Ian Strachan is said to have favoured plain white Brooks. Love 'em.
Troy Guild are beauties. So are Sero.
Baggies are very variable, but not half bad when they're good.
Come on, lads - we must all have this one thing in common, wherever we come from.
Old, plain white American Brooks. You can't go wrong.
Can you?
What does John Gall like? The Professor? Brownshoe? Adam?
I hate to be just another yes vote, and I haven't been able to lay hands on a Sero yet. I am going to add one more for plain white Brooks Oxford. "Vintage" ones are amazing. Modern slim fits are really good too. There is nothing that the Brooks White Oxford does not look good with. My favorite summer outfit is hands down Brooks white shirt sleeves rolled, linen/cotton chinos in a slim cut, and sockless mocs. No frills. No loud colors. It just works.
Red white and blue pattern bleeding Madras with big white bars. Half sleeve of course.
This sort of pattern http://www.oconnellsclothing.com/ftp_only/Cx/madras_sportshirts/enlarge_madras_short_sleeve_sportshirt_nvyb.jpg
Shirts stocked in Ivy Shop in 60s were thicker quality and lost colour more than O'Connells version.
I thought they were baggier too but reality is probably that I was slimmer then
As I own neither a Sero nor a Troy Guild I would also go for the Brooks White Oxford. I do have several of these but my favorite is a St Michael labelled Brooks shirt. It has a wonderfully soft collar, perfect with a dark blue silk knit tie.
A friend passed a vintage Brooks Stone Oxford onto me and this has also become a favourite because of its softness.
Simple straightforward items that do the job without any fuss.
i don't often wear shirts to be honest, but when i do my favorite is either a white, custom fit RL or a dark brown and navy tattersall button down from massimo dutti.
The Brooks Brothers Makers (as opposed to BB 'Original Polo Shirt') blue Oxford button down can never be bettered in my opinion. TR is right about the 'dinginess' over time of the white oxford cloth and to me the blue is more iconic in any case.
I owned many Troy Guild shirts, and while they were beautifully crafted garments the drape and simplicity of Brooks was preferable, to my eyes at least. Troy's Oxford was heavier and duller, without the sheen of the Brooks blue OC, and there was far more variance in collar and finish from shirt to shirt in the Troy.
I am not a slim-fit or trim-fit shirt man. The blousiness of the classic Brooks cut which seems to turn many off is one of the very factors which appeals to me: it's a problem only when teaming the shirt with skinny, low rise jeans to provide the prototype "Jerry Seinfeld" silhouette. With proper pants a slim fit shirt looks odd, on me at least!
keep jookin'
NSB
I went to private schools as a kid so I've been wearing oxford shirts for awhile. I think I've had everything from thrift store Arrow to Brooks Brothers. My problem now is I need a 16 - 34 for my neck and arms. Now you can imagine on a six foot tall, 170 pound guy that's a big shirt, so I had a few dress shirts made local. They fit great, worth the money, but I may just be lucky to have found a good/not too pricey shirt maker.
I'm really, really pleased to see that Brooks are still getting the thumbs up. Ray needs to turn into 'The Incredible Shrinking Man' in order to join in the fun, but that's another matter.
The late Huntington Clothiers of Columbus, Ohio had great shirts. They ran an ad in the NY Times sunday magazine for eons. Two ocbds for an introductory price, and as long as you sent the ad in with your check you could be reintroduced indefinitely.
They had a nice little catalog of nothing but men's shirts. I bought a lot in my immediate post-college years. I don't know who made the shirts.
Last edited by Patrick (2009-05-13 05:39:44)
These days like most..Brooks, but i also champion a couple Hilfiger ones, I have lovely multi colour stripe shirt by some make I'd never heard of...Reporter (I think, I'll check when I get home) not the best quality shirt I own but great coloured stripes and a lovely collar roll.
Some of my favourite shirts in the past have long gone..whilst dossing about in the States in the early 80's I had loads of second hand shirts (vintage for our younger posters!) out of thrift stores and second hand (vintage) clothes shops.....to my shame I can't remember makes as it was much more about the look than the label, but some of those shirts I miss, a lovely yellow ocbd with and orange window opane check, ah memories! They lasted for ages.....unlike my youth and hair!!!
I'd love to walk in Brooks Brothers and buy a 15 3/4 33 1/2 shirt. I can wear a 15.5 33 just fine with the neck unbuttoned and sleeves rolled up. Maybe I'm just too particular, but I don't like feeling strangled all day.
Bump - partly because of NSBs always wise and measured comments. I have a wardrobe almost full on one side of blue Brooks shirts.
You need to chill out man, yeah?
If you have any 6 button Makers in 15-3 I can exchange them for 7 button varieties.
To me the 7 button looks more contemporary and less classic. (Ironically, most people would consider contemporary as a good thing.)
Still IMHO no real need to look further than US-made Brooks. Vintage or new.