Until yesterday I had never heard of kirgyz. I deliberately did not give any enlightenment concerning kirgyz. I wanted to see if anyone would contact me to see if kirgyz was a figment of my imagination. Two individuals did inquire- so I thought I should  clarify it for those others who wondered but did’t want to admit they didn’t know. The kirgyz is a half goat half ram with a wonderful soft cashmere like coat.  It has more sheen than cashmere- some think sheen is good and some think sheen is bad. The hair is gathered by combing with an iron comb.  Another fibre, which I did not mention yesterday, is “lurex”. Lurex is the regitered tradename for a metallic yarn- a synthetic fibre that is coated with aluminium. Both kirgyz and lurex strike me as creattions of Dr. Seuss. ( Ted Geisel was a customer.) I wonder what surprises the next price list I receive will have?

Some time I come across something that has me shake my head and accept the fact that the world has passed me bye. Today was such a day.  I received a new price list from one of our top cloth suppliers, who I shall not name.  The 10 page price list had only a few offerings at less than $100 per yard - and those cloths were, with two exceptions, cotton.  There were clothes priced at $2580, $2,250, $1340, $1,195, $980, $940, $795, $695, $595, and $495 per yard.  These prices made the $250, $190, and $173 dollar cloths on the list seem “cheap”. When I started working in 1960 you could buy fine English worsteds for $30 per yard. Price was not the only surprise.  Cloth composition was sprinkled with fibres that I thought must have been made up by an imaginative copy writer. The cloth priced at $2580 per yard is so priced because it has 20% guanaco. At first I thought guanaco must be spun guano.  I was wrong. It ends up there is actually an animal in South America - a Guanaco - that is a lama like animal in the camel family.  The Guanaco has a nasty disposition. It spits and kicks. It is very dificult to harvest Guanaco hair- hence its dear price.  The $2,250 cloth has some qiviuk ( although there is no “u” after the “q”, this spelling is correct ). Research revealed that qiviuk is the under wool of the musk ox. Every spring the musk ox sheds the qiviuk. I quess the fact that it is much easier to collect the qiviuk, which is on the ground, than it is to comb out the guanaco explains the $330 per yard difference in the cloth. Some of the other high ticket clothes are cashmere, pashmina, super 200’s and combinations of all of the aforementioned plus mohair, silk, mink, kid mohair, and kirgyz.  We live and learn,

A Yale graduate would not put a Harvard blazer badge on his/her jacket. But we,here in the USA, think nothing of wearing English regimental, English School, or Tartan ties,etc.School Ties, to which we have no claim. In the same way that here stateside we would not wear a USA school or USA club identity  tie/or apparel to which we or our children had no membership, an Englishman would not dream of wearing a regimental or school item to which he was not a member or graduate. In the 60’s, when the “Ivy League Style” was at it’s height in both the states and in Japan, it was not unusual to have an individual visiting Japanese customer buy blazer crests for every Ivy league school. ( Today the “Ivy Style” is more popular in Tokyo than in NYC!) In our retail store and our mailer, back then, we offered many English Regiment and English School ties. We selected them based solely on liking the color. The more famous patterns,”The Guards Regiment” for example, would be listed by their proper names. For many of the more obscure “Public Schools” we would make up names and embellish them with stories about their origins and history. One of the ties offered we called “The Queens Own Confectioners”.  My brother made up what we thought was an amusing story to complete the presentation. We received a letter from a gentleman in London.  He asked us if we knew that the tie was infact the tie for the school he had attended in his youth.  He related that during the 2nd World War at the weekly Friday Chapel Assembly the Headmaster would read the names of graduates who had died in battle that week.  One sad Friday one of the names read by the headmaster was that of his son. My brother and I discussed whether we thought the letter was real or if someone was “pulling our legs.” We decided to play it straight. We sent a letter and assured him we meant no offense. To those who may be traveling to Great Britain we suggest you not wear a Guards Regimant tie if you or a family member has not served in the regiment.                              This entry was inspired by a thread on Ask Andy About Clothes.

