How to Fix Broken Brands

It’s a fashion industry cliche for the leaders of a struggling brand to tell employees and customers they’re “going back to their roots.”

After all, there’s money to be made in exploiting the bits of a label’s DNA that are still relevant to today’s consumer. It’s an approach that’s worked well for a slew of chains in recent years, including J.Crew, Abercrombie & Fitch and Banana Republic.

But the whole heritage thing —…