wool stretch is no lo nge r awarded automatic respect as
later the Brooks Look becomes a literary by Brooks Brothe rs almost 100 years earlier. fabri c arc a boon to the traveling business- America 's attention refocuses o n durable
phenomenon with the publication of 'The Brooks continues to sell its Sack Suit Number man . Brooks also initiates a Wardrobe concept values and heritage. Broo ks Brothe rs is pur-
Preppy Handbook." One with its soft chest and natural shoulders, program o f manufucturing and marketing .!>llits chased by Re tail Brand Alliance in late 2001.
and its softly ro lled "Polo" button-down as separates, a technology whic h will soon be The 18r-year-old merchant immediately
shirt.Thought too nonchalant for interna- imitated by many manufacture rs and retailers. begins a re turn to its heritage in classic
tional acceptance just a few years prior, the Ame rican cloth ing and custome rs fi nd hig h-
Brooks Brothers approach to business dress quality sui ts , shirts and tics back at the core
- pro priety, understated elegance and of the business.
comfort - is fast becoming a global fa shio n
statement, and the most imitated look in
the world.

,

"1~I'l:1 I

111\11

• .:'::::: ... .... . .._4 .... ....... . ,..

. ID1ft .......

..

1f!1. llili!i nWIf

ALWA YS IN FASHION

BROOKS BROTHERS
INTRODUCES BROOKSGATE

'fii

FOR THE UNIVERSITY MAN
casual Odd Trousers

of corduroy in many colorings

and other (... U"'\ ..... ' ..atterns

III suit tailored
In Brooksgate
lat. vest and

.. .. ... $150*

de exclusively

01. A comfort-

with slash

...... . $165 *

nail check is
Isuit from our
Made on our
- brown. Coat.

.. ... .. $135·

j worsted is
l Brooksgate
e dark grey or
Jsers . $170*

id shades of
nnel .. $170·
ticking stripe
,d sh irts made
te model with
long sleeves.
)w on white

V2, sleeves 32

.. .. ... ... .$12

r .h

ChflftC/L

-5~

CHALLENGED by TRENDINESS

BROOKS BROTHERS

s

JACK & J ACKIE BROOKS BROT H ERS PERFECTION THE ESOTER IC

WORLD OF BROOKS FASH I O N YOU CAN TELL BY WHAT PEOPLE

A RE WEARING W H ETHER THEY'RE T H E K I N D YOU'D LIKE TO TALK TO

LOVE-BEAD - AND -SAN DAL SET UNIVERSITY S HOP BROOKSGATE

THE DIZZY I NG PUSH SHOULDERWARD NEW I S SCARCELY NEW BEFORE

IT 'S OLD PRES S URES FROM ALL SI DES BY I GNORING TRENDS, BROOKS

BROTHERS HA S GO NE ON SE T TING THEM WOMEN 'S DEPARTMEN T

BURUKKSU BURAZAZ U TOKYO BROOKS BROTHER S HAS BEEN MY LIFE

IT 'S ALL ABOUT T HE CLOTHING

CHALLENGED BY TRENDINESS 95

A merican history in the Sixties and Seventies follows an unpredictable
arc that begins in coherence and optimism and ends in recession and
social fragmentation. In 1960, a strong and confident America elected

43-year-old John F. Kennedy to the White House. Kennedy stared down

Khrushchev's missiles off the Cuban coast, backed an accelerated space program

that launched American aspiration toward a New Frontier, and supported a Civil

Rights Movement that promised hope for a more inclusive America. While leading

America in radically new directions, the President and his First Lady - "Jack and

Jackie" - also represented the last vestiges of America's post-war infatuation

with elegance. Thus, the Kennedy era served in many ways as a coherent bridge

between the best ofAmerica's past and the promise of an even greater future.

Therefore, Kennedy's assassination in 1963 brought more than shock and tragedy
-American confidence in itself as a coherent, rational society perhaps vanished
in Dallas forever. The rapidly escalating Vietnam War would divide America yet
further, transforming hope and expectation into skepticism and despair.We were
still the great "can do" society, but were we doing the right thing?

