Brooks Brothers Marks 40 Years in Japan With Baseball-Themed Show

TOKYO — Brooks Brothers returned to the roots of its international business Thursday with a fashion show in the Japanese capital. The event commemorated 40 years since the brand opened its first store outside the U.S. in 1979, which still operates in the same space in Tokyo’s Aoyama district. “I think at that time, if we were not the first we were definitely one of the first American brands to establish its own presence here,” said Claudio del Vecchio, president and chief executive officer of Brooks Brothers. Japan is now Brooks Brothers’ second-largest market. About 68 percent of the brand’s sales come from the U.S., followed by 15 percent from Japan. “In our first early discussions when I was joining Brooks Brothers was how important the Japanese business was for the overall global brand, and that was something both surprising and very exciting,” said Zac Posen, creative director for the brand’s women’s collection. But del Vecchio said the company’s business is rapidly growing in China as well, and that market will likely overtake Japan within a few years. “It’s getting close to Japan,” the executive said. “Greater China, the U.S. and Japan make up about 92 to 93 percent of the business.

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