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The saga of Brooks Brothers's easy-care fabrics began in 1941 when British chemists, John Rex Whinfield and James Tennant Dickson, invented and patented the first polyester fiber, which was eventually registered and produced in Britain by Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) under the name Terylene. However, though America's DuPont and Britain's ICI had an agreement to share information, the Official Secrecy Act prohibited such cooperation during the war. In 1945, Dupont bought the rights to Terylene, eventually registering and producing it in the United States as Dacron. In 1953, Brooks Brothers worked with DuPont to introduce "Brooksweave," an oxford cloth blend of Dacron polyester and long staple cotton, as its first line of easy-care dress shirts. The following year, in September 1954, a broadcloth blend named "Brookscloth" was also introduced using the same blend of Dacron and cotton. Remarkably, these shirts proved so successful that Brooks Brothers offered them, with minor changes, for four decades. During that time the main changes were made to the blend ratio of polyester and cotton. Until the mid-1980s, the blend ratio was 65% Dacron polyester and 35% cotton. After about 1985, the blend ratio was changed to 60% cotton and 40% polyester. There was also a brief period of 50/50 Terylene polyester and cotton, which suggests that Terylene fabric was produced in Britain, imported to the US and then made into Brookscloth shirts. In any event, if it is true that these shirts were the first poly/cotton blend dress shirts, then both Brooksweave and Brookscloth represent groundbreaking innovation by Brooks Brothers that affected easy-care garments across the clothing industry.
Today, these fabrics have largely gone by the wayside, as new technologies giving all cotton shirts a non-iron finish have come to the fore. These new non-iron shirts are extremely good at what they are supposed to do: Which is to come out of the dryer looking as if they have just been ironed. It really is a bit of a miracle. There is just one catch, however; non-iron shirts, though all cotton, no longer look nor act like all cotton fabric. They have, however, become ubiquitous in today's clothing market. Though they neither rumple nor wrinkle, they are, in fact, heirs to a technology of easy-care that Brooks Brothers pioneered. In this post we will look back at this legacy, and perhaps, notice a few things in the process.
Brooksweave, 1953. The development of easy-care clothing seems to have mirrored advancements in home laundering. One of the initial selling points of Brooksweave was its relatively quick drying time. This was an era when home laundering still meant hanging clothing and sheets out to dry before they were ironed. Clothing that promised not only a short drying time, but the miracle of little or no need for ironing was guaranteed to be a success.
The New Yorker 9/25/1954. Based on the initial success of Brooksweave, a broadcloth version named "Brookscloth" was introduced the following year in 1954. Broadcloth, being lighter in weight than oxford cloth, was sure to dry even more quickly.
The New Yorker 11/12/1955. A year later in 1955, both Brooksweave and Brookcloth were featured alongside Brooks Brothers all cotton shirts. They were advertised as having the same construction, design and collar "roll" as Brooks Brothers's regular shirts. This was actually true.
The New Yorker 5/6/1961. In 1961, Brookscloth shirts in stripes were introduced. Ever the innovator, Brooks Brothers introduced the use of Dacron thread to try to eliminate puckering on shirt seams.
The New Yorker 6/3/1961. Brooks Brothers continued to refine Brookscloth by introducing lighter weight shirts for warmer weather.
Brooks Brothers Spring & Summer 1962. This remarkable page from the 1962 Spring & Summer catalog displays the full lineup of Brooks Brothers's shirts, collar styles, as well as Brookscloth.
Brooks Brothers Spring & Summer 1962. There was also a Brookscloth Evening Shirt as well.
Brooks Brothers Spring & Summer 1962. Just as in the development of The Pink Shirt for Women, women's clothing at Brooks Brothers followed the development of men's clothing by offering Brookscloth and Brooksweave shirts, Bermuda shorts and raincoats tailored for the female figure.
Brooks Brothers Spring & Summer 1962. There are probably still a few women today who would like to see some of these traditional items offered again.
Brooks Brothers Spring & Summer 1962. The 1962 Spring & Summer catalog also contained a flyer advertising special offerings for April - shirts and robes in a wonderful tattersall blend fabric.
This blue-red tattersall would still be a perfect shirt today, especially with Brooks Brothers's old school construction.
