With its Iconic Style, Brooks Brothers Comes to DCA

When Brooks Brothers of Darien put on a fashion show at the Darien Community Association on Tuesday, store manager Frank Kimball didn’t have to go far to find models.

The assignment called for sleek, self-confident women, with great hair and wide smiles, who could project the Brooks Brothers aura. Five members of the DCA volunteered to play the part, and they filled the role with aplomb.

Kate Larson, Allison Getsinger, Ann Wright, Eliot Jacobs and Lisa Thoren, attired in outfits of plum and cobalt blue, seemed to step right out of the pages of Brooks Brothers’ fall catalogues in their three-inch Italian leather pumps

“They were beautiful,” Kimball remarked after emceeing the show. “They really emulated our look.”

Brooks Brothers will celebrate its first anniversary in its new building at 987 Post Road this November. The store was invited by the DCA to bring a fashion show to Meadlowlands, its home on Middlesex Road, as an event on the Women’s Group’s busy fall calendar. (Last year, Talbot’s hosted a fashion show there.)

Showing off a cashmere sweater set, a pinstripe pantsuit in fine wool woven in Italy, a snappy shirtdress, jewelry and accessories, the Darien “models” strutted and sashayed, dipped and twirled and held fixed positions with self-assurance and a definite hauteur in the auditorium of the DCA.

The audience, of nearly 50 fellow DCA members, cheered approvingly.

“I thought the luncheon was very fun,” said Larson, who is also president of the DCA board. “Brooks Brothers could not have been more accommodating and they gave me lots of ideas on how to update my wardrobe!”

2009 is also the 60th anniversary of venerable Brooks Brothers’ venture into women’s clothing, when a model in a pink button-down Oxford shirt was featured in Vogue. The clothier opened a full women’s line in 1976, a daring break from its past, which began in 1818 when Henry Sands Brooks opened a shop in New York to sell fine custom tailoring and his “stock of ready-made clothing.”

Today, women’s clothing represents about 25 percent of Brooks Brothers’ business and is the company’s fastest growing category, said Arthur Wayne, Brooks Brothers spokesman. That figure is a bit higher in Darien, Kimball said, referring queries about sales strength to corporate headquarters on Madison Avenue in New York. And Wayne said that business is faring well, despite the state of the economy.

“Despite economic challenges, we are seeing some bright spots in the business,” he said. “Men’s tailored clothing has been strong, as is the dress shirt business. In women’s, we are seeing more customers looking for novelty items.”

Wayne added that the non-iron ‘miracle’ shirts—featured on Oprah last year—continue to be extremely popular.

Brooks Brothers pridefully notes that its clothing has been chosen by presidents since Abraham Lincoln and indeed President Obama wore a Brooks Brothers overcoat and red cashmere scarf to his inauguration on January 20.

So far, Brooks Brothers has not publicized the names of notable women who have chosen to wear Brooks Brothers. Have there been any sitings of Michelle Obama in Brooks Brothers, either in her current position as First Lady or back in her corporate lawyering days?

“We haven’t tracked this,” Wayned said.

Regardless, the Darien ladies, their svelte silhouettes flattered by the well-cut garments, set a standard for casual elegance and good taste that any member their gender aspiring to notability would be wise to consider.