Brooks Brothers collapse is complete

It will NEVER be President.

Brooks' stuff used to be the shit, but like everything else, quality took a backseat to bigger profits.

Also, the preppy look died about 15 years ago. Nobody aspires to look like a WASP anymore, just classic southern belles like Miss Lindsey Graham. Gay men try, but they need to stop trying to make boat shoes a thing again.

Just finished reading a book about Lincoln’s 2nd inauguration & the author points out that Lincoln wore a new Brooks Brothers suit for the occasion.

Not that surprising. But, I will miss those good-looking preppies I remember from UVA business school. Damn, they were hot and often sexually fluid.

Men’s suits and ties have lost their appeal for years. Covid hasn’t helped.

I guess Vineyard will have to do....

Outside of banking and law offices, no one wears suits anymore. As a result, profits declined as suits have higher margins than most other clothing items. I remember getting fitted for a suit at Brooks Brothers once in my 20s. I felt like a grownup for the first time.

Sad news. I’m going to snap up some basics before they completely dribble down the drain.

I hope the Smith Brothers are okay. Love their warm apple pie cough drops.

I’ve been shopping at Brooks for most of my life, but in the past few years they’ve gotten rid of the clothes that made them unique. Everything is made in Malaysia, no iron, or made of stretch fabric. You can barely find anything worth buying there any more. Very sad.

Well the sisters are OK. Well not really one sister has a blister.

J Press goes from strength to strength.

R12. Agreed. J Press is the best. Paul Stuart still killing it

Paul Stuart - another favorite.

The Brooks no-iron shirts were great for business trips, but yes, no one wears suits anymore and the price then became an issue for most guys as in "why am I paying so much money for something I might wear twice a year when I already have two suits that fit and barely get worn."

The BB garment quality was rather poor in the past decade.

They are closing 51 stores out of 400, and are seeking bankruptcy protection — but not likely going out of business.

[quote] But unlike many retail trailblazers, Brooks Brothers is not buckling from debt leftover from a private equity-led leveraged buyout that left its owner unable to invest in the storied brand.

[quote] Instead, it is owned by its CEO, Claudio Del Vecchio. Del Vecchio, son of the founder of Italian eyewear giant Luxottica, has focused on restoring the brand’s quality since acquiring it from British retailer Marks & Spencer in 2001.

[quote] Those efforts appeared to have borne fruit. One senior banker who spoke to CNBC said he still wears the brand’s basics under his more expensive suits. He requested anonymity because he did not want to talk publicly about his basic wear.

The shame!!! To hear coworkers discuss my basic wear!!

Let’s hope they don’t close the store in DC! Actually let’s help them burn the store down in DC… In fact let’s take all the khaki pants in DC which is every single fucking person in the whole city and burn them in a pile in front of the White House.

[quote] Where is that from R17?

From the OP’s linked article.

First Lord & Taylor's closed, now Brooks Brothers is on life support. Where's a NYC gay supposed to shop?

Brooks Brothers is still going to be around for a very long time. It's a long established brand, a label....it's not a department store.

Love their cologne, Country Club!

This is sad to me.

I can remember my dad taking me to Brooks Brothers for my first "real" suit when I turned thirteen.

What others have said about Brooks' waning quality is true.

Word to the wise: If you want a good quality suit, find a local tailor and have him or her make it for you. My tailor charges $950.00 and up for a custom made suit, depending on the fabric. The difference between custom made (and even made to measure) versus off the rack is huge. Sure you can have an off the rack suit tailored but the fit is never as good as custom.

I remember asking my sister (who was in retail merchandising for Brighton for several years) why the Brooks Brothers store in the Jacksonville, FL airport was connected to the Brighton next door. She said they were both franchises and the owner liked the idea of couples who were shopping being able to walk from store to store without going back out into the airport terminal. She also said the BB stores in the airports do very well with business travellers who've forgotten something, or just have the time and money to browse between flights. It will be interesting to see how many of the airport stores stay open, what with air travel being so low these days.

[quote] The difference between custom made (and even made to measure)

There's a difference between custom made and made-to-measure?

The Princeton University Store, when it was part of the bookstore on campus, much smaller than BB, sold the same type of clothes. Hasn't been operative, really, for a decade.

Yes, R27, there is. Made to measure isn't the same as custom made, also known as "bespoke."

It's sad, but the quality of Brooks Brothers' clothes has gone down over the years. I had a summer job at their flagship store in high school. Started out having to handle the transactions. They had old Pneumatic tube network. This was c. 1980. It was cool. Got great discounts

It had started to go downhill a decade ago. I went there about that time and it was ghastly. It was just ghastly.

I work in advertising. A few of my stylist friends are now going to be paid pennies on the dollar for unpaid invoices. Happening a lot with many stores /companies.

The problem with that solution R25 is that most guys don't want to pay $1K for an article of clothing they may wear once or twice a year.

According to R29's link '"Custom made" most often refers to MTM.' He's getting ripped of with his $950 suits which he seems to think, mistakenly, are bespoke.

Understood, R33. Everyone has different priorities. I'm an attorney and I essentially live in a suit. Most of the people I'm around do too. We tend to try to try to "one-up" each other with our suit game. It's all in good fun though.

R36, perhaps I got my nomenclature wrong. Places like J Hillburn create "made to measure" garments. You send them your measurements and they create an item of apparel for you. I realize those businesses have a place in the industry but I've never found the fit to be the same as something cut and created specifically for me by a tailor.

When I use the term"tailor made" or "custom made" I'm referring to a series of fittings with my tailor (generally at least three) and cloth of my choosing cut by my tailor. My tailor claims to be a "master tailor" but what qualifies him for that distinction I don't know. I've used him for about seven years and couldn't be happier. He's a true craftsman. The most I've ever spent with him was around $5,500 and it was worth every penny. I've never lost a trial wearing that suit, lol.

I’ll blame Thom Browne.

We never asked tho wear some freak’s 1960s photho fethish.

This is sad. Another American institution is in trouble. I worked at the Brooks Brothers on Newbury Street in Boston for a while when I was in college. I enjoyed working there. As a young gay male, it made me feel like a proper Back Bay doyenne.

Now I’ll never get to try the 3D seemless sweaters! Some are knitted with Loro not a whore,oh Piana wool! It would be like I had jesus’ robe, but in better non-desert mudbutt colors.

Drama queens. BB is not going out of business.

R44, I checked and those sweaters aren’t on sale.

Old lady knitters in France should groan from sugar diabetes and/or arthritis for the prices they are charging

R44, shit I just went online and bought a ton of stuff.

R26 - Surprising to read that about the store in the Jacksonville Airport. Never once did I EVER see a person in that shop. NEVER. I always wondered why in the world they put one there; it's not like Jacksonville was a hotbed of sophisticated fashion. Or sophisticated anything, for that matter.

Don't live there anymore so don't know if the shop still exists. With bankruptcy, don't expect that location is long for the world.

It’s about time. Nobody wants that stuffy old shit anymore.

The Brooks Brothers across from the WTC served as a temporary morgue after 9/11.

How much do you fly, r47?

The no socks, dress shoe look has really never gone out of style. I’m 34 and it’s been my style since college. I pull off this look with expensive Italian shoes whereas in college it was Dockers.

Suits are definitely out of style. I have some really expensive blazers that I never get to wear because even in most professional settings you look like a fool in a coat.

Shopping there makes me feel like a 75 year old man who is stuck in the 20th century. And the prices are ridiculously high.

Oooh, smell R51! Mostly his feet.