Imagine someone told you that Brooks Brothers is offering a "luxe" sweater "spun from an ultra-soft Italian-spun merino blend" that combines their golden fleece logo with an intarsia tiger motif to celebrate the Lunar New Year. (From Wikipedia: "Intarsia is a knitting technique used to create patterns with multiple colours" and "[a]rgyle socks and sweaters are normally done in intarsia".).
Take a moment and consider what this could look like. Now click on the link to see how close you came:
- Brooks Brothers Year of the Tiger Merino-Wool Sweater ($148.00) <https://www.brooksbrothers.com/Year-of-the-Tiger-Merino-Wool-Sweater/MS01099,default,pd.html>
Just utterly gruesome.
ReplyDeleteAre they joking?
ReplyDeleteMaryAnne
Is this something from the children’s department?
ReplyDeleteYes, for infants and up to three years. A big hit in all the Pre-School Daycares.
DeleteYikes
ReplyDeleteI thought this was a joke, but I guess it's not. I looked around and saw that Brooks Brothers has a number of other such loud, tacky items on offer. In fact, this "year of the tiger" motif is all over the place. What's up with the Chinese theme right now?
ReplyDelete(Some) Chinese mainland buyers have (1) lots and lots of cash, (2) skewed taste, and (3) BB is one of those high-class meiguo companies...
DeleteAsian/Lunar New Year is in a few weeks and it is the Year of the Tiger. But this sweater is insulting whether you celebrate or not.
DeleteI remember when we BB purists were complaining 20 years ago about the direction in which the company was going, particularly with its menswear. We were shushed and lectured to about "changing markets" and "demographics" and "global brand demands." Well, here we go: this is your "progress." How I preferred it when everyone who wanted to look fashionable shopped elsewhere, and left the curmudgeons to our unstructured, classic clothing.
ReplyDeleteThis is the new Brooks, committed to bringing back the classics with attention to the details that won the hearts of its dedicated followers. Yeah, right.
ReplyDeleteAbsurd. I wouldn't wear it if someone gave it to me.
ReplyDeleteThe Brooks Brothers death rattle. We will miss you. Have none of the BB executives ever read Jim Collins' How The Mighty Fall? It amazes me that once mighty companies fail in the same way over and over again.
ReplyDeleteGhastly, embarrassing and positively insipid. I will stick to my Lambswool cordings jumpers.
ReplyDeleteI was in a Coach outlet yesterday and couldn't fathom why there were bags, shirts, etc., with tigers all over them. Well, that answers that question. Talk about expiration date!
ReplyDeleteNo surprise here. The bridge to this modern day calamity began 10 years (or so) back when they introduced the Black Fleece line of clothing!
ReplyDeleteI think th3 calamity began in the mid-1980s when they began closing old downtown stores, moved into malls, started phasing out the maker approach, and began the move to more fitted suits and wrinkle free shirts.
DeleteYes, agree it started much earlier in the US and a bit later in Europe. But, to cheer you up a bit, yesterday we watched something about Monaco (used to live there for over 3 years) and the best dressed people shown there were Americans. So, not all of you follow "new BB trends", although they have (or at least had) a store at the Yacht Club and their windows looked always very well, no tigers or snakes on the Italian merino jumpers...
Deletethe navy sweater is sold out online
ReplyDelete“There is no accounting for taste.”
DeleteOof.
ReplyDeleteIs this the end of civilization?
ReplyDeleteNo, I think we will still face some changes. But, perhaps one day humanity will get up from this nightmare (if I may name it so)...
DeleteI certainly didn’t see that coming.
ReplyDeleteThis just made me laugh. Who would spend money on something so silly??
ReplyDeleteYou must be joking. That makes Walmart look high brow.
ReplyDeleteFrom WASP to
ReplyDeleteOK, that's it for BB. Time to ditch the elegant script/golden fleece logo. It's over.
How very sad!
ReplyDeleteI am a Tiger, but this...gosh! (Turns her head away in shame)
ReplyDeletenaaahhhhh ...
ReplyDeleteBrooks Brothers went bankrupt years ago. Obviously this is not the same
ReplyDeletecompany.
I did away with my Brooks Brothers charge card years ago, because they had nothing for me to buy. They still don't.
ReplyDeleteNo.
ReplyDeleteWasn't expecting that and for a moment thought it was April 1. My how the mighty have fallen.
ReplyDeleteIs their new target demographic pre-schoolers? Wow.
ReplyDeleteComing soon to a Brooks Brothers outlet near you.
ReplyDeleteThis places Brooks Brothers is right up there with the LL Bean Signature line.
ReplyDeleteWell said, I had forgotten about the LLB Signature Line disaster..
DeleteEww.
ReplyDeleteAs time goes by . . .
ReplyDeleteI spent the last 5-10 years constructing apologies in my mind for Brooks Brothers due to the shadow of their legacy: "you can still order their US-made oxfords in traditional fit!" "I saw a sack blazer on offer one time in 2017!"
ReplyDeleteSo with that in mind, about a month ago, I stumbled across their website for the first time since the pandemic to see how their Chapter 11 was going. I saw this same item you mention. Then I noticed the homepage still having "fall" references in early January. I know supply chain issues are going on, but many deeper pages of their stock seemed to occupy the same uncanny valley that Bill's Khakis' site does, where it looks like it is actually being run by someone trying to sell leftover stock from their garage. Their reboot of the soft-collar oxford shirt from about four years ago (that I actually liked) is just plain gone as is that factory. Graphic tees. I can't kid myself anymore.