In the Spring of 2019, a specific patch of Manhattan – bordered by Chinatown, Nolita and Soho – was playing host to something of a menswear happening. To call it a ‘movement’ would be too strong, but a few brands were coming at the same consumer, the same aesthetic from slightly differing angles, and converging on a trend that leant heavily into 90s sportswear, skate culture, and an ironic, almost fetishist take on aristocratic style.
I was in town to interview Brendon Babenzien, co-founder of Noah (one of the brands in question) and while I was there I planned to stop in to Aimé Leon Dore (Mulberry Street), Drake's (Prince Street, though a British export, of course) and Rowing Blazers (Grand Street).
All four brands have evolved in different directions since then.
Noah is still Noah-ing, but its ascent has slowed, and Babenzien is now side-hustling as J.Crew’s menswear designer (and doing a v good, v-Noah-y job). The other three have enjoyed somewhat unstoppable rises.
Drake’s is now the coolest brand on Savile Row, it's London home, by far; Aimé Leon Dore has become part-funded by LVMH and dominant in its space, and Rowing Blazers, the most esoteric of them all, is in the process of building a preppy empire.
Rowing Blazers was founded in 2017 by Jack Carlson, a former rower (he coxed for the US national team) and lover of the sport’s unique aesthetic, specifically the idiosyncrasies of the colourful blazers teams wore before and after competing.
So much so, that he wrote a book about it, Rowing Blazers, published in 2014 in partnership with the preppy don, Ralph Lauren.
The book gave Carlson the idea to start a blazer brand, and it snowballed from there. Rowing Blazers now offers tailoring, sweats, knitwear, and accessories – all conceived and commissioned through a wry, decadent, monied eye of the recent past.
Think Less Than Zero, if it had been set at the Royal Henley Regatta.
Case in point: Carlson shrewdly recognised the emergence of Princess Diana for the TikTok generation, and so purchased the licensing rights of Warm & Wonderful, the British knitwear brand that made her iconic red and white sheep jumper.
Smart move. He has, reports the Financial Times, sold $8m-worth of those since 2020.
Collaboration has been a driving force for the label.
Rowing Blazers has partnered with brands that echo its own espousal of yuppie glamour, including Fila (kitsch 80s sportswear), Sperry (yachting), and Gucci (the ultimate yuppie brand).
There have also been a series of steel sports watches, made first with Seiko, then Zodiac, then Tudor, and most recently, with Tag Heuer in collaboration with George Bamford.
There is now even a 140-piece collection of preppy essentials with American budget supermarket, Target, complete with cricket jumpers ($20), porcelain bulldog bookends ($10) and ‘croquet stripe’ straps for the Apple Watch ($12.50). High fashion has been doing this sort of thing – partnering with the high street – for years now (Uniqlo, H&M, etc). But zooming out, is this not jumping the shark a bit? A proudly low-cost supermarket selling cheaper versions of pieces from a brand that makes expensive things inspired by the schools and pastimes of the global elite?
And yet, it works. I, for one, covet the pink corduroy ‘Count The Roses Not The Thorns' baseball hat. And it’s only $9.
Unlike Aimé Leon Dore and or Noah, which have inspired a litany of copycat brands (and some to great success), no one is doing what Rowing Blazers is doing. No one is making clothes that both gently mock and proudly lionise the eccentricity of high society. There are similar aesthetics, of course.
Polo Ralph Lauren, for example, provides much of the source material for all of the brands mentioned herein, but being a global fashion monolith it would find it less easy to also poke gentle fun at the world it celebrates.
Carlson seems to have decided that all the hegemony and pomp and genealogy can simply be extracted from the aristo-aesthetic, leaving everyone free to cosplay as an Etonian prefect, without the misery or expense of having to actually attend the school.
Unisex "Diana Edition" Sheep Sweater
Seersucker Jacket
OG Fun Shirt
Rowing Blazers, though, is just one slice of a wider preppy pie. Carlson and The Blazer Group recently acquired Chipp, an old American Ivy League suit maker known for dressing JFK, and will relaunch it next year (watch out, Drake’s). The group also has sportswear brand Arthur Ashe (named in honour of the tennis player), knitwear brand Gyles & George, and of course, has worked with Warm & Wonderful.
Blazer Group’s plans are either indecorous or ingenious.
On the one hand, they are doubling down on the rich-kid aesthetic at a time when people seem to be getting quite sick of the rich.
Then again, it seems our aspirational fascination for posh culture is perhaps stronger than ever. On TikTok, the hashtag #oldmoney – referring specifically to the ‘old money’ way of dressing, whatever that means, exactly – has garnered over 2.5 billion views.
And in the cinema, we eagerly await the arrival of Saltburn, a film about the elitist, bonkers world of aristocratic students at Oxford University.
I’ve seen Saltburn, and those students are, indeed, appalling.
But damn, do they look good.
