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.)