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.)

Years ago to shop in a “discount outlet” required a trip to Freeport, Maine.  Back then- I am talking about the 1960s- the Freeport outlets were truly a place where end of the season first run merchandise was sent and sold at significant markdowns. Size ranges were broken- sometime only  one or two sizes of an item.  Today outlets are a way of life.  The question I ask myself is do most people think they are getting reduced prices or do they feel what they are getting is convenience- one location with many shops. I am talking about the “discount outlets”, not the many malls selling full price products. When the discount outlet explosion began the promotions all inferred that one was getting a discount for the same merchandise that one would have purchased at a New York City store. Why were you getting the discount ? Because these were overproductions.  When my 3 children were in school, mid 1980s, my wife took our family on an excursion to the Woodbury Common outlet, which is located north of NYC. The place is huge. The lot must park a few thousand cars- ( that figure is a guess).  The place is so huge that they give you a map.  On the back of the map was a list of the other places where the Chelsea Premium Outlet Group had similar malls.  Back then they had about 10.  The shops all had signs to highlight the “deals”. Some signs said ” Compare to ******/ what ever that means. My wife is very intelligent.  She has a masters degree and she was a buyer at Saks Fifth Avenue.  I asked her if she really thought all the merchandise in all these stores was first run overages or if she thought this was merchandise “created” for the outlets. Much to my surprise she was very willing to think she was getting bargains.  Even very smart people can be fooled.  People often believe what they want the case to be.

Periodically there is something that over rides all thoughts of things sartorial. On the heels of , with the exception of SouthWest Airlines, industry wide charges for baggage, Spirit Airlines announced they will be charging $45 for carry-on bags.  They have said they will not charge if you want to carry on an umbrella, a jacket, a hat or a magazine. I am not sure if the “or” limits you to one of those items or if you can carry on one of each item. A European airline, Ryanair, announced they are now charging $1.35 to use the lavatory. If  you don’t have exact change they will probably make a surcharge for making change. It is recommended that one combine ALL body eliminations to one trip, thereby avoiding duplicate charges.  I am going to call a few airlines tomorrow to see if I can secure the license to install toll booths at the entrances to the Aircraft Loading Bridge Extenders.  The start-up costs will be high. There will be an announcement concerning a public stock offering.  I am looking for volunteers to serve on the board of the fledgling company.

For those flying Spirit and who will be taking advantage of being permitted to carry on a jacket, may I suggest one of our Tussah Silks- we have 12 colors.