A JOURNEY THROUGH THE WP ARCHIVES EXPLORING B.D. BAGGIES

It was indeed in the world of preppy and Ivy League colleges that B.D. Baggies shirts reached the height of their success. The brand's history began in fact with a legend: in 1919, student Bradford Dexter Bagg retrieved from his attic a trunk full of his father's old shirts, traditional worn-looking styles. Their fabric was the fine Oxford cotton found in the elegant shirts used by members of the American upper middle class of the time, but the cloth had softened over time, making the silhouette soft and the texture dense. What we know for sure, moving now away from legends back into the realm of history, is that B.D. Baggies was founded in 1986 by Matt Totilo. At the time, Matt was the Executive Vice President of Enro Shirt Co. and he wanted to create a formal shirt featuring a relaxed fit and a distinctive fabric, exactly like the pre-laundered one. In September 1987, B.D. Baggies attended the SEHM Men's Fashion Biennial in Paris. Just a couple of years later, in 1989, the American brand's path finally crossed that of WP Lavori in Corso, which became its distributor. Thus we began to push the typical lived-looking B.D. Baggies shirts into the Old Continent's major shopping destinations. The brand continued to grow ever since, so much so that in 1995 WP Lavori In Corso acquired its Italian license and eventually became its owner. To explore the brand's decade-long story from its beginnings to the present, while exploring the archives of WP Lavori in Corso, we resorted to the voice of Chris Corrado, creative consultant and brand strategist from New York City. In the second episode of WP Stories, Chris walks through the history of B.D. Baggies and its inextricable connection to WP Lavori in Corso together with us, showing the audience some of its most iconic garments.