Brooks Brothers Boys & Girls Fleece for Fall & A New Line We Like

Hello-Hello, and happy top of a new week.

Today’s post acknowledges the inevitable: that although we are only in the middle of summer, and weeks away from fall (months away for those of us without back to school concerns), new season collections are arriving in stores. In that spirit we take a look at this fall’s Fleece Collection at Brooks Brothers.

Brooks Brothers "Fleece"

Fleece is the line that launched this spring bringing the Boys and Girls collections together under a unified label. We share a number of looks from the fall line.

Brooks Brothers

We like almost everything in the collection. The pieces seem more age-appropriate, with hems that look a little longer, there is restraint in the use of embellishment and pattern. The impact is a collection that is more classic, more preppish if you will.  Below, two of the casual ensembles.

Brooks Brothers Fleece

The more formal styles are also pretty. The grey Taffeta Print Dress has a *very* sophisticated look, although we’re not sure what color most accurately reflects the shades of grey in the fabric. The dress runs $125 in girls sizes 4 through 16.

Brooks Brothers Printed Taffeta Dress

Our favorite of the dressier styles, the Wool Pleat Dress.

Brooks Brothers

It is everything a young lady’s winter dress should be, with three-quarter length sleeves, pleats and elegant piping, priced at $125. We show two more of the dress-up styles, not our favorites, but not bad either.

Brooks Brothers 'Fleece'

There are also basics like Argyle Cardigans in merino wool.

Brooks Brothers 'Fleece'

Along with the Girls Cashmere Cardigans. (TQM is rolling her eyes at the notion of cashmere for kids, “It’s just not practical.”)

Brooks Brothers 'Fleece'

The wool dresses for Girls look nice as well, although the sleeveless version on the far right doesn’t make a lot of sense, initially we thought it was a jumper, but online it is described as a dress. The dresses are priced between $80 and $90.

Brooks Brothers 'Fleece'

The fall shoes are also darling, all of these ballet flats feature sweet little bows and

Brooks Brothers 'Fleece'

The Boys Fleece line for fall is also available online.

Brooks Brothers 'Fleece'

Here are several looks.

Brooks Brothers 'Fleece'

Again, there are plenty of basics like merino wool sweaters, these run $89.50 to $98.50.

Brooks Brothers 'Fleece'

The selection of pants available for your young MOTH (Man of the House) is also good sized, with styles in corduroy, gabardine, pleated, unpleated, and more. These are priced from $59.50 to $98.

Brooks Brothers 'Fleece'

The sports shirts for boys shown below are $49.50.

Brooks Brothers 'Fleece'

All in all this is a stellar collection from Brooks, with lots of things to like.

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And in the spirit of “summer is still very much with us!” we have a look at a line relatively new to us, Jolie & Elizabeth.

Jolie and Elizabeth

The company is best known for its seersucker dresses, below we share a portion of its philosophy as explained online:

Jolie is French for, “pretty” and Elizabeth translates to “promise” so together, Jolie & Elizabeth means pretty promise and our promise to you is below.

All of our dresses are manufactured right here in the beautiful city of New Orleans, Louisiana… Jolie & Elizabeth prides itself in contributing to the rebuilding, revitalizing and redevelopment of the city of New Orleans, and the great state of Louisiana.

Here are three darling dresses.

Jolie & Elizabeth

The line also offers party dresses, here are two styles shown at New Orleans Fashion Week, we’ll make the dress on the left today’s Pretty in Pink.

Jolie and Elizabeth

We do like the way this line looks, and love the fact they manufacture in New Orleans.

That’s it for today, goodbye until next time!

LL Bean Signature, and an Unusual Launch for Brooks Brothers

Hello-Hello!

Today we have more pictures than prose (there’s a blessing!), hopefully images you shall find moderately appealing. We begin with an early look at fall styles from the recently launched LL Bean Signature line.

The new styles are featured at a delightful blog, N’East Style.

As difficult as it is to contemplate the possibility of a weather change in a few months, the pictures serve to remind us of fall’s inevitable arrival.

Many of the styles are enticing, we are eager to see the catalog.  Our thanks to the N’East Style blog; for an early look at Signature for Men, pop over here.

Perhaps of equal interest, the ongoing LL Bean Signature Sale, with solid markdowns.  This includes the Piped Sweater Jacket (now $64.50 from $129) in the Twilight colorway.

The Mariner Leather Tote (originally $285, now $198) has a more fiscally friendly price point, as does the Chambray Shirt Dress, although the latter is not as deeply discounted as the bag (the dress was $79, now $63.20).

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An even newer launch is now officially underway; Brooks Brothers is promoting its new Fleece line for children.

Courtesy Brooks Brothers

Frequent readers may recall our posts previewing the line, below we show two styles we like, the Cashmere Intarsia Dress, and the Velvet Sailor Dress.

The number of sleeveless dresses for winter is disconcerting (unless they are intended to be worn as jumpers), while many of the accessories are cute.