Brooks Brothers Christmas 1979. Moving forward, Brooks Brothers continued to offer Brookscloth throughout the 1970s, as seen in the Polo collar shirt above.
Brooks Brothers Christmas 1979. Brooksweave and Brookscloth shirts (almost) always bore a green tag, that until the early 1990s read "Brooksweave" or "Brookscloth."
Brooks Brothers Fall & Winter 1980. One reason that many purists disliked blend fabrics was their tendency to pill, especially around the collar. The early 65/35 Dacron and cotton Brooksweave oxford cloth blend shirts did not escape this problem, which may be why Brooks Brothers went to a 60/40 cotton rich blend in the mid-1980s. Brookscloth, was more successful at escaping this issue than Brooksweave. Brookscloth shirts were hard wearing, lightweight and cool.
Brooks Brothers Christmas 1980. In addition to traditional broadcloth, Brookcloth shirts were also offered in End-on-End fabrics, such as the striped shirts above.
Brooks Brothers Summer 1981. Brooks Brothers continued to offer Brookscloth shirts in a variety of stripes.
Brooks Brothers Spring 1982.
'Own Make' and Easy Care about sums it up. What makes these shirts worthy of reconsideration is that they were, of course, constructed exactly like their all cotton counterparts. In this, they vastly exceeded Brooks Brothers current non-iron shirts.
Brooks Brothers Fall & Winter 1983. Bengal stripes made their appearance in 1983.
Brooks Brothers Fall & Winter 1983. Brookscloth was, of course, offered in Candy Stripes. But then, why wouldn't it have been?
Christmas 1985. In 1985, Brooks Brothers introduced their new 60/40 cotton and polyester Brooksweave and Brookscloth blends. This was a great improvement, especially for the Brooksweave oxford cloth blends.
Brooks Brothers Fall 1987. "Our Cotton-Rich Shirts." Brooks Brothers offered blended shirts in solids, stripes and tattersalls.
Spring 1991. In 1988, Brooks brothers was purchased by the British department store chain, Marks & Spencer. It was a period in which Brooks Brothers's shirts underwent gradual change and decline. What is noticeable here is the change in names. "Brooksweave broadcloth" signals that the name "Brookscloth" seems to have been dropped, and "Brooksweave" seems to have become the name for all their cotton/poly blends.
Holiday 1991. Again, the Brookscloth name seems to have been discontinued. "Brooksweave" was used for all blended fabrics such as broadcloths, oxfords and pinpoints.
Fall 1993. "Blended Dress Shirts." Though the blend is still a 60/40 blend, by 1993 the "Brooksweave" name had also disappeared from advertising.
Holiday 1993. Again, "Blended Dress Shirts" in a 60/40 blend. These shirts in the 1993 Holiday catalog still bear the familiar green sizing tags but without the "Brooksweave" and "Brooksloth" names. These names were replaced by the phrase "Est. 1818," which has continued to this day. However, the construction of the shirts above appears to still be the same as Brooks Brothers early 1990s all cotton dress shirts.
Contemporary Non-Iron shirts. Though I do not know when the current technology for non-iron shirts was first introduced, by 2005-2006 or so they were on the market. I probably first tried them around 2006-2007. I was, at first, pleasantly surprised by their ease of care. However, the more I wore them the less satisfied I was. They simply had no life. An all cotton shirt should look fresh in the morning and rumpled in the evening. It is part of its charm. Not so with non-iron shirts. They are so other worldly that they look as if they could be worn on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. They are positively space age.
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I eventually wearied of the joys of progress and passed most of them along to others. These are the only two (above and below) that I still have, and they spend most of their time in a box in the attic. Why, you might ask? The answer is quite simply that they are really no longer Brooks Brothers shirts - at least not the living, wrinkling and rumpling shirts with character that I have been used to wearing for years.
In spite of being all cotton, these shirts aren't really very breathable. In fact, I'm convinced that because of whatever has been done to them, they have surrendered their claim to being all cotton shirts. There has to be something coating them that is non-organic for them to behave in this way. However, the irony is that this finishing allows shirt makers to advertise them as all cotton shirts. This is progress, and yet it also makes me think that easy-care shirts have not yet been perfected.
