Thom Browne Visits Brooks Brothers

Thom Browne put in an appearance at the San Francisco Brooks Brothers to promote the Black Fleece line recently. From the waist up, his clothes wouldn't turn any heads.


From a distance, his signature short trousers, bare ankles, and over-sized shoes are another story.


Some shopping went on at the event, but the flow of bags leaving the store was less than a tidal wave. Of course, at those prices they didn't need to be.

Photographs are courtesy of Drew Altizer Photography. © Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.

Piping Resurrected

Blazers, so named because the ones worn at regattas often "blazed" in color, were first seen in university colors. According to Esquire's Encyclopedia of 20th Century Men's Fashions, navy blazers piped in white were popular at the Henley regatta in 1924. I don't recall seeing piping outside of that context.

That is, until this past week when Brooks Brothers introduced its Black Fleece line designed by the notorious Thom Browne.

I'm encouraged by the Brethren's initiative with the new collection. The designs have precedence, unlike Browne's runway collection this season, and the items are well made. Purchased in the correct size and tailored appropriately, most of the pieces will look classic rather than extreme.

I wish BroBroClo, the name I was instructed to use on the many checks I wrote them over the decades, still had the taste within its organization to update the classics on its own. The prices would be better - but I suppose the company also needs the visibility and image enhancement (did I just write that about Thom Browne?) it gets from the association.

On balance, I give the effort a solid 'B.' I'm not sure whose colors were borrowed for the piped blazer in the collection, but I doubt if wearing some university rowing club's colors inappropriately is any more of a sin than wearing a Brooks Brothers version of the Brigade of Guards necktie on the streets of Manhattan.

Sources: Paul Stuart

Paul Stuart is one of America's very best clothing store chains. For many years slightly more adventuresome than Brooks Brothers, Paul Stuart's New York store (there are also two in stores Tokyo and individual ones in Chicago, Kobe and Seoul) was described by Alan Flusser as the place where a man went for an interesting necktie after buying his sack suit at 43rd and Madison.

Unlike its neighbor, Paul Stuart has remained true to itself over the years and the web store's merchandise reflects the company's updated traditional approach. There's a selection of interesting neckties, an assortment of fairly refined pocket squares like the pictured yellow cotton Fleur De Lis iteration and some fine socks, including summer argyles in the best colorways I've seen anywhere. Most if not all of the merchandise is unique to the store.

Unique in my internet shopping experience, Paul Stuart's catalogs are online in addition to the featured collection of "Essentials." It isn't immediately obvious but customers can shop from both selections of merchandise, subject to availability of the catalog items.

The company has a very good return policy, offering credit or an exchange for any unused item that doesn not meet the buyer's expectations. When a return is due to a Paul Stuart error or merchandise quality, they pay the shipping costs.

Quotation: The Shame of American Millionaires

"Mr. Du Pont was about 50 - pink, clean shaven and dressed in the conventional disguise with which Brooks Brothers covers the shame of American millionaires. He wore a single-breasted tan tropical suit and a white silk shirt with a shallow collar. The rolled ends of the collar were joined by a gold safety pin beneath the knot of a narrow dark red and blue striped tie that fractionally wasn't the Brigade of Guards'. The cuffs of the shirt protruded half an inch below the cuffs of the coat and showed cabochon crystal links containing miniature trout flies. The socks were charcoal-grey silk and the shoes were old and polished mahogany and hinted Peal. The man carried a dark, narrow-brimmed straw homburg with a wide claret ribbon."

- Ian Fleming, Goldfinger, 1959

The Necktie Wardrobe, Part 2

Yesterday's essay discussed solid colored neckties and today's will consider patterned versions.

We'll start with stripes. A man probably needs at least four two-color striped neckties, and at least one of those ought to be Irish poplin for its sheen. Block stripes (above, from Ben Silver) and ribbon stripes (as shown below, from O'Connell's) are flexible styles that coordinate easily with patterned suits and shirts. Navy and gold, navy and pacific blue, navy and red, and red and gold are classic color combinations.

For serious occasions, there should be two Macclesfield ties. Mini-dots are discreet and fairly easy to find. White or silver dots on black and the same on wine are useful combinations.

There should also be a couple small checks, either shepherd's or houndstooth in navy on cream and gray on cream like the one below, from Brooks Brothers, as well as a paisley or two (get the paisleys in gummed silk if you can find them but I haven't seen one for about ten years) in a large print.

Next, there should be a couple of non-directional foulards or club ties, one of which should have a ground that complements navy suits. The other should pair well with gray suits. Sportsmen may choose prints featuring ducks or Labrador retrievers but most men will be better served by heraldic symbols, like the pictured tie from Henry Poole, or small flowers, like the tie at the bottom from O'Connell's.

Finally, most men should have four seasonal ties, two linen (or silk and linen) with tan and blue grounds for summer and a gray and a blue ground cashmere or wool challis for cooler weather. The patterns should be similar to the styles discussed above. These ties are to provide some different textures with which to vary your look.

So that's it, a dozen neckties that, combined with the dozen solids and semi-solids from yesterday, comprise a fine basic wardrobe for a well-dressed man.

Gift A Wardrobe for Graduation

Thinking about what to get a man who'll be completing his bachelor's degree this Spring? Consider presenting him with a wardrobe for his first job.

If I ignore their sweats and tee shirts, most young men of my acquaintance enter the work force with a selection of cotton trousers, some sports shirts, casual shoes, and perhaps an odd jacket or two if they're lucky. In other words, they are completely unprepared for the competition on the next stage of their lives. A new wardrobe is a substantial but (barely) affordable gift that will put your professionally attired gift receipient half a step ahead of most of his contemporaries.