The retailer continues to leverage new media resources, including its Facebook page; Brooks offers all of its catalogs online as well.

Brooks Brothers is also using the internet in another way, debuting a new collection online, but not at its own website.

Gilt Groupe

The new line is being launched via online ‘members-only’ sale site Gilt.com. We should make that past tense, as the sale went live at Noon EDT.  (If in need of an invite to the site, simply click here.)

Here is the description from Gilt’s sale site:

Available from Gilt before it hits stores in August, Brooks Brothers’ new collegiate-inspired line — which culls inspiration from campus life during the Roaring Twenties as well as vintage advertising from the extensive Brooks archives…”

This will be more than intriguing to watch, not now, but in August when the merchandise lands in-store. Are the Gilt sale prices what one might expect to see in stores and online? Or are these ‘discounted prices’ going to be raised when the selling channel moves from Gilt to the Brooks Brothers brick and mortar stores?  We’ll let you know what we discover.

Gilt has done a stellar job expanding into a ‘full-service’ off-price site, now offering goods for men, women, children and the home, as well as gifts and travel opportunities.

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As we approach the upcoming debut of Mad Men Season 4 we can expect to see many of the show’s stars featured in other media; below, Exhibit A. We’re going to go out on a limb, and suggest that a few friends will be gaga find the August cover of W to be of interest.

Nathaniel Goldberg/W magazine

The August issue showcases what many are describing as actor Jon Hamm’s “smoldering look”.  Mr. Hamm is best known for his role as Mad Men’s Don Draper. He is joined in the magazine feature by actress Rebecca Hall, she co-stars with him in The Town, a film being released this September.

Here is one last photo from the spread; we happily recommend the other photos and accompanying interview, click here to see both.

Nathaniel Goldberg/W magazine

We apologize to our Facebook fans, as we already shared the cover photo on that site, we simply couldn’t resist.  Silly Princess.

On that note we say goodbye until next time!

‘Fleece’ by Brooks Brothers Sneak Peek

Hello-Hello, and Happy Monday!

With things crazy-busy here at The Princess, we jump right in with an early look at the new Brooks Brothers line for young ladies, Fleece.

Courtesy Brooks Brothers

These images were posted this weekend on the new Brooks Brothers Facebook page.

Courtesy Brooks Brothers

The new line is slated to launch in time for back-to-school shopping.

Courtesy Brooks Brothers

The Brooks Brothers Facebook page also shows this fall’s styles for the young master of the house, just click here to see the upcoming fashions; below we show the logo for the new line.

Courtesy Brooks Brothers

According to the Brooks FB page, information about a private Fleece Trunk Show for FB fans will be announced on their FB Wall (for those unfamiliar with Facebook, this is rather like one’s home page, for lack of a better term).  Our hats are off to the design team at B2, for the most part we think the girls collection looks promising.

While the majority of the Fleece styles for young men are also impressive, we have a moderate concern about this:

Courtesy Brooks Brothers

As many readers are more than tired of hearing aware, our LogoPhobia can be triggered by something like the item seen above, and in the case of Brooks Brothers, we are off the grid a bit sensitive to the topic, borderline hysterical concerned that logos on sweatshirts are merely the first step on a slippery slope. A slope that this company has judiciously avoided in most respects.

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Saturday brought us our monthly issue of WSJ magazine, always a fun read. This issue was particularly enjoyable for any preppish reader, beginning with the cover story, “The Church of Mickey Drexler, Inside the world of J. Crew’s evangelical CEO“.

Courtesy WSJ Magazine

Tina Gaudoin’s profile is enlightening, and while we are not terribly fond of many Crew fashion decisions, we cannot fault Mr. Drexler’s business acumen.

Another interesting piece in this issue, an interview with designer Thom Browne.

Jeff Riedel/WSJ Magazine

Mr. Browne is perhaps best known to Princess readers as the designer of Brooks Brothers’ Black Fleece collections, as well as the man pushing higher hemlines. For men.

Finally, WSJ takes a fast glance at tote bags, commenting that “Preppy goes paisley and punchy with this summer’s take on the traditional tote.”

Nigel Cox/WSJ Magazine

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We want to mention another children’s line, this one from Princess favorite, J. McLaughlin.

J. McLaughlin

We like a number of the dresses for girls, along with other offerings in the limited edition collection.

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Here is one of the day’s Pretty in Pink offerings, Marilyn Monroe in her iconic Gentlemen Prefer Blondes dress.

The famous gown was sold at auction this weekend for a staggering $309,000.

For another Pretty in Pink that is also an Adventure in Argyle, we bring you this image via the always-on-top-of-things Erin at Pink and Green Scene.

Pink and Green Scene

For more on the Summer Oasis beach Towel, click here.

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We leave you with this image as we celebrate and honor Flag Day.

Toby Talbot/AP

Goodbye until next time!