The Celebration Of A Milestone

Brooks Brothers marks its birthday—and a longstanding history of excellence and mastery of art and craft

- Sarah Meier

It’s not every day that you get to celebrate a 200th birthday.

This bicentennial celebration might actually have been my first and last, and in the most New York of ways, likely an event that will become the raised bar against which all other festivities in the future will be measured.

I am ushered to my seat right in front of the stage at the Jazz at Lincoln, where I am surprised to be flanked by the evening’s special guests. Katie Holmes is to my left, mildly obscured from sight by assistants and colleagues buzzing about her. She sips from a wine glass; evidently the only one that has been permitted into a strictly no-beverage theater. Zac Posen, New York’s fashion wunderkind, expertly navigates the slowly filling row of editors in front of me, smiling warmly and keeping each one abreast of his plans for the year.

Every other seat is filled with a spectacularly suited guest, befitting of the occasion. Wynton Marsalis, who has been on my jazz bucket list to watch, takes the stage and summarizes it succinctly. Brooks Brothers, a storied brand, intricately woven into American heritage and history, is to be celebrated tonight through the lens of American music, from jazz, bebop, and the blues, to bluegrass, Broadway, and gospel.