Evening star., 1933-03-30
Gain IN CLOTHING
SALES IS REPORTED
New York Stores Note Pick
up in Demand for Spring
Goods.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

0peCldl DlSpdLCn 10 Inc star.
NEW YORK, March 3.-The mems
division Of the Easter parade will be
groomed as properly as the women's if
survey of mems clothing made today
is fair barometer of events three
weeks away.
Retail stores here. clothing as we'll
as department. rechecked last Satur-
days sales Of boys and mems clothing
and report that volume was the best
of any similar day thus far this year.
Their statements are corroborated by
jCbbers, wholesalers. manufacturers and
cloth merchants, all of whom have
benefited from the pickup in consumer
buying.
Purchases were we'll spread, from
Fourteenth street stores to Madison
avenue shops and from Herald Square
to Fifth avenue. Although the bulk OF
buying converged around topcoats or
suits, chiefly two-pants suits, ranging
from $40 to $50 retail, quite little
business was handled in the $50 to S45
ranges, and even the custom made tai
lors expressed satisfaction with orders
booked.
The present buying squirt, which has
been distributed somewhat unevenly
among local clothing manufacturers,
most of whom say that only dozen
of the larger shops are getting big or
ders, is in contrast to the situation
mcnth ago. Then the Michigan bank
ing situation was worrying all branches
of the business. Today some OF the
largest orders were received from
Detroit
One feature of the retail mems cloth
ing trade is the offering of imported
hand-woven tweeds in topcoatings and
suitings at prices below the $25 mark.
Ordinarily such goods sell on their ex
clusiveness, but the depreciation of the
pound sterling has changed this sit
uation.
Buy now, before prices go up" urges
Moe Levy here in huge advertisements,
and the trade backs up his statement,
for they saw his half century in the
business makes him a judge of market
trends. The cloth mills refuse to open
their Autumn lines until the latter part
of next month. Asked for probable
price trends, they reply, likely to show
no immediate change. but who can tell
what raw material and labor prices may
do in the next few weeks?"
Wool quotations reached their highest
level for the year within the last few
days, average prices being 4 cents
pound above those in January. Wor-
sted yarns are showing stifTening tend
encies Other items are steady to firm
The Offices of the local clothing workers
unions report, gain in employment of
their members in the last few weeks.
Similar advices come from Rochester,
where a demand for the better grade
clothes is reported.
Curiously enough, buying Offices here
hOvS'
mems clothing, which may be due to the
increased tendency to send buyers into
the market personally, swelling buyers
registrations the last few weeks. On the
other hand. some Of the biggest clothing
orders received by manufacturers have
cCme in the mails this week
Custom cutters say there is no reason
why men should not be well tailored
these days. for their prices are fully 35
per cent below those of 1890 The cut
ting OF mems 'othing by 885 establish
ments IN the CHited States in 1882
showed q decline o. % per cent in suits,
20 per cent in separate trousers and %
pei cent in outer coats. The actual fig
ures are Mems suits. loops, 1888: pants,
1880, l03: overcoats, 2,666,l29: boys
suits numbered 6.632 ,l03: pants, 1885,
39l. and overcoats, 53l SAT.
Although in sCme quarters where
money is scarce there is a tendency to
scof at the value Of good clothes, the
average man is always interested in his
appearance One Broadway tailor in
stalled in his display window a shadow
box containing samples Of the garments
he is selling. The box is open SO it per-
mts the passerby to feel the cloth.
Pedestrians were clicked Twenty men
in IS minutes succumbed to the desire
to feel the cloth between their fore
fingers and thumbs
Copyright. 1889