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Hinsdale shop keeps men in high fashion
Hinsdale Clothier's Steven Potter works to find suits for the hard to fit man.. | Joel Lerner~Sun-Times Media
What’s
in store
Name: Hinsdale Clothiers
Address: 777 N. York Road, suite 11 (Gateway Square)
Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays (to 8 p.m. Thursdays), 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays
Events: Italian designers featured 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 2, 9 and 16. Guidance on fabrics, accessories and buttons for suites made to order.
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Updated: April 1, 2013 6:02AM
HINSDALE — Many men are fashion conscious, especially when they dress for the office or for special occasions.
However, for hard-to-fit men, fashion savvy is sometimes difficult to translate into clothes that actually fit. Since 1989, Hinsdale Clothiers has stepped in to fill the gap for big, tall and other hard-to-fit men seeking clothing at moderate, better or high-end price points
“Almost on a daily basis we meet customers that cannot be fitted in other stores,” said owner Steven Potter. “We have customers that have been working with us more than 20 years,” according to owner Steven Potter.
Hinsdale Clothiers has two main goals, Potter said. The first is customer service. The second is matching the right apparel to each customer’s needs so each man receives a suit that matches his style yet has the right fit for his body shape.
“Our customers don’t want to look like they just walked out of a big box store,“ Potter said.
Hinsdale Clothiers measures each customer individually and provides a choice of styles from manufacturers based in Italy, Canada and the United States.
The sales staff at Hinsdale Clothiers has a combined 150 years of retail experience between them, including Potter, who began his retail career while studying advertising and marketing. He began working in a store located near his college campus.
“Retailing wasn’t really on my radar until my senior year at college,” he said.
Yet three days after graduating from college, he was working full time in retail sales.
He started out at the old Henry C. Lytton store at the corner of State Street and Jackson Boulevard in Chicago. He then moved to the Big Apple where he worked for Rogers, Peet and Company. He returned to the Midwest and opened Hinsdale Clothiers on York Road.
Potter works closely with the Italian Trade Commission, having built a working relationship through several buying trips to Italy to obtain fabrics and learn more about Italian workmanship. Through that association, Hinsdale Clothiers hosted its first special event featuring Italian manufacturers in 2003.
“That event jump started our business on a four or five year trajectory,” Potter said. “It repositioned us as the type of business that can fill the needs of hard-to-fit customers.”
The store held its second event featuring Italian manufacturers in 2007, which was also a success. The upcoming events in March also feature Italian manufacturers. Customers can order suits at each event and should be prepared to make payment at the time of the order. Each suit is expected to have a delivery turnaround of one to three weeks from the time the order is placed, Potter said.
