Photo by Muffy Aldrich
The Modern Guide to The Thing Before Preppy

Friday, January 21, 2022

Brooks Brothers offers ultra-soft Italian-spun merino blend sweater


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:  



40 comments:

  1. Just utterly gruesome.

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  2. Are they joking?
    MaryAnne

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  3. Is this something from the children’s department?

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    1. Yes, for infants and up to three years. A big hit in all the Pre-School Daycares.

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  4. I 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?

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    1. (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...

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    2. Asian/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.

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  5. I 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.

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  6. This 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.

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  7. Absurd. I wouldn't wear it if someone gave it to me.

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  8. The 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.

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  9. Ghastly, embarrassing and positively insipid. I will stick to my Lambswool cordings jumpers.

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  10. I 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!

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  11. No surprise here. The bridge to this modern day calamity began 10 years (or so) back when they introduced the Black Fleece line of clothing!

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    1. I 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.

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    2. Yes, 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...

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  12. the navy sweater is sold out online

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    1. “There is no accounting for taste.”

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  13. Is this the end of civilization?

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    1. No, 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)...

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  14. I certainly didn’t see that coming.

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  15. This just made me laugh. Who would spend money on something so silly??

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  16. You must be joking. That makes Walmart look high brow.

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  17. From WASP to

    OK, that's it for BB. Time to ditch the elegant script/golden fleece logo. It's over.

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  18. I am a Tiger, but this...gosh! (Turns her head away in shame)

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  19. Brooks Brothers went bankrupt years ago. Obviously this is not the same
    company.

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  20. I did away with my Brooks Brothers charge card years ago, because they had nothing for me to buy. They still don't.

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  21. Wasn't expecting that and for a moment thought it was April 1. My how the mighty have fallen.

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  22. Is their new target demographic pre-schoolers? Wow.

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  23. Coming soon to a Brooks Brothers outlet near you.

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  24. This places Brooks Brothers is right up there with the LL Bean Signature line.

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    1. Well said, I had forgotten about the LLB Signature Line disaster..

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  25. I 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!"

    So 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.

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