Throughout the Sixties, television gave these dynamics a very public face. More
than ever, clothing defined who you were and where you stood in the public
debate. Describing Jack Kennedy in 1960, The New York Times could say without
irony: "Though visibly exhausted from a long day in the Senate, he walked to the

i,,9 6 CHALLENGED BY TRENDINESS

CHALLENGED BY TRENDINESS 97

A VARIATION ON NO . 1 DISTINCTIVELY BROOKS
The Brooks Brothers two -button Nu mber
7i1'o jacketJcawred slioht Jcl'iariom' This Fall - after almost two years
yom irs predeccssor. the Number J, LO of careful research and develop-
accommoclore those cw:tomers with"broader, m.ent - we are introducing a new
squarer shoulders andjuller chest." two-button style in our own make
ready-made clothing. This good-
looking suit is a variation of our I
famous No. 1 model. and is de-
signed for the considerable number I
of present and potential Brooks
Brothers customers who have
broader. squarer shoulders and
fuller chest than average.

Specifically. the two-button jacket
is more suppressed at the waist
and sIllaller over the hips ... the
trousers , too, are cut somewhat
smaller in the waist and seat.
The result is a suit that is .dis-
tinctively Brooks in quality. workmanship and taste . . . but
with trimmer lines and a more tailored appearance than has
been available heretofore. We believe it will win hundreds
of new friends for us ... men who desired Brooks Brothers
quality and tailoring. but found it difficult. if not impossible.
to b e fitted without major alterations.

The suits will be featured in a choice of attractive unfinished
and clear-finished worsteds in gr eys . blues and fancy pat-
terns .. . and in navy serge or oxford grey flannel. .. and will
be priced from $135.

98 CH ALLENGE D BY T REND I N ESS

floor, a model of Brooks Brother s perfection ...." That string of Although the NmnberTwo took two years to develop, the suit
words - I'Brooks Brothers perfection" - cap tured Kennedy in was nonetheless a variant on the Number One and clearly witlun
the moment, and discerning readers of the period understood Brooks' traditional mold. As the Sixti es marched toward the
and approved of all the impli catio ns. Seventies, tradition of any kind became suspect, and Brooks
Brothers would be bombarded from all si des. One might write
A decade later, the cu ltural presumptions undedying this state- off the love-bead-and-sandal set as a lost cause, but not those
m ent had been shattered by war and Watergate. In the 197 8 individuals who were gravitating toward more tailored and
gubernatorial election in Pennsylvania , for exam pl e, Ri chard modish Continental deSigns, and the hipper (and t11ankfully shor t-
Thornburgh was attacked for hi s Brooks Brothers clothes, losing lived) extravagances of the Nehru jacket and leisure suit, too often
votes to a chall enger famous for campaigning in shirtsleeves. accented by ties resembling a Jackson Pollack on a bed sheet.
Throughout much of these two decades, wearing Brooks meant
you were part of the "Military I Industrial Establishment." Ashbel Despite these changes in taste, Brooks stuck to what it did best
T. "Vall, the last of the Brooks family to work for the company, - its most popular item during the period remained its oxford
once stated, "You can tell by what p eople are wearing whether button-down shirt - and ign ored the fact that so much interest
they're the kind you 'd like to talk to." For much of the Sixties and focused on other styles and clothiers. While Brooks'traditional
Seventies, people weren't talking to each other very nicely at buyer remained satisfied with his dependable Brooks uniform,
all, and those lines were often delineated through dress. Brooks Ius son was increasingly likely to drop his clothing dollars else-
Brothers stood quite firmly on one sid e of the sartorial argument, where. Brooks' stubborn and som ewhat arrogant preSident,
and not the most popular one at that. It was no coincidence that John C. Wood, seemed co nvin ced he cou ld force Sonny Jim into
a 19 76 newspaper article could refer to "the esoteric world of sartorial complian ce. But at the height of the Youth Culture,
Brooks fashion."
Sonny Jim had rus own ideas, and the Univers ity Shop, Brooks'
PRES SURES FROM ALL SIDES
entry-level apparell.ine, was creatively und ernourished and
Early in his presidency, Kennedy, often pictured playing touch woefully unattl·active to the young shopper with sideburn s
football with the family at Hyannisport, initiated a national reaching his ja\'v line.
physical fitness program. Americans - or at least some of them
~ got in shap e. Those sit-ups and push-ups and other "-ups" BROOKSGATE
made Brooks' Number One suit an awkward fit without consid -
erable alterations. Reflecting Kennedy's youthful sty lishness, Finally, in the early Seventies, some younger executives convinced
Brooks Brothers introduced their new UN umber Two" in 1961 . Brooks' leaderslup to abandon University Shop altogether and
The two-button NumberTwo - with its jackets suppressed develop a new ensemble reflecting more youthful styling within
at the ,"vaist and trousers cut somewhat smaller in the waist and a fitted silhouette. This nev,' "Brooksgate" line featured a lov,rer
seat - was deSigned for a man who wanted to look like he cut, a darted two-button suit with longer shirts, wider lapels
knew his way around a gym. and deeper center vents, blazers with side venting, a slight flare
to the pants, and yes, even a leisure suit. By the mid-Seventies,
Brooksgate was a hugely success ful departm ent, responsible for

