In the dressings the rupture is consumed

"An American Classic.". It is written in golden letters on the cover of the booklet available to each client stores Brooks Brothers in Milan. It will be the case in Paris, where the venerable House of male clothing installs finally its penates, rue Saint-Honoré. Need to organize expeditions to New York to get shirts and boxer-shorts. All snobismes have a purpose, but in this case, talk of a renaissance would be more appropriate. For Brooks Brothers is by far.

Property of the descendants of the founder Henry Sand Brooks until 1946, the House will pass into the hands of several large distribution groups Americans (Garfinckel & Co, Allied Stores Corp.) before be transferred to the Canadian real estate developer Robert Campeau in 1986. It the sells two years later to Marks & Spencer for the bagatelle of $ 750 million to offer the Bloomingdale's store. In 2001, then in full collapse, British giant gives the sign (some 160 points of sales and American stores, 70 in the Japan) to Claudio del Vecchio, son of Leonardo, the founder and principal shareholder of Luxottica, world leader in the eyewear. Old knowledge since the Italian was the licensee glasses of Brooks. Associated with Diego Della Valle (Tod's creator), the new shareholder put 225 million on the table to buy a house in the somewhat tarnished image and it is urgent to revitalize. As the "Brooks brothers" style has done a lot of competitors, the most brilliant of them being that a certain Ralph Lipschitz, more known under the name of Ralph Lauren.

Everything began in 1818 a few paces from the docks of the port of New York, in a small counter where Henry Sands Brooks flowing clothing that his brother David purchase wholesale. New York has then that 125 000 inhabitants. But the city, will occupy the island of Manhattan, and Brooks will accompany the movement to settle in 1915 on Madison Avenue. A true ten-storey Cathedral which remains to this day the seat of the company. Henry expires in 1833, his four sons, Edward, Elisha, Daniel h., and John, who picked up the torch, renamed the company H & D Brooks & Co in Brooks Brothers. Soon, everything the young nation into account men of power comes to dress, as, during the American civil war, generals Grant and Sherman. The House is honoured to have dressed thirty-seven Presidents of the United States and devoutly retains their measures in its archives.

Abraham Lincoln was wearing a frock coat in black silk Brooks Brothers when he was murdered in 1885 by a fanatical Confederate actor. Out of respect as by superstition, black will be long banned of the Brooks range. In 1945, in Yalta, at the signing of the famous agreements, President Franklin d. Roosevelt, who is dying, wears a cape to frog closing out of the workshops of the House. As John f. Kennedy, it will embody the modern image of Brooks Brothers which he was customer loyal, as his brothers. The forty-third President of the United States, who was the first to refuse to wear the hat, claimed a version two buttons of the famous "number one sack Suit" costume for his investiture ceremony. A tobacco.

Batteries in ten or fifteen

Brooks Brothers is gradually emancipated decades of british influence. In the Organization of the stores, first, the garments presented on long tables Walnut are piles of ten or fifteen, trousers folded in two, jackets returned linings visible and they also folded. The sizes are clearly legible to win customers precious time. Brooks style, remember that the United States are a nation of self-made-men which should accompany the social and financial success but without pay in the Dandyism to the Brummel. Clothing must be elegant while remaining simple, robust and comfortable. But Brooks Brothers is working with flair to poke its own codes in the 1920s and 1930s tissues such as the Scottish madras or striped seersucker. The iconic shirt collar sweater (button down) is launched on the US market as early as 1900. Attending a game of polo in England, John Brooks, grandsons of Henry, had noticed that players wore shirts and sew collar to avoid points rebiquent on their cheeks. Revolutionary, the shirt collar sweater will be the first true modern male garment of the 20th century. She also still represents 40 of the sales of the House. When he abandoned his Beatnik défroque, Jack Kerouac relates that this, like Andy Warhol, in white only, and Gianni Agnelli that the command by dozens. Brooks also invented jacket separated from pants, half-lined jacket (for large heat), the Navy Blazer to the summer season on a "chino" (canvas khaki or beige pants) and many other classics.

