The name may be familiar but the collection is brand new.
On Thursday, Brooks Brothers will introduce a new luxury formalwear capsule collection under the name Black Fleece. That name was made famous during the time that Thom Browne served as a guest designer for the company beginning in 2007.
Although the initial plan was for Browne to work for the retailer for two seasons, the success of his Black Fleece-designed collection led Brooks Brothers to produce the collection through 2015. At its height, it included both a wide assortment of men’s and womenswear as well as a handful of Black Fleece stores.
But at its origin, company executives said, the Black Fleece name was intended to be a design laboratory to reimagine heritage pieces through a modern lens.
The new Black Fleece capsule is being designed by Brooks’ creative director Michael Bastian and features men’s and women’s formal attire, tailored in Italy and Portugal from Italian milled wools, silks and Sea Island cotton.
“We liked the name and thought it referenced black tie,” Bastian said. Formalwear has long been a mainstay for Brooks Brothers and the new Black Fleece capsule was created to be the pinnacle product or the “top-of-the-top formalwear” offering, he said. “It’s still off-the-rack but has made-to-measure quality.”
Bastian continued: “We’re the go-to for formal and we’ve had requests for more special dinner jackets as well as the perfect black tux for women.”
The men’s offering includes a silk-linen grosgrain shawl-lapel tuxedo, a wool and silk double-breasted peak-lapel tuxedo and a silk hopsack shawl-lapel dinner jacket. The women’s collection includes two menswear-inspired tuxedos in either black or white made from merino wool with peak lapels and a silk-blend faille collar.
Like the collection, the prices are also elevated. A Black Fleece men’s tuxedo will retail for $4,000 while a mainline tux is closer to $2,000.
“They’re really exclusive, small runs for the person who wants that perfect tux or dinner jacket,” Bastian said.
In the mainline, Brooks offers a range of price points starting with the Explorer collection of separates, which retails for around $548 for the jacket and $248 for the pants; the 1818 traditional collection of nested suits for around $1,298, and the made-to-measure offering which starts at $998.
The Black Fleece capsule collection will be available exclusively at the Brooks Brothers store at Rockefeller Center in New York City, online or by special order.
