The Brooks Brothers Shirt

As you know, I have been a Brooks Brothers customer since I was very young. I regularly peruse the company literature. I recently spotted this quote from Tom Davis, a Brooks Brothers salesman, on the famed Fiat chairman and style icon Gianni Agnelli, who only wore Brooks Brothers button-down shirts:

 "Mr. Agnelli loved clothing, and he was like a kid in a candy shop when I took him for a tour around the store...He wore three colors: white, beige, blue. Not stripe, never another color."

I found this quote very timely, as I have similarly limited my shirtings to just a few colours: white, beige, blue, and pink. No stripes, no patterns. Button-down and spread collar. Pinpoint and oxford cloth. That's it.

After completing an audit of my dress shirt collection, I removed all of the unconventional numbers. It may be difficult getting rid of certain items, especially the expensive ones, but it does make things easier in the long run. When you know what you like and what looks good, go with it.

A proper dress shirt is the foundation of the professional chap's wardrobe. Keep it simple, clean, and classic.

Save the flash for interesting ties, watches, and accessories, if you so choose.

How To Dress

Brooks Brothers Three-Piece

Are you into three-pieces? I certainly am, expecially in chilly weather when a sturdy suit of sartorial armour is practically a necessity. The candid photographic image (at left) depicts a vintage Brooks Brothers three-piece suit in thick charcoal Tweed and 3/2 button configuration. Shirt and repp tie, also by Brooks Brothers. They've been in my collection for years. I can just recall my late father, a Wall Street executive, wearing three-piece suits in the 1970s and early 1980s. They must have kept him warm on the daily commute to and from Manhattan. Please forgive the quality of the photograph, hastily taken by an admiring paparazza (note my hand bestowing a well-deserved pat on the head) in a wood-panelled corridor of financial power, which invariably occurs when one is dashing about being charming. The effect, I can report with a smile, was quite palpable.

Brooks Brothers Number One

In the exclusive photo (at left) I am shown wearing a Brooks Brothers sharkskin 3/2-roll sack suit, a blue fine-striped W.H. Taylor spread-collar shirt, and a Robert Talbott repp tie from Richards in Greenwich, CT. I bought the tie in the mid-90s for my first job on Wall Street; it's a bit slim for my tastes, truth be told. The suit is a variation of the famous Number One sack suit first introduced in 1900, and, according to Brooks Brothers,  "is the earliest and most enduring of Brooks’ innovations."

Brooks Brothers Style

un-buttoned end of day

A Gallery Afternoon

Brooks Brothers Blazer

Brooks Brothers navy blazer ad circa 1940
© Brooks Brothers

I don't wear blazers, at least not now, as you well know. I don't like the way I look in them. They make me look schoolboy-ish. Still, I find the blazer in the old Brooks Brothers ad (at left) rather attractive. I think it's the mix of colours. The yellow piping, in particular, gives the garment a nautical or regimental air, which of course was its original purpose. The same can be said about the repp tie. It's a uniform. However earnestly we might deny it, human beings are social beings with a need to belong and fit in. We are tribal. We belong. It's not a matter, however, of simply wearing the right clothing. We are born with unique identities that should be cherished and displayed with confidence and pride, just like the Brooks Brothers blazer in the ad. Show your colours, as it were. Become who you are.

Sent from my iPhone

Brooks English Brogues