In the 60s when Wm Shawn , who was a Chipp customer, was the legendary editor of the New Yorker, the magazine was at the height of it’s popularity.  Chipp advertised regularly and everyone in our family was “compt” a subscription. Many of the magazines subscribers never read the articles- they subscribed to partake of the cartoons and the advertisements.  The magazine was a study in who was important in the men’s clothing business- both manufacturers and retailers. The front inside page was a full page Brooks Brothers institutional ad. Among others, not full pages, spread through the hallowed pages were entries for Norman Hilton, Hart Marks, Southwick, J Press, Paul Stuart, Saks, Chipp, Bloomingdales, Lord and Taylor, Linett, Dunhill and a few others whose names have faded from my aging mind. The New Yorker was loaded with men’s wear advertisement week after week. Yesterday I was assigned the grandfather duty of babysitting my NYC granddaughter.  What should I find on the coffeetable ? The most recent issue of the New Yorker. I have not seen a copy in years. I looked at it from cover to cover. Not one menswear ad. I didn’t read any of the articles. The cartoons are still good.

The internet has given a significant number of individuals the ability to work from home, or from where ever they are- the beach, a ski lodge, etc.  The number of people working from home grows daily.  Many of the small specialty shops that appeared from coast to coast in response to the popularity of “Ivy League” clothing are now closed. In my lifetime, I know that the business will never return to what it was in the 60s. There are too many men who like working in poplin trousers and a knit shirt.  For those who do care about fine clothing and find that their quest for quality in a mode that is no longer easily obtained, Winston Tailors finds its niche.

It started with dress down Fridays in the summer. Many of you are too young to remember that most working men- even lawyers, investment bankers,stock brokers, accountants - wore suits to the office every working day. Then one hot summer when many offices worked a slightly shorter day on Friday and when many of the “upper class” work force were taking longh summer  weekends in Maine ,Nantucket, the Jersey shore, etc., it came to pass that a few firms decided to wear poplins and knit shirts to the office on Friday. It was a slippery slope. At first it was just the summer.  Then it became “dress down Friday” all year. The next step was summer dress down Friday became dress down Friday and Monday. Many of my customers - they had the most stripes on their sleeves - complained about the state of dress in their respective firms. They told me if they didn’t agree to allow the dress down they would not be able to attract the new blood that was graduating from law and business schools who all asked at interviews about the “dress code”.  To make matters worse they observed that there was less productivity on the Mondays and Fridays. Various think tanks analyzed the situation and concluded that Monday and Friday were treated differently by the troops because of the difference in dress. Their suggested answer- dress down every day in the summer and then the mental set will be the same all week. Many firms went that route.  The Dress Down and the influence of the internet, which I will discuss in my next blog entry, have resulted many fine shops closing down.

I knew Ralph Lauren when he worked for Rivitz. We had a brief parallel period. At the same time Ralph started his tie company I started my tie company, Chipp2.  We both found, independently of each other, an interesting embroidered Irish linen cloth that we purchased from a company named Hamilton Adams.  We  were both having our ties made by the same contracter named Greenburg. Ralph’s signature was he made his ties wider than was the standard width at the time. Because of the size of the embroidered figures I had Mr. Greenburg cut my linen ties wider than our other ties. So we both had the same product- Wheel and Anchors embroidered on linen cut wider by Greenburg. We sold our ties retail for $7.50.  Ralph sold his ties to Bloomingdales for $7.50 and Bloomingdales sold them for $15.00. Bloomingdales was at their pinnacale of being the “in” store. I lived on 57th Street 2 blocks from Bloomingdales.  One Thursday evening Ralph and I met and walked  to Bloomingdales to visit the men’s department and see what was hapening. In the brief time we were there they sold more of his ties at $15 than we would sell in a month or two at $7.50- a lesson in the importance of traffic and of the part women play in menswear sales.                                                      Ralph Lauren and I started even. If the measure of success is one’s bank account, we are now light years apart.

