Brooks Brothers to celebrate 40 years in Japan with Tokyo runway show

By

Robin Driver

Published
Apr 10, 2019

Classic US tailored apparel brand Brooks Brothers is taking its Fall/Winter 2019 men’s and womenswear collections to Tokyo on May 23 for a special runway show commemorating its 40th year of operations in Japan.
 

The location for the show, which will be attended by creative director of Brooks Brothers’ womenswear collections Zac Posen, is yet to be revealed, but the brand did hint that it “will reflect one of the popular connections linking Japan and America.”
 
The event will be the brand’s third global runway presentation and its first in Japan.

Brooks Brothers opened its first Japanese flagship store in Tokyo’s Aoyama neighborhood in 1979, arriving among some of the first international clothing brands to enter the market. The company now operates 83 locations in the country, 25 of which are in Tokyo.
 
“We are proud of our long and successful history in Japan,” said Brooks Brothers Chairman and CEO Claudio Del Vecchio in a release, “I’m honored to be celebrating this momentous occasion in a country that I so appreciate for its dynamic blend of culture, traditions and innovation.”
 
Brooks Brothers’ Tokyo runway show follows the brand’s bicentennial year, during which it organized a series of global events, including a concert at New York City’s Jazz at Lincoln Center and a runway show accompanied by the Italian Philharmonic at Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio.

The brand’s celebrations also featured exhibitions showcasing its 200-year-old archives, presented in Florence, New York, Shanghai and, in fall of last year, Tokyo, where the exhibition’s six-week run resulted in record-breaking visitor numbers at the Bunka Costume Museum.
 
Founded in 1818 and acquired by Italian billionaire Claudio del Vecchio in 2001, Brooks Brothers currently operates more than 250 retail and factory stores in the US, as well as another 250 international locations.