WTF Wednesday: Brooks Brothers Introduces "Mad Men" Suit

2009.10.28 16:16

Mad Men suit from Brooks Brothers

Brooks Brothers has introduced a new exclusive edition suit inspired by the popular show “Mad Men”. They’ve actually teamed up with the show’s costume designer Janie Bryant.

This one is quick and to the WTF-point. The show outfits the characters in period-specific revivals of fashion. And now folks want to dress like characters on the show. So doesn’t that simply mean that those styles are back in vogue? What’s old is new again, that happens all the time in fashion. Hell, even the fact that two-button suits are “in” shows us that. (the last time I tried on a suit, I remarked that the two-buttons make me look like my father in the 80s, and opted for a three-button, which never really goes out of style, now does it?)

So I have to smack my own forehead for the almost perverse example of crossover marketing here. Brooks Brothers is riding the coattails of “Mad Men” to do what they do normally, sell suits. Everyone wins, I suppose, except those who buy today’s retro-inspired fashion only to find themselves remarkably outdated when the cutting edge of fashion again shifts.

Kinda makes me glad that I only buy clothing once every five years and can’t afford to shop at Brooks Brothers even if I wanted to.


4 Comments »
a tale of brands & branding, fashion, New York, WTF
  • steven jones

    Dude i think you missed the plot…on a couple of things: brooks makes the costumes for the show so it’s a pretty logical tie-in, this suit isnt a one-to-one copy of the costumes its actually pretty slim and modern, and finally, 3-button suits are almost as out-dated as 4-button suits. 2 button is wear it’s at. and yes, i’m a little biased, i actually bought the suit.

    • http://www.perezfox.com Prescott

      I didn’t realise that Brooks make the costumes, but I still think it’s really just the normal cycle of fashion, run through the lens of television marketing.

      As for the 3-button, I’ll have to fight you there. I’ve been to some weddings recently and 3-buttons are still sharp. Some people just don’t look good in a 2-button, but I think if you have own just one suit, it should be a 3. More conservative, perhaps, but also more versatile. If I worked on Wall St., or some other wear-a-suit-everyday profession, I’d probably have a number of 2s in my closet. Yet if that were the case, I’d assume that I’d have money enough to afford new suits more frequently than once every 7 years.

  • steven jones

    Dude i think you missed the plot…on a couple of things: brooks makes the costumes for the show so it’s a pretty logical tie-in, this suit isnt a one-to-one copy of the costumes its actually pretty slim and modern, and finally, 3-button suits are almost as out-dated as 4-button suits. 2 button is wear it’s at. and yes, i’m a little biased, i actually bought the suit.

    • http://www.perezfox.com Prescott

      I didn’t realise that Brooks make the costumes, but I still think it’s really just the normal cycle of fashion, run through the lens of television marketing.

      As for the 3-button, I’ll have to fight you there. I’ve been to some weddings recently and 3-buttons are still sharp. Some people just don’t look good in a 2-button, but I think if you have own just one suit, it should be a 3. More conservative, perhaps, but also more versatile. If I worked on Wall St., or some other wear-a-suit-everyday profession, I’d probably have a number of 2s in my closet. Yet if that were the case, I’d assume that I’d have money enough to afford new suits more frequently than once every 7 years.

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