The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1908-08-09
TAILORS WAR ON The MISFITS
THEY PROPOSE no STOP USE
OF FRAUDULENT Labels.

Tricks OF the so-Calied "Misnit Pariors'
Cheap R~eadymade Clothing Sold at
Hieh Prices on the Pretence That It
was the work Of Well Known TaiIor~
The New York Tailors Society announces
that 1t proposes to keep on prosecuting the
proprietors Of the so-called "miefit parlors'
who pretend to sell clothes made by well
known custom ~tailors. It's success In con-
voting the two largest dealers In alleged
misfit clothing has made 1t confident Of Ito
ability to put o stop TO the business. II 10
interesting to note that a misfft parlor made
an assignment last week. and although It
advertised exclusively the work Of high
class custom tailors it's indebtedness waa
altogether to wholesale ~tailors.
The misft clothing store Ia not new In
New York. One existed for years In a
downtown street and 1t was possible there
to buy clothes from the workshops Of the
best tailors In the country. But that store
did business on a very small scale In COM
parison with the alleged 'misft parlors'
In operation to-day.
The proprietor only pretended to have o
few suits that had turned out insists for the
customers Of expensive tailors. Any other
garments that he offered were sold frankly
as his own make. There was no attempt
to palm on "a custom made clothes bought
in large quantities from the Wholesale manu-
facturers.
The attention Of the tailors' society was
first called to the matter more than two
years g when o concern uptown adver-
tised for sale garments alleged to have been
made by all the well known taiIors In this
city and the large towns Of the country.
Among the New York tailors named were
Patterson. Nelson, Bell. Scarlet. Edouard.
Wetzel and all the well known men along
Fifth g The tailors knew that their
work could not yield any such supply Of
misfts and Lawyer John Patterson was
employed to make an investigation.
He soon discovered the men behind the
-misft parlors- and learned that in a
year and q half they bought from whole
sale manufacturers more than $200. 900
worth Of the cheapest kind Of ready made
clothing. while their purchases OF misft
garments made by we'll known tailors
were less mar $1,000. These men came
to New York only three years ago with
a capital Of 500 and the extent Of their
success may be understood from the fact
eAA1t ohO oEVhO Oaa e1"bS y"
$500. 900 during the last year.
1t would. Of course. have been impossible
to carry on this alleged misft business
with only the labels that were in the few
genuine misft garments brought TO the
store. 90 it was necessary to order fraud
ulent woven labels. These contained the
names and addresses of many well known
o-.------ 49, . .t.hS ~&.l~kAB~
In the spelling of the name or the address
was different. Then again the name Of
q imaginary. concern was given. Then
names were given correctly with spurious
One of the women employed in this
place testified that she had sewed In as
many as 200 OF these labels in a day. There
be sewed on the collars and those Of cloth
that were put In the pockets. A large
Of these labels was seized by the
District Attorneys office.
An instance OF the way business was
done was told by n OF the former em-''
A man came to buy q GOAT made
by o certain tailor. The salesman. said
that the advertised coat he wanted had
Just been sold. He had another that would
At him and had been made to order by the
tailor. But 1t was brown.
IF that coat made by Smith was black
it." .
I'm sorry, SIR" answered the clerk,
but there's nothing here to-day. Perhaps
there will be later II you come in
At this~j uncture a messenger boy bearing
a package entered. He was bearing Q
,oat Of Just the right size nj color and
the desired tailor, too. This appar-
snt coincidence hoes not seem to v sur
orised the customer, who took 1t as o matter
IF course that the Fifth avenue tailors were
constantly sending clothes to be disposed
" In this place. ,
What had happened was this The clerk
one Of his associates that q black COAT
made by Smith of a certain size was needed.
rhe second clerk sent word to the work
Dom that sucha label must be put on q coat.
This was done and the garment was carried
to a messenger office in the neighbor-
rood while the first salesman detained the
I~nsuspecting victim.
The advantage Of selling the coa as a
nisft lay In the fact that by means OF the
fraudulent label the salesman could demand
nearly twice as much as he would get for 1t
without the label. 1t is said hat misfit
,arlors have succeeded In this way In get
ing $40 OF $40 for an overooat which was
fought wholesale for 81 or SO, 80 great
8 the confidence in a label.
Assistant District Attorney Rosler. who
New York Tailors Society, has warned
proprietors OF the misft parlors that
clothing with false, fictitious or
counterfeit labels or limitations Of labels
3 punishable under the statute relating to
ahels with n year In the penitentiary
$500 fine for each offence. e