If the shoe fits, 1962

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Playboy - September 1962

Brooks Brothers Number Two(s), 1932-1964

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Three new styles of ready-made suits have been added to our stock for this Spring. The familiar Brooks Brothers' models are continued unchanged and are supplemented by these three new styles, which are both single and double breasted - some with plaited trousers - the coats more closely fitted and with squarer shoulders.

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The New Yorker - 2/27/32

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Furthermore, there are five different models which include our new close fitting, square shouldered coats in addition to our older models with natural shoulders. All models have soft rolled lapels.

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The New Yorker - 4/23/32

The ready-made dealers, in fact, have taken several leaves from their custom brothers' books this year, both in unusually smart cloths and styles. The latter are generally giving more breadth to the shoulders and slightly less to the waist, and the best of these suits are so expertly cut and made that they achieve the desired effect without any shoulder padding. In any event, it's a style that has far more individuality than the usual ready-to-wear garment.

A somewhat surprising thing in connection with this trend is the way Brooks have taken the style up. Of course, Brooks still have their tables piled with the good old soft-roll, high-lapel sack coats that have been the accepted college and bond-salesman uniform for so long, but up on another floor, where the more conservative Brooks customer will never find it, is a whole new assortment of clothing hung on hangers in showcases, with two-button coats, peaked lapels, and pleated-waistband trousers! The models are single and double-breasted and show a nice refinement in design. This is especially true of the peaked lapels; they have a rather square cut that does not distract from their smartness, and also does not put your eye out any time you bend your head. From $50 up.


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The New Yorker - 4/16/32

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Brooks Brothers' ready-made suits for Spring include double and single breasted models in two different styles... one with natural, the other with squarer shoulders.


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The New Yorker - 3/9/35

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 The Brooks Brothers staff unanimously deplores the later Number Two line, with fitted waist and square, padded shoulders. It was introduced as a concession to the Depression, and is now, they hope, on the way out.

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The New Yorker - 5/7/38

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There never was a No. 2. For a few unhappy years, there was a No 222. It had a two-button jacket and pleated pants. Eventually, the pleats were banished, leaving a two-button suit called, inexplicably, No. 3.

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"The suits on the Brooks Brothers Men" - New York Times - 8/15/76

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The New Yorker - 3/21/64

1966, "Our Newly Redesigned No. 2 Suit"

[Note: Their 1961 two button suit is also sometimes known as the "Number 2".  According to Esquire, the Fitzgerald model is a modified version of this suit. -katon]

The Two-Button Suit, 1962

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The Ivy League Look is now petering out and the two button suit is back in a burst of presidential glory. [. . . ] Brooks Brothers, the famous stamping ground of the Ivy League look, saw the two button suit revival coming from a long way back. Brooks has been perfecting its new two button collection for two years. President Kennedy's sponsorship of the new style is purely coincidental.

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Capital Times - 2/23/62

Bostonian's Sewing Circle, 1965

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Playboy - December 1965

The Brooks Number Three, 1941

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The New Yorker - 9/20/41

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The New Yorker - 10/11/41

Its new model, daringly called the Brooks Number Three Suit, has a coat with very slightly padded shoulders and a very slightly shaped waist; it must have been quite a decision for the old house, all in all.

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The New Yorker - 10/04/41

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Sinatra is no fashion plate and has yet to become as excited about the Brooks Brothers No. 3 sack suit as do most nouveau riche entertainers. His proudest possession is a gold identification tag which he wears on his wrist. If the time ever arrives when he is stampeded to death by his fans, the police who recover the body are likely to find themselves in a quandary. For the tag carries the name of "Tami Mauriello," a heavyweight boxer, who gave it to Sinatra when his draft number came up.

Source:

LIFE - 5/3/43 

[Note: The Brooks Number Three was remodeled in the late 60s. -katon]