A Comparison of Newer and Older American Heritage Fashion Companies and the America-First Approach Towards the Pandemic

Abstract

While mask-wearing has only become familiar for everyday use in the past year, Brooks Brothers, Hickey Freeman Tailored Clothing, Ralph Lauren, and Gap Inc. are all companies that have built their way up to become trusted American heritage fashion retailers. Their various cloth masks communicate a sense of comfort to their individual audiences in different ways. This article will argue that the ways in which the current administration has comforted the American public by adopting an America-first mentality and communicating its goal to win the "war" against the virus, can be compared to the ways in which the two older American heritage retailers associate comfort with their masks. While Brooks Brothers and Hickey Freeman Tailored Clothing associate comfort with their masks by emphasizing their companies' levels of expertise, Ralph Lauren and Gap Inc. communicate their masks' sense of comfort through a more symbiotic relationship between expertise and public benefit.