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.)

My definition of advertising is “What can you say, without making a false assertion, that will have people think what you want them to think. Some have suggested that I have this dark definition from the position of jealousy because I can’t afford to advertise.  I have always felt that high quality Bespoke and Made-To-Measure  clothing does not lend itself to advertising. In the interest of complete disclosure I relate the following.  When I was 12 years old I started a bait business. My family would spend the summer in our cottage on Long Island Sound. At low tide sand worm rich flats were exposed.  I dug the worms and sold them for 50 cents a dozen- pretty good money in 1951. I would sell every worm I dug. Some local fishermen gave me standing orders.  The “real” bait businesses had worms shipped in from Maine. Their signs said”Maine Sand Worms.” I could have sold more worms; there was a limit how many worms a kid could dig before the tide came in. A family from Maine rented the house across the street from our place. They had a 13 year old son named Wally. ( I can still hear the “down East ” twang to his voice.) I hired Wally.  I would dig the worms and Wally would pick them.  I could now dig after dark- Wally would hold a flashlight. And here comes the disclosure part- After I hired Wally I changed my sign to read.”Sand Worms picked by man from Maine.”  Buyer beware!