CHALLENGED BY TRENDINESS 99

T

--~----1

•

ANDY WARHOL

BROOKS BROTHERS CUSTOMEK
K NOWN TO WEAR:

REFLECTING HIS ROOTS IN T HE ADVERTISING INDUSTRY, WARHOL PREFERRED BROOKS' WHITE BUTTON-DOWN OXFORD SHIRT
BROOKS BROTHERS WHITE OXFORD SHIR T N9 10

AN DY WA R H 0 L, a founder of the pop art movement of the Sixties,
is considered one o f the most important American artists of the 20th century.

Photo court~')· of Timothy Greenfield ·S.nden

BR OO K SGATE OUR MID·WEIGHT WORSTED .
By the mid-Sel'enties Brooks Brothers' the suit for most any season
newline, Brooksoate, named to suooest,
as one executive noted, "the entrance into This exclusive Brooksgate suit will serve you comfort-
the company," was a hUBely successful
department. ably on all but the warmest Summer; days. Tailored on

102 CHAI.I.ENGED BY T H. ENOINESS our 3-button, more-fitted model of a fine mid-weight

(IO-ounce) worsted, it comes in pin stripes of navy or

grey; and Glenurquhart plaids of olive, grey or brown.

Coat and trousers. $145

Use YOllr 8rOQks BTfJtlt~rs tltarg~ "(("Ifllt or II IIIcr;((1IJ E;,,·prtss.

u rA'U SKID UI.

.........I.D".t.....~.c.....,..1..1."
.,",,'~'Oll H6 .\MOISOS AVE.. COR. H,bST., SEW YORK, />;, 1: 100 17
III BROAO\\',W, XEW rORK, :>. I~ 10 00'
,...... ~"
""'~ 696 WfUTE PLAIXS ROAD, SCARSO,\L[, X,I: 10 51 1

w""'~"""'."'c.

over 30 percent of Brooks'business and the driver behind much "NEW IS SCARCELY NEW BEFORE IT 'S OLD"
of Brooks' clothing innovation during the period. Sales of
Brooksgate fitted shirts grew sevenfold in its first 14 months. In 1909, a Brooks' -published booklet entitled "Chronicles"
Not long after the Brooksgate HarrisTweed coat made the front dismissed faddishness with a benign sneer, claiming "the new is
page of The New York Times Fashion Magazine, the Madison Avenue scarcely new before it's o ld." This dictum remained as viable 70
store alone sold 62 in one day. (Unfortunately, the Brooksgate years later, when taste began to turn against the extremities of
label arrived in stores within a few weeks ofWatergate. Actually, the Continental look. Searching for a ne\" alternative, what did
the name had been chosen months before, to suggest, as one shoppers "discover"? Brooks Brothers. "Brooks has endured the
executive noted, "the entrance into the company." Brooks spent recent obsession with the European cut in men's wear. While.
fortunes trying to disconnect the seemingly obvious connection.) some like their clo:?es pinche~ in and padded out to produce a
sort of faux hourglass silhouette, Brooks held the line. And now
Brooksgate provided a revitalized entry level line to complement
the highest-end "Makers" offerings and the mid-range "346" that the trend is back to the natural shoulder vested look, the
apparel. While Brooksgate was clearly the most contemporary
in deSign, it was hardly radical. During the Seventies, for instance, company is vindicated."
even mainstream clothiers were placing lapels at seven inches
wide. Brooks balked. In 1977, a newspaper commented, "When A 1978 article in Vogue further details this ironic reversal:
Brooks finally decided to widen [their lapels], they did it with "European men, it used to be said, like to 'feel' the clothes they
a restraint that makes the movement of glaciers seem hasty and wore. Often cut high in the armholes and nipped in at the waist,
ill-considered .... In 1962, the Brooks standard lapel was three in trousers cut high in the crotch and tight in the butt, a man
inches wide . In 1963, it expanded to three and an eighth; by in a European-cut suit was very much aware that he was inside
196r, it had grown to three and a quarter, and went as far as three something .... But now it seems that European men and
and a half in 1969. Sin ce then, th e dizzying push shou ld erward European deSigners have discovered something Americans-
has continued, and the new stock at Brooks this fall can be found and especially Brooks Brothers - have long respected: comfort.
with lape ls a full four inches wide, haVing come to rest again In London, on Savile Row, from whence Brooks Brothers took
after a net increase of one inch in fifteen years." its first cues ... the talk is also of Brooks Brothers, as though
Brooks Brothers represented some sort of recent phenomenon
.... By ignoring trends, Brooks Brothers has gone on setting them."

