Passing the skeletal remains of 346 Madison Avenue reminds me that J. Press stands alone in the once upon a time thriving retail neighborhood that promoted traditional American Style menswear. It’s hardly coincidental that the enterprise my grandfather founded on the Yale campus is quartered side-by-side the Yale Club in New York on 44th and Vanderbilt.
How to exchange 20th century Ivy Style for today’s expanded market without demeaning its past? Following the recent national election, the term “ballot dumping” was widely discussed. J. Press refines the term via our own version expressed as “category dumping.”
For example, our famous J. PRESS hand brushed Shetland wool Shaggy Dog sweaters still bark with extended breeds in over forty colors enhanced by a new version of university stripes expressed on either sleeve or body. Our hearty collection of four-ply Scottish cashmere cable crew neck sweaters display eight colors. Frosting on the cake—J. PRESS shawl collar cardigans from Scotland are beyond the fringe as a sport coat or outerwear choice.
Schoolboy mufflers originally worn by boat club members of universities in England and reframed as a prime signature on prep school and college campuses in the 1950s are once again re-popularized, worn with either a duffel coat or chunky sweater.
“Roamin’ in the Gloamin on the bonnie banks o’ Clyde” characterizes our unmatched variety of all wool Tartan trousers. Also, on hand in Technicolor, a rainbow of corduroy trousers in sixteen colors.
The list is endless.
Brave New World is a dystopian social science fiction novel written in 1931 by English author Aldous Huxley that features the line “No social stability without individual stability.”
J. Press presentations adhere to the Huxley axiom.
RICHARD PRESS
17 comments
Enjoy your letters very much We USC Trojans can use help. Fight on !
I stand with many J. Press loyalists. Thank you for your fine products.
Good morning, living in Los Angeles it has been about three years since visiting New York. Are you saying the iconic Brooks Brothers store at 346 Madison has been closed?
With snow and slush costing every inch of pavement here in Boston for the foreseeable future, I’m back to my inclement weather uniform of Bean boots, jeans, an OCBD and a J. Press shaggy dog. Happy to see the brand back on Newbury and just picked up a trim fit in a wonderful mossy green. If I can put a word in to HQ: here’s hoping that iconic kelly green is made in trim fit one of those seasons.
Although great in it’s day, Brooks Brothers in recent years had strayed from the fold of traditional American style and had become more of an Italian department store (complete with cafe’), with very little of it’s merchandise actually made in the USA. Their bureaucracy became bloated, their retail leases oppressive, and their service less reliable. J. Press, on the other hand, has continued to focus on it’s niche market, maintaining it’s American manufacturing base and producing clothing that is classic rather than stylish. Moreover, it seems to be keeping it’s costs under control. Long live J. Press!
My best wishes to the J. Press company and it’s many customers for a blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year.