Though cotton/polyester blends are decidedly unhip these days, I still think that Brooks Brothers original Brooksweave and Brookscloth shirts were better than the current non-iron shirts. The main reason being that they were constructed exactly the same way as Brooks Brothers's golden era all-cotton shirts were constructed. They had the same relaxed collar roll, cuffs, silhouette, everything. For nostalgia's sake, it is worthwhile to glance backwards at what are still, in my opinion, the best easy-care shirts ever made - Brookscloth shirts.
1954 era Brookscloth. NOS. This shirt has never been worn and still has the pinholes and bits of thread all over it that one would find on a new shirt. This is very likely a first generation Brookscloth shirt, and therefore worthy of being in a textile museum. It has gussets on the shirttails and no breast pocket, and shatters the idea that blends are not as soft as all cotton. This is a very soft shirt.
The original Brookscloth green tag and Dacron to cotton ratio of 65/35. The original fabric for these shirts was made by Burlington Mills.
Never worn. Still has the holes from the pins that kept it folded for sixty years.
Classic narrow Brooks Brothers cuffs, and single needle construction.
Probably hand-stamped.
Extra long tails with gussets. Gussetts disappeared by the mid to late 1950s.
The classic Brooks Brothers Polo Collar. I have a friend who is a bespoke tailor who nearly wept when he took this shirt into his hands. His first remark was, "This is how Brooks Brothers collars used to look and feel." After commenting on the softness of the fabric, he said "This collar is lined, but it is so thin that it is unnoticable." He then asked me, "You
are going to wear this, aren't you?" I replied that I was still thinking about that one, and mumbled something about the shirt making it for sixty years without being worn. To which he said, "Think about how the shirt feels. It was made to be worn. It has been waiting."
A selection of Brookscloth shirts.
1970s Brookscloth shirt, with a separate early care tag.
Solids in blue and white (top to bottom): 1954 era shirt, 1970s, 1980s, 1980s End-on-End, 1970s white.
End-on-End Brookscloth in candy stripes.
Brookscloth in checks and tattersalls.
As opposed to the Brooksweave oxford cloth blend, Brookscloth wears like iron. A warm weather favorite.
Superior construction. 65/35 blend. Amazing collar. Oddly, no Brookscloth tag. This is a shirt for khakis and a blue blazer under a May sky.
A variety of sizing tags over the years.
1950s first generation tag. The green was darker than the later tags.
1960s-70s. Garment care instructions are on a separate tag, which probably places this in the early 1970s.
1960s-1970s. I have wondered why Brooks Brothers offered blended fabric shirts without the Brookscloth tag.
1960s-1970s. There was also a 50/50 Terylene polyester and cotton blend. I haven't seen a lot of these.
1970s-1980s. A blue-red tattersall, with the fabric content and care instructions on the tag.
1970s-1980s. A navy-brown tattersall.
1970s-1980s. An End-on-End candy stripe shirt in a color called "Spice" (1979).
1970s-1980s. A blue candy stripe End-on-End shirt.
Mid-1980s. A 60/40 first generation solid light blue shirt, with a separate fabric content and care tag.
1980s. A navy-red tattersall shirt with the fabric content and care together on the size tag.
1980s. A solid blue End-on-End shirt with a somewhat rare 'Makers' Brookscloth tag.
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1970s-1980s. Another NOS shirt in an End-on-End brown candy stripe. I don't think that shirts in the style of these old blend fabric shirts will ever really return. I could be wrong, but I doubt it. That chapter of the easy-care saga is closed. However, I do think that what can be learned from the past is that Brookscloth shirts were the sum total of the best of blend-fabrics of that era, as well as a superior shirt construction that mirrored Brooks Brothers regular all cotton dress shirts. If I had to give weight to one or the other, it would be to shirt construction. It is here, in shirt construction, that I believe current non-iron shirts could benefit from the past. Softer more natural looking collars, breathability, and shirts that look and behave more like all cotton would be a great improvement. Until then, these old Brookscloth shirts remain the standard against which to measure all other easy-care shirts. Easy-care remains an incomplete and unfinished business. Which reminds me, I also still haven't worn that new old stock 1950s Brookscloth shirt, but I'm thinking about it. I don't want to keep the shirt waiting too much longer. After all, sixty years is a long time.
