The London Lounge

I just took delivery of an Ebay purchase of a Brooks Brothers Glen Plaid suit. The only "Brooks Brothers" label is at the collar, and says,"Brooks Brothers, Makers, Established 1818", and the woolmark and dry clean only info. In the inside vest pocket (and also inside the pants) is a typed label with a man's name, 2 sets of numbers and a date. All the labels, including the BB label, are professionally sewn in, and the suit itself is of extremely high quality, fully canavassed and showing a lot of handwork. Is this likely a BB MTM suit?

Yes, if it has the person's name, MTM. If the date is earlier than 1960 could possibly be bespoke.

Brooks ended its bespoke (or "custom") program in 1980, not 1960. Nino Corvato ran it, and that's why he left Brooks and went out on his own.

I thought it was 1975 when Brooks Brothers ended it's bespoke program.

Best Regards,

Cufflink79

The New York Times in an article by Lawrence Van Gelder reported on May 8, 1976 that Brooks Brothers would end its custom program in the near future. The Times gave this subject page one coverge. There was a follow-up article on August 15, 1976.

I think it is important to note the year. It is coincidental (but not ironic) that a few months prior to the country celebrating its bicentennial, Brooks ended this program.

I don't know when the last suit actually left the workshop.

If anyone wants these articles and one about Peal & Co. ending its bespoke program, I can send you the PDFs.

I think they kept a truncated version of the program going for a while to accomodate certain long-time customers, but they stopped taking new clients. That's what Nino told me, at any rate. He spent 25 years with Brooks and left because he was unhappy not doing custom any more.