I've written elsewhere that there are few jobs for new graduates that require suits every day, however a suit is necessary to obtain most professional positions and periodically needed during a man's first years in the work force. The rest of the time a dress shirt, respectable trousers and leather shoes are all that are required for most entry level analysts, engineers or marketeers. A navy and a charcoal suit, two pair of dress shoes, ten dress shirts and three pair of dress trousers will probably do the trick for $3,000 to $4,000. Let him spend his own money on a couple of neckties.

For most of the items. mid-level clothing from a chain like Brooks Brothers (or any other whose name does not end in Wearhouse) is perfectly adequate. The suits and trousers should be medium weight wool. One pair of shoes should be black punch cap oxfords and the other dark brown casuals that are formal enough for a young man to wear with a suit. When you're done with the shoes and tailored clothing, take him to a modestly priced shirtmaker and get him some shirts that fit.

Unlike the young chaps in the drawing, he won't need a fedora.

Pinned Shirt Collars

In his day, columnist Herb Caen was arguably one of San Francisco's best dressed men (I say arguably only because of his penchant for unfortunate neckties) and a good customer of Savile Row's Henry Poole. As I leafed through a collection of his work last week I was struck by how often he was photographed wearing pinned collars. Good for him.

Like a tab collar, the virtue of a pin is that it raises the necktie knot. Though some deem it a little fussy or a little flash, it's better than a tab because when you remove the pin and necktie, you're left with an ordinary shirt collar. At least you are if you haven't indulged in one of those shirts that's got little holes sewn so you don't have to put the pin through the cloth. I consider that unnecessary as the weave will close up again during laundering, whereas pre-sewn eyelets mean a shirt is unwearable if you don't feel like pinning it that day.

Collars for pins come in two styles. There's the straight collar, usually about 3" long, and the rounded corner club (Brooks Brothers calls it the golf). I like to pin my club collars if I'm wearing them in the city, and I leave them unpinned in the country. That means I probably pin an individual shirt perhaps twice a year, so any damage caused by the pin is hardly a factor in the shirt's longevity.

If you're looking to acquire a pin, the safety pin style should be about 2" long or a little longer. Broderick has them in 14 carat gold for $180, and in gold plate or sterling for less than $30.

Goodbye Old Boots

An argument against purchasing re-badged shoes was brought home to me last week when the strap on my old Peal buckle boots snapped.

You may know that Peal is a sadly defunct shoemaker whose name and lasts were acquired by Brooks Brothers when Peal stopped trading about forty years ago. The shoes are made by other makers and sold only in BroBroClo stores. The rub is that when they need re-making, you have to know who made them or you're out of luck. Brooks is no help as they seem principally intent on making customers believe they have their own factory busy sewing shoes somewhere in Northampton, and their shoes have only the Peal name on them.

One of the benefits of paying exorbitant sums for welted leather shoes is that they last practically forever as long as you don't do something awful to them. When they are sufficiently worn, you return them to the maker where they are re-soled, repaired and otherwise returned to as good as new condition for a price that's around half the cost of a new pair. And, if they are brown, they have the additional benefit of ten or twenty years of patina.

My boots had decades of patina but I tried tracking down the maker to no avail (I had another pair of old Peals re-made by C&J some years ago), and the cost of having them re-made by a third party is more than the cost of new boots. Fortunately, John Cusey of the Ask Andy About Clothes forum happened to call my attention to Leather Soul's Alden Cigar Shell Cordovans pictured to the left.

The advantage of cordovan for boots is that it's the least porous leather known, and that is a big plus in rain and snow. So I expect that these Aldens will provide more effective service than my old buckle boots. But, nice as they are, they wouldn't have been necessary had I originally bought boots that I could have had re-made.

Consider the Black Suit

Consider the black suit. By this, I do not mean the Men's Warehouse "Since you'll only have one suit it should be black so you can wear it to a funeral" suit. Nor do I recommend the City of London black worsted with white pinstripes. But a black suit (similar in style to but hopefully better made than the three button version from Brooks Brothers to the left) has a place in your wardrobe if you're young, urban and plan to spend some of your nights clubbing in less formal places like LA or South Beach.

Know that a black suit worn during the day has been controversial and ideally to be avoided since the lounge/business suit replaced earlier forms of day wear. Charcoal and navy blue are preferred. The place for black is at night.

Night is when people go to urban clubs to see and be seen. And while a man in traditional dinner kit would look out of place, Hollywood has given us an alternative in the black or midnight blue suit, stripped of most of its frills and worn in place of black tie for evening.

Stripped means that the jacket and trousers should not have the silk trimmings of a dinner jacket and trousers. The jacket should preferably be one button with a peak lapel, but could be two or three button and notch lapel. Preferably without flaps on the side pockets and either no side vents or two of them. A sheen of mohair in the cloth adds to the evening look, as do cloth covered buttons.

Wear it with highly polished plain black oxfords and a silver silk tee shirt or polo in summer or a cashmere mock turtleneck in winter. A pocket square shows savoir faire. If you can't stand the thought of going out without a necktie, wear a plain white dress shirt with french cuffs and a Macclesfield or satin four-in-hand necktie. Avoid Clooney style, with an open neck. It just looks sloppy having your collar flapping around and all.

I'd rather you wore something else during the day, but if you can't get home to change for the evening, a black suit can work for you from morning to night. Bring some cologne and a night-time top or shirt and necktie in your briefcase so you can transform yourself quickly at the office. It's not cool to wear exactly the same clothes that you wore all day.

Once the sun sets the black suit is in its element.