Michael Bastian ’87 Brings Brooks Brothers to Campus
At 9 a.m. on a recent Friday, the world of fashion gathers at Babson College.
Milling about the Weissman Foundry is a group waiting to get to work: an art director, photographer, stylist, hair and makeup artist, assistants, and a handful of models. Their assignment this morning is a photo shoot for Brooks Brothers, and with their clothes, gear, and creativity in tow, they are preparing for a long day in front of them.
“We’re doing a back-to-school campaign,” says Michael Bastian ’87, Brooks Brothers’ creative director since 2020. When thinking of what school might provide a suitable backdrop for pictures, Bastian immediately thought of his alma mater’s green, picturesque campus. “It’s physically the most beautiful campus,” he says. “When you close your eyes and think of a college, you get this college in your head.”
An entrepreneur who once ran his own successful eponymous fashion brand, Bastian has been a fan of Brooks Brothers clothes for decades. Joining the brand as creative director felt like the perfect opportunity, though the timing was inauspicious. Bastian came aboard during the heart of the pandemic, and the company had filed for bankruptcy mere months before his arrival. “For anyone who loves the brand, it was a dark day when they went bankrupt,” he says.
Fast forward three-plus years, however, and the iconic brand is in a much different place. This day of the Babson photo shoot finds a company whose fortunes have rebounded, thanks in part to Bastian’s stewardship. In the wake of bankruptcy, he leaned into the clothier’s strengths of tradition and quality. “It went from having both feet in the grave to having the strongest year in the history of the company,” Bastian says.
Celebrating a Brand
Founded in 1818, Brooks Brothers is a clothier with a long history. “My dad wore the brand. My grandfather wore the brand,” Bastian says. “It was baked into my DNA.”
When he thinks back to his time at Babson, Bastian remembers wearing Brooks Brothers clothes as a student. The Babson of the 1980s was a much different place, and Bastian applauds the school for how much more diverse and international it has become since he graduated. Despite the passage of years, he still carries with him many of the lessons he learned at the College. “The things I learned here at Babson have served me the entirety of my career so far,” he says.
The Brooks Brothers photo shoot at Babson isn’t the first time that Bastian’s fashion career has intersected with the College. More than a decade ago, when he was running his own brand, he once used an old Babson friend’s undergraduate wardrobe as inspiration for some clothes he was designing.
Known for its preppy sense of style, Bastian’s own brand brought him success, notoriety, and collaborations with clothing retailer Gant, but big changes eventually came to the world of retail. That wasn’t good news for Bastian’s brand, which was sold entirely wholesale. “I was relying on Barneys. That’s now out of business. The whole business model of being an independent designer changed,” he says. “I had a couple of years where I took a mental break to figure out what I wanted to do with my life.”
Then, Brooks Brothers came calling. Of the candidates for creative director, Bastian was the most traditional minded. Others sought to seize upon the company’s low moment of declaring bankruptcy and radically remake more than two centuries of Brooks Brothers history.
“They were talking to other designers who said burn it down to the ground and start fresh,” Bastian says. “That’s the opposite of what I believe in. There is so much goodwill built into the brand. Brands kill for that name recognition and loyalty.”
Ultimately, Bastian and his approach, of wanting to celebrate the brand and its history, won the job.
Not a Reinvention
Bastian came to the clothier as the pandemic changed the nature of work, forcing people out of the office and into the more casual confines of their homes. That shift was an unfortunate one for Brooks Brothers, as the company had dialed back its sportswear, long a fixture at the brand. “How people dress for work underwent a revolution,” Bastian says. “Not everyone wears a full suit and tie. Ties are optional for most companies now.”
“They were talking to other designers who said burn (Brooks Brothers) down to the ground and start fresh. That’s the opposite of what I believe in. There is so much goodwill built into the brand. Brands kill for that name recognition and loyalty.”
Michael Bastian '87, creative director of Brooks Brothers
One of Bastian’s first projects was to reintroduce clothes that were classic but casual. “It’s all about sportswear. It’s all about casual,” he says. “It was a hit. There are so many people who love Brooks Brothers. If you put it out there, they will respond.”
That experience serves as an instructive example of what Bastian is striving for at Brooks Brothers. He’s not so much reinventing the brand as re-establishing and reinvigorating the great things it has always done. “To be a creative director at a creative brand like this,” he says, “has been a great challenge in the trajectory of my career.”
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