If intransigence can be called a core value, it would rank among As noted in earlier chapters, women had always found particular
Brooks' Top Ten. For most other clothiers, such a glacial place Brooks items attractive and had conducted an "under the counter"
would have put them out of business, but Brooks Brothers, at business with the company for decades. Despite the company's
a century and a half old, had seen many challenging trends almost pathological reluctance to acknowledge this relationship,
come and go. While by the Sixties Wood's tight autocracy had Brooks Brothers finally succumbed to the obvious by establishing
exacerbated Brooks' tendency toward insularity, the success of a Women's Department in t9 7S. Women were entering business
Brooksgate reminded the company that it needed to focus on at a rapid rate and needed the kind of quality and traditional
all potential customers and not just the elders of the fraternity.

CHAI.I.ENGED BYTRENDINESS 103

designs which their male counterparts had enjoyed for years. BURUKK S U BURAZAZU
The early success of their women's wear prompted the company
to issue their first women's catalog in 1980. "Burukksu Burazazun - that's "Brooks Brothers" in Japanese.
In addition to th e co mpany's rapid domestic ex pansion , Reilly
While adding this new department in the mid -Seventies, Brooks made the bold move to internationalize the brand by introducing
subtracted ano ther: In 1976, their "bespoke" or made-to -order Brooks to the Japanese market. In truth , Japan needed no intro-
suit department was disbanded , a decision which earned front- ductio n to the company: Japanese businessmen had been buying
page coverage in The Ne w York Times. Some customers registered large quantities of Brooks clothing in the Los Angeles and San
dismay. And while bespoke tailoring never accounted for much Francisco stores for years.The first Tokyo store opened in the Fall
of Brooks' business, doing away with such a fundamental service of 1979 and met with such immediate success that two more
was perhaps a mistake, particularly conSidering the resurgence were serving other areas of that city within five mo nths, and five
of interest in custom apparel the following decade. But the trutb add itional stores were introduced elsewhere in Japan during
was that ready-mad e suit technology had improved drasti cally, the foll ow ing tlu·ec years.
and the quality gap between a ready-made and custom-made suit
was becoming negligible. Further, by this time , most customers In establishing itself ill Japan , Brooks employed its usual methocli -
bad come to expect the consistency of the ready-made garment. cal approach. Tbe company partnered with Daiclo Worsted
Mills, In c., a trusted, high-quality manufacturer and retai.l er, to
OVERSEAS work o ut an effective joint-venture enterpr ise in which Brooks
Brothers wou ld supervi se the manufacture and selection of mer-
A further reason to drop the made-to-order suit di vision was chandise, with Daido responSible for personnel and sales training.
expansion. Brooks had traditionally alTered all ser vices and prod- Every decis io n had to be considered perhaps mo re carefull y
ucts at all stores, and under new CEO Frank Reilly (who assumed than in opening a domesti c branch because in many ways Brooks'
that position in 1974) , the company was about to set out o n a Japanese custo mer ,vas, and remains, far more t raditional than
huge expansion program . Broo ks si mply could not ensure that hi s American counterpart. Not only did the Japanese customer
quality made-to-ord er workmanship could be provided at all expect CJuaIil)'t they were also extremely knowl edgeable about
locations. AWashington, D.C. store had already opened in 1968, and infatuated with the Brooks brand. In temperament, ex plained
soon followed by St. Louis, Cincinnati and Houston. In all, one executi ve, they resembled "the Broo ks cllstomer of the Fifties."
Brooks Brothers would see th e number of stores double in the
last five years of the Seventies, from 13 to 26. The situation of The look of the stores matched that di sposition: "Behind its
some of these stores in shopping malls raised eyebrows (Wood gleam ing granite fa~ade on Aoyamo-Dori, a chi c shopping street
had adamantly refused to consider a Brooks in a maiJ), but ,vith in To kyo, its interiors are carpeted in blue w-ith mirrored walnut
the rapid rise of affiuent "edge cities" far from downtown loca- pillars and stocked with racks of pin-striped sui ts and oxfo rd cloth
tions, such a choice was not o nly necessary but wise. shirts. The Japanese Brooks Brothers 'is a little piece of America

