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.