Mortimer Levitt was a legend in the world of menswear.  I always considered it a compliment that he chose us to make some of his personal clothing.  Mr. Levitt was the founder and operator of “Custom Shop Shirtmakers. He was a marketing genius.  It began with his choice of the name ” Custom Shop Shirtmakers.” By my definition nothing they made was custom. Through the years I had a number of “sit downs” with Mr. Levitt.  At one of our meetings I raised the question of what is custom and what is not custom. He said that if someone picked out a cloth and selected the way the shirt was to be detailed- collar style, cuff style, etc. - and they measured the customer for neck size, sleeve length and body size, that the shirt produced was custom. By his definition the fact that they applied the measurements to block patterns did not make them something other than custom.  We sell shirts that are made for us by a  custom shirt-maker . By Mr. Levitt’s definition we are selling custom shirts.  We say we are selling “Ready Made” shirts. Through the years I have had customers ask me if they were getting a “good deal” by buying shirts from the Custom Shop Shirtmakers.  My answer was, and always will be about any product an individual purchases anywhere, if you are pleased with what you got for the money you spent, you got a “good deal”.

Mr. Levitt died at the age of 98.  He sold the Custom Shop Shirtmakers before his passing. He was very generous in his support of the Arts.

In the 60’s many made a trip to Norwalk, CT to buy Gant shirts at Decker’s.  When Decker’s opened it was a small store and it sold Gant shirts which were purportedly “seconds”.  Decker’s was owned by the Gant Shirt Company. Only a few insiders and family friends knew that Moe Decker didn’t own Decker’s. He did run it and was responsible for it’s success.  The shirts were priced at about 25% below retail.  This meant the Gant brothers made more per shirt selling them at Decker’s than they made when they sold their shirts to Chipp, Bloomingdales, etc.  At the begining the shirts were “seconds”. As the business grew they needed more shirts than the number of seconds that the maufacturing process produced.  Many of the “seconds” were now really first run shirts. A pretty good deal. Under Moe Decker’s guidence the “outlet” grew - offereing sweaters, ties, women’s wear, and men’s clothing.  They expanded and ended up in what was a large former food market- an A & P ? I really don’t remember if it was an A & P or another chain. Shirts became a secondary product. Back then Decker’s clothing merchandise really was end of the season close outs of first run products, not products that were created to be sold at “discount prices.” Moe Decker was a close friend, as were Marty and Elliot Gant. Moe would call us when he made a buy of women’s Pringle cashmere sweaters, etc so that our wives could buy these products at a better price than that at which we could buy them.  By the end of Decker’s run “discounting” had changed drastically.  The nationwide hunger for discounted products greatly exceeded the quantity of end of the season items that could be purchased by discount operations from manufacturers.  This gave rise to the production of products being made specifically for the discount market.  It also gave rise to the counterfeit clothing industry.  Moe related to me that periodically a truck would pull up to the Decker’s loading dock and someone would come in and ask him if he wanted to buy what they were selling.  When he asked whose merchandise it was the answer was, ” Whose merchandise do you want it to be?”. They had a sewing machine in the back of the truck and labels from all the major stores- Saks, Bloomindales, Bonwit, etc.  Moe Decker would never buy anthing from them.  Another entry to be filed under “Things are not always what they seem to be.”

Chipp, Brooks Brothers, J Press, and Bloomingdales all carried Allen Solly knit polo shirts in the ancient past- the 50’s and 60’s. Bloomingdales was at the height of their popularity. Allen Solly made two qualities of polo shirts- Full Fashioned and Cut&Sewn.  The Full Fashioned polo shirt had no pocket.  The Cut & Sewn polo shirt had a pocket. The retail price for the Full Fashioned shirt was $14.40 and the Cut & Sewn shirt sold fpr $9.50. The great majority of the buying public did not know what full fashioned meant. What they knew was that the shirt without the pocket was more expensive.  Bloomingdale’s was Allen Solly’s largest customer.  They had Allen Solly make the Cut & Sewn shirt for them with no pocket.  Allen Solly would not do that for anyone else. Periodically I would overhear a customer pointing out to a companion that we were selling our Allen Solly shirts for $14.50 and that Bloomingdales was selling the same shirt for $9.50. When I heard someone make that statement I would explain that they were not the same shirt and explain the difference in the two shirts.  I always wondered how many people thought the same silently.  Another example of how misleading marketing can be.

(Allen Solly exists today in name only. They discovered they could make more money “renting” their name than they could make producing shirts and hose. Ultimately they sold the name.)