At the managerial level, the descendants of the founder also innovate by joining the more astute direction of their employees, such as Francis Lloyd, a former boy who eventually President. In 1935, Winthrop Holly Brooks left his life of Annuitant and his Wyoming ranch to resume the reins. A graduate of Yale, is eleven years to commands. However, in 1946, the dress fortress is saved by Julius Garfinckel, who appoints its head John c. Wood. The latter undertakes to Brooks still more Brooks ("Brooks even brooksier"). The superlative befit this millionaire autocrat who will reign twenty one years on the House and the dressing rooms of the Americans. But the time is the challenge. Hippies bloom in California and younger generations do not dress like their fathers. In the dressings, the rupture is consumed. A response is required: in 1972, Brooks Brothers launches the line "Brooksgate" supposed to dress young graduates entering the active life by the large door. Hence its name. Las, a few weeks after the Watergate scandal broke out. Brooks Brothers will spend a fortune to dissociate his name from the resounding political Cloaca which lead to the downfall of President Richard Nixon. Four years later, in 1976, a bastion of "male chauvinism" falls, the House offers a line of clothing for women, sentenced until then to purchase their shirts to the RADIUS... "Boys"!

Everything Hollywood has spent here command, Clark Gable, Errol Flynn, Cary Grant and Fred Astaire, who wore neckties "PPWB 6181" to the city as on the screen, knotted around the neck or waist as a belt.

The most beautiful the radius of the myths, was written by Ralph Lipschitz. This former vendor of the Madison Avenue store stands out in 1966 with a collection of neckties named "Polo". Success. He then negotiates with his former employer the redemption of a player of polo horse drawing that appeared on a "claim" Brooks Brothers in 1907. Ralph Lauren was born. Manlio r. Massa, head of Brooks Brothers Europe, "the story is almost biblical." Member of the new team of managers put in place by Claudio Del Vecchio, Massa advocated "back to the good old Brooks", including customized service. When the announcement was made that the venerable New York House would be directed by the Italians, fear was made by corpulent customers that further and convenient sizes are reduced to the minimum portion. They are here reassured: Brooks has implemented a dual system of sizes adapted to Yankee and Latin templates. The shirts are always five lengths of sleeves, jackets are going up to size 60, shoes and socks to the 46! The shoes are still manufactured by English Peal and American Alden, but jackets and coats are made in Italy, and underwear made in China.

As in New York and Milan, the Parisian store was built and decorated in the House codes: mahogany, mirrors and club atmosphere. As in the United States, customers are there see offer free delivery and retouching services. Even for a tissue...

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Two centuries of style

1849 The Stranger's Guide to City of New York mentions Brooks Brothers as the best address of male clothing in the city.

1900 Inherited from "standard male civil suit", the first costume to four buttons, called "number one sack Suit", appears in the collections and will be, according to the New Yorker, "the image of absolute mark of Brooks Brothers". Launch of the famous button down shirt.

1920 Introduction of the first shirts for summer in madras.

1932 Introduction of jackets and suits in seersucker, an embossed cotton crepe.

1950 Launch of the first costume with stripes tennis, the favorite of bankers and business-men.

1976. The abandonment of tailor-made a blow to the "Brooksonians". Worried and angry, the New York Times puts the info in a.

2006 Reissue of the legendary costume two buttons worn by John f. Kennedy for the investiture ceremony at the Presidency of the United States.

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The Golden Fleece

Symbol of the House since the half of the 19th century, the fleece of gold, both mythological and chivalrous, refers to European wool heritage since the illustrious sheep suspended in a Ribbon served as rallying sign des drapiers Flemish of the 15th century, then their English competitors. She noted the elite and could not agree to the Brooks Brothers who made their emblem embroidered on the labels of all the home textile articles.