In many ways Brooks Brothers is America’s first clothing company. Founded in 1818, they’ve made everything from Civil War uniforms to camel hair overcoats. The word “icon” has been exhausted but the Brooks polo oxford cloth shirt is an icon in every sense of the word. It still sets the standard for low-key elegance from Midtown to Milan, and the Oxford Sport shirt remains the ideal. I was doing some writing work for Brooks and got access to their incredible archive and couldn’t believe how thorough it was. There are images of white bucks and old ads for what to wear in Palm Beach, of chauffeur hats and sock garters. In a sense, this is a history of dressing in America. The archive shows what men needed in the last century, and a few things they merely wanted, like walking sticks, dressing gowns and even bar sets. What’s refined and even improbable here fires the imagination. Dressing well then, as now, remains about the art of the possible.

This section of the archive is from 1920-1940. All images courtesy Brooks Brothers.

The Archive is a regular feature about the history of good companies.