BROOKS BROTHERS’ creative director Michael Bastian talks the preppy revival, wardrobe heroes and the brand’s latest collection…
No clothing company has shaped the preppy aesthetic as much as Brooks Brothers. For generations, it was the home of the best American suiting and wardrobe staples for a WASP-y East Coast lifestyle. The brand truly peaked in the public’s imagination with the yuppies of the ’80s, although the company history actually dates back to 1818, officially making BB the oldest operating American apparel brand. Recently out of bankruptcy and now under new ownership, the label is reclaiming the mantle of preppy thanks to new creative director Michael Bastian. “I’m the creative director of a company whose brand I’m very much aligned with,” he tells us from his apartment in New York City. “I’m doing the things I love and want to wear myself.”
Consider Michael Bastian and Brooks Brothers a perfect love match. Tall and a classically handsome bloke, Michael is what many would imagine a creative director of Brooks Brothers to look like. Arriving at the company in December 2020, he has in some respects been preparing for this exact opportunity his whole career. He’s been influencing how millions of men dress for decades through long-term partnerships with brands like GANT as well as his own Michael Bastian label, which nabbed him the 2011 CFDA Menswear Designer of the Year award.
Bastian has also designed collections at more accessible prices for Uniqlo and GAP, imbuing the same care and attention to detail into a $40 GAP sweater as a $10,000 shearling coat. “My line was a reaction to being unable to find all the things I used to find at Brooks Brothers. I was very much making those things I couldn’t find any more at the level I wanted to find it at. I said that early on in the press and thought okay this brand is never going to touch me!” he laughs. “All it took was a bankruptcy and a pandemic and here I am.” Bastian’s appointment represents a departure from the recent trend of hiring buzzy streetwear designers to refresh heritage labels. This move suggests that Authentic Brands Group, the company’s new owner, is thinking long term.
Despite its wide recognition as a classically preppy label, there’s still something a bit cult-y about Brooks Brothers. A growing number of Instagram accounts documenting vintage finds portray a broad church of fans who revere the earnestness of old Brooks Brothers. The kind of guys who spend hours searching thrift stores and eBay for the perfect BB Bengal shirt. “You don’t have to dig too deep to see how passionate they are,” says Michael. “They’ll be very vocal if they think I’ve made a wrong turn and I really appreciate that.”
Bastian treasures the feedback and interactions with the label’s fans. After all, he’s right there on this journey with them. “Of any brand we have the most vocal, loyal and obsessive fan base. I’m one of them – I appreciate that obsessiveness because I have it, too.” Now he’s in the driver’s seat, Bastian has been hard at work reissuing, reimagining and elevating pieces from the BB archive. “The first thing I really wanted to put out there was a red and white stripe Bengal poplin shirt. It was the first thing I remember buying in college and I wore it out.”
As logo mania continues to wane (helped along by shark-jumping moments like Fendace), a new preppy movement appears to be swelling. Labels like Rowing Blazers and Aime Leon Dore have cropped up in our feeds to cater to a new generation smitten with the vintage street style of Princess Diana and the old-world traditions of the posh set. What’s most exciting about the current prep revival is the absence of the elitism once associated with the subculture. The type of snobbism that would make a young Ralph Lifshitz change his name to Ralph Lauren. “This idea of preppy is getting some fresh eyes on it” observes Michael. In other words, preppy has become less WASP and more woke.
Bastian’s latest Brooks Brothers collection for Fall 2022 taps into our Instagram-fuelled nostalgia, mixing classic striped rowing blazers with rugby shirts and touches of whimsy, like an intarsia sweater with mallards on it. The brand’s iconic Golden Fleece logo also gets the intarsia treatment. It’s highly collegial and yes, even a bit yuppie. Above all, the collection offers the building blocks for a fully-realised preppy style. “These are some fundamental pieces every guy needs in his wardrobe” says Michael of the collection. “I love five pocket corduroys: they’re one half step dressier than jeans. A cashmere crewneck, a down vest – the things you reach for without thinking.”
Although oxford shirts and chinos look good on pretty much everyone, nailing a preppy fit requires a little more effort than just pairing jeans with a sweatshirt and sneakers. Michael is here to help. “What a lot of guys don’t understand is sometimes you buy things off the rack and they don’t fit perfectly. So that tailoring step is very important. It’s usually the pants. I know it’s a hassle but it is so important.” While many of us still balk at the extra time and cost of tailoring, Michael insists it is worth it. “You’re gonna be so happy with yourself down the road – it’ll be perfect.”
Under Michael’s guidance, the new Brooks Brothers is beginning to win back customers and charm a younger audience experimenting with preppy clothing for the first time. “The funny thing is, as we go through the archive you realise a couple of things. One is that Brooks Brothers has done practically everything. The other thing is that so many things are as relevant now as they were in the ’50s or the ’80s.” He points to the humble oxford cloth shirt as the quintessential Brooks Brothers garment, one he was eager to restore to its highest incarnation.
“I consider that our Levi’s 501. We invented it and it’s been the key identifiable product of the brand for decades.” His current mission is to refresh the label’s offerings and re-establish the company as a place for quality essentials. “It’s a very unreliable world and I’d love it if with Brooks Brothers we could have this certain bucket of things you can always find” he explains. “There’s a place for Brooks Brothers in everyone’s closet.”
Available at David Jones
By REILLY SULLIVAN
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