• The Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, July 17, 2007 10:30 AM

Brooks Brothers next month will introduce Black Fleece--a high-end collection by avant-garde designer Thom Browne--with the biggest print-ad campaign in its 189-year history. Browne is known for ankle-baring gray-flannel suits and cropped jackets--a departure for the epitome of the buttoned-down retailer.

The campaign--estimated to cost $7 million--is packaged in six-to-24 page spreads that begin with traditional Brooks Brothers clothes, such as ready-to-wear suits ranging up to $1,900. It ends with two facing pages featuring models in $2,700 suits designed by Browne, with his signature fitted style. The tagline on those pages, "Style For A New Generation," is a play on the store's longtime slogan, "Generations of Style."

The Brooks Brothers collaboration with Browne is the latest effort to reach new customers with a strategy now widely used in fashion and retail. Fashion marketers today "can't operate without having a cutting-edge designer name," says David Wolfe, creative director of Doneger Group retail consultants.

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