104 CHA LLENGED BY TR EN DINESS

THE FIR ST BRO OKSGATE
CATALOG

Brooks Brothers' rraditional cow/oss ocson
flowrins its Brookssol.C line as ear~' as

sJ975 . Brooksaau s rawins popular;r)'

prompted the compan)' to produce (.I cara-
10[} e!{clusi l·c~'.for Brooksaarc in 1979-

The col'erifrharfi rsrcata/O[}. shawn here,

captures BrooksflOlt!'SJOCUs on thej"ounaer,
morefashion-corucious customer,

C H ALLEl'JCED MY TRENDIN ESS 10f

PUTTEES AND PITH HELMETS: NOT ALL THAT IS CLASSICAL SURVIVES

,

\

,

."

ifOne Brooks' little books. IIAero" (1910), comments, "It is our dozen deerstalker caps-the oJdjashioned cap with peaksJore and aft,
iftiffort always to be a little ahead the wants ojour customers -
ofwhich the averaae citizen has never seen except in pictures Sherlock
allVoys to arranae that they mayfind here much t.hat is unusual as
lVell as all that is usual." Brooks Brothers was understatina its devo- Holmes." Durina the Thinies, some Yale men were on a last-minute
tion to odd Barments and esoteric aear. Over the years, the company
ofshoppina trip to Brooks in search Class Day costumes when they
c1fered such thinas as 'hicketina kits," traveling rUBS, shawls and if ofnoticed Brooks' pith helmets. They wanted to know 250 them

mauds, imported bottle nests, ski boots, Scottish kilts, aaiters and could be supplied. Brooks had them in stock and did the business at

puttees, complete liveriesjor the manservant, as well as all th e nec- $3.50 each. In one cfBrooks' mostJamous anecdotes, alsofrom the

essary reBoliaJar "motoring." Such commitment ifsartorial esocerica ifThirt ies, a customer phoned to ask the store sold niahtcaps. The

'!.ff.pen pajd Reported The New Yorker in 1938, "Ie is a maUer salesperson calmly responded, "With or without a tassel, sir?"

jar really serious thought, however, that they can sell in a year six

106 CHALLENGED BY TRENDINESS

GO TNG TO EUROPE

63202 Chauffeur's Overcoat 1I11{)()J{S 11110'/'/1 f :/IS

8f;ruJ, tOT detailed Catalogm

57

BROOKS ' ECLECTIC OFFERINGS ,
66:101 Lun r heoll t;r.:UJ:~ T,'a. 11,. 5-
In addition to ItS mor~ moirurrtom
6ti!o I lI al IlQx('!II lift 111:1 P(J(·kt:t Ilnd IJ."lSkd.s kcls
apport! 11M!, Brooks 8rrnhus c1Jmd
GtilU-! J)rcs"illg {itlp FIuk.IIIi 66:f(P. l"oJdingSpirit 64i:11I 1 CIIIU I) Cook·
a surprising array cfmore unusual ittlTlS.
Ca"<-''1 fifi III I I'ilh·d &gs Lamp inK Oulfils
including cba'!ffiur's auiu (rop lifE),
sil boou (rop "shr). pimic kits (bottom Gliln.; " i t Ung Strld/Ot' drlttik-J Cull.liugIU
Semllur ,lrl(filni ('1I'(l10!J1I~
right). and ml.'l1's gorr.m (bottom lift). tiS

02

C HA LLENG ED BY TRENDIN £ SS 107