Brooks Brothers Great Gatsby Collection

[cpdv]

I agree that a lot of the fashionable suits do reflect the late teens and early 20s. They would look more so if they were sack cut like a majority of jackets i've seen advertised during that period. My favorite period for suits is about 1912-24 or so. I intend on having some summer weight suits made from styles of 19 and 20. Being 23 and slim I can pull off the cuts "popular with young men" as the ads say haha. I like the highwater cuffed trousers so I can show off my socks and spats on days that I wear them!

 

[herringbonekid]

If you want a suit cut right do the research on original ads and patterns and get a good tailor or seamstress and choose your own fabric and have one made.

yeah, come on guys... just get a tailor to make your suits ! simples.

 

[Edward]

yeah, come on guys... just get a tailor to make your suits ! simples.

Hey, find me a decent one I can afford and I'll go bespoke every time!

 

[Flat Foot Floey]

cpvd, let's see your "jazz suit" first. I am not sure if we are talking about the same details that "matter" to us. I rthink the lapel shape and high water trousers are just very superficial elements.

 

[cpdv]

When it's all done i'll post a photo of it. In my opinion the lapel is a very important aspect of getting the "right" look to a jacket.

 

[Fastuni]

Sure it is. But so are i.e. proper fabric, interior construction and the proportions/relations of other elements to each other.
I also look forward to the photos.

 

[Barmey]

I can't wait to see your suit cpdv!

I'm working on a early 20s inspired suit myself. Seeing as there are so few originals out there its great to finally see some good reproductions being made

 

[cpdv]

I'll make sure it's poly radon I'm a "stitch counter" reenactor as well aka my uniforms have to be cut exactly right ect or else I won
t wear them so I will be particularly picky about my suits which for me is everyday wear. I've thrown around the idea of having that german suit from 1922 that there are drafts of on here in a winter weight wool. I can get away with more interesting cuts of suits as people expect it of me...and they don't know what a "normal" suit looks like.

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

On Friday's Entertainment Tonight They are featuring the Style of "The Great Gatsby". I am sure we all want to tune in.

 

[p51]

I just looked through the prices. Heck, I could find original stuff much less expensive than these prices...

 

[Gin&Tonics]

So much promise, and some really bold overall looks, but how tragic that they got so many of the details wrong. As has been mentioned, the first thing I noticed was the horrid low rise trousers. How can a tailor worth his salt cut a three piece suit where the bloody shirt shows under the vest and above the trousers?! AUUUUGHHHHH.

Also those lapels on the white linen suit are just a tad too narrow and the gorge rather much too high. Otherwise, it could have been a really splendid suit.

I love the boaters and I love the endorsement of the gentleman's walking stick! One of these days I'll find the right one in an antique store, and that'll be that!

 

[amoulet69]

I also like the collar bar he wears...

Thanks

 

[Flat Foot Floey]

:eusa_doh: I just noticed Ralph Lauren have some kind of a Great Gatsby moment too. Since they didn't sponsor the Baz movie they came up with pictures from the 70s Redford version.


Great Gatsby Style guide

 

[Feraud]

So....RL are celebrating the styles of the 1970s version of The Great Gatsby? These guys are getting worse and worse...

 

[esteban68]

So near yet soooooooooooooooo far! wasted oppurtunity apart from perhaps the shoes?

 

[herringbonekid]

apparently Ralph Lauren was involved in the costumes for the 1974 film. quote:


"...Ralph constructed dense outfits for Robert Redford and the rest of the male cast that captured the style of the Jazz Age. Even though the movie’s head costume designer Theoni Aldredge went on to win the Academy Award for the film’s costumes, and never really gave Ralph any credit for his work, he got what he needed out of the project"

more here:

http://wax-wane.com/2012/08/20/forty-years-later-ralph-lauren-and-the-great-gatsby/

 

[Flat Foot Floey]

To be fair even the cheaper Polo line has some good looking items from time to time. But they are not in the "style guide". They could at least show a club collar shirt, fair isle vest or cricket sweater for the "classic" look. In fact I am waiting for a cotton sweater vest that I bought from ebay just a few days ago.

 

[Fastuni]

RL are celebrating the styles of the 1970s version of The Great Gatsby?

If only! They show Redford with his "perfectly tailored" broad 70's lapels, yet advertise super-slim suits that look like any OTR. Both of course not resembling the 20's in the slightest.

 

[Fading Fast]

Okay, so I figure, I live in NYC, I have to go see the Gatsby collection at the Brooks Brothers flagship store. For perspective, my general opinion of BB is that its clothes are worth half of full price; which is why when they go on sale (as they always do) at 30% off, they are only marginally over-priced at that point and, if you can’t wait for the inevitable 50% season-ending sale, can be bought. Also, in general, the quality is not great, is all over the map and is inconsistent from line to line, product to product and season to season (with a few exceptions like the OCBDs and some suit lines [maybe]). That said, it was off to see the collection.

Other than the evening wear, the menswear is all on the first floor in the back neatly displayed with the movie trailer playing on a flat screen and some period décor to create the ambience of the twenties. Before I got there though, I was twice accosted by commission salespeople both aggressively and almost belligerently asking if they could help me. I am fine with being approached, but in a low-key, sincere-attempt-to-help manner, not in a how-much-can-I-ring-the-register manner. (The Ralph Lauren Polo flagship store in NYC does this much better.) How can a store like BB not have trained its salespeople better? Although, normally, the strong, more professional salespeople move up to suits, etc., so this is not the cream of the crop; however, since this is the main floor, it makes a bad first impression.

Ironically, once I got to the Gatsby collection, there was only one salesperson their, folding shirts, who ignored me the entire time. As others (who understand clothes and historically accurate details much better than I do) on the board have noted, the clothes are interpretations of 1920s clothes, not an attempt, at all, to create historically accurate reproductions. The suits, jackets and pants seemed cheap to me – odd puckers, no pick-stitching, bad hand-feel to the material. It struck me, that even with great tailoring (not something BB is capable of anymore – the few things I buy from it, I always take to my own tailor, as BB commits the unpardonable sin of not really wanting you to try on your altered clothes when you go in to pick them up and, if you insist, you have to hunt out the tailor yourself as the salesperson will hand you the altered clothes and then disappear) these items would still look cheap. All that said, one must see a pale pink pinstripe suit in person at least once in one’s life to truly appreciate its go-to-hell verve.

The shirts were consistent with BBs other equivalently priced shirts – and it is (once they go on sales) and opportunity to get some 1920’s inspired shirts at reasonable prices. I love that they had several with collar bars through the collar (with the appropriate holes sewn in). Also, the ecru “golf collar” shirt is substantial in weight and could make a nice with- or without-tie shirt for a cool summer evening.

Finally, the Regatta and the “Tipped” blazers weigh a ton and would only work in an Alaskan summer (I image) or winter anywhere else. I was stunned by how heavy they were. This pretty much comes through in the pictures, but these are pieces for confident wearers who want to make a period-esque statement.

As with everything Brooks Brothers: basically, an over-priced, flawed attempt, that does produce a few items that, once they go on sale, are worth acquiring.

 

[Chasseur]

apparently Ralph Lauren was involved in the costumes for the 1974 film. quote:



http://wax-wane.com/2012/08/20/forty-years-later-ralph-lauren-and-the-great-gatsby/

It has been years since I've seen that film and I always forget just how big and '70s the ties are... you could some of them as scarves.