From the Brand Historian’s Timeline: 1818

In the years of peace after the final defeat of Napoleon, the British turned to reading and gorged on a surfeit of Gothic fiction which included Thomas Love Peacock’s Nightmare Abbey, Mary Shelley’s darkly imaginative Frankenstein and even Jane Austen jumped on the bandwagon with her pastiche Northanger Abbey. Meanwhile in the United States, as Washington Irving was working on his manuscript for a similarly scary story Legend of Sleepy Hollow, his fellow New Yorkers were hearing news of General Andrew Jackson’s latest frontier extending exploits in Spanish Florida. These included yet more terrorising of the Seminole Indians and the questionable execution of a couple of Brits who happened to get caught up in the ensuing farrago. But that’s populism for you.

In early April, 1818, New Yorkers were also hearing about an interesting new emporium that was about to open its doors for the first time in downtown Manhattan, and which would become one of the world’s most iconic retail brands. Henry Sands Brooks opened his new clothing store in the North East corner of Catherine and Cherry St, “to make and deal only in merchandise of the finest body, to sell it at a fair profit, and to deal with people who seek and appreciate such merchandise.” The launch was successful, and in 1850 his four Biblically entitled sons, Elisha, Daniel, Edward and John decided to change the name of the business to Brooks Brothers, since when it has become the official dresser of Presidents, generals and successive generations of Wall Street Would-be-Masters-of-the-Universe. 

But there’s a lot more to the Brooks Brothers story than club stripes and nice clothes. Over the years, Brooks Brothers has been responsible for a steady stream of sartorial innovations including ready to wear suits, button down collars, pink dress shirts (shock horror!), Argyle socks, Madras shirts, Harris tweed, seersucker summer suits and the ultimate in convenience, non-iron 100% cotton shirts. Brooks Brothers was also responsible for giving priceless sales experience to one Ralph Lauren, who surely must be one of its greatest alumni even if their relationship did turn just a little litigious at one point.

Dressing presidents from Lincoln (who was actually assassinated wearing one of its suits) to Obama, Brooks Brothers and its Golden Fleece logo, borrowed from an ancient Burgundian order of chivalry, have become ubiquitous in popular culture. You’ll see its clothes featured in Mad Men and worn by George Clooney, Archie Bunker and Kermit the Frog; the store is name-checked in novels such as This Side of Paradise and American Psycho. And returning to our Gothic horror theme, Anne Rice’s Lestat de Lioncourt, the lead character in The Vampire Chronicles is very partial to Brooks Brothers suits.

Music to Cheer on Andy Jackson: 

Hail to the Chief! (actually written by Sir Walter Scott, Bart.)

Extra Content:

For an appropriately Gothic epilogue to the story of the foundation of Brooks Brothers, please see the poem Ghosts inspired by a piece in The New York Times, April 2021 which reports on the fate of Brooks Brothers after it filed for bankruptcy – The Ghosts of Brooks Brothers.

A link to the poem is here:https://flotandjet.com/2021/04/18/ghosts/