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Our Story
Our Story
A lifelong brand.
Amazing products in an amazing location!
The genesis of our clothing obsession began in 1966. A teenage boy began riding the Ridout bus to a core area high school, and along the way discovers Downtown London, and its clothing meca! Menswear shops were everywhere! Grafton's, Scott's, Wolf's, O'Brien's, O'Donnell Taylor, Fairweather's Big Steel, Doug Powers, Bud Gowan's, H.W. Ball, Vaisler Bonds, Boughners, Bob Dowlers, Thomas Clothing. Add in the new Wellington Square Mall shops ( first enclosed mall in North America) Holt Renfrew, Talisman, Tip Top Tailors, Eaton's what more could a young man want for in the way of clothing? The list of shoe stores was almost as long, Rowland Hill's, Thom McCann, Cook's, Belinda & Brothers, etc. etc.
Denim was just beginning its accent as an iconic, essential clothing item and brand names were becoming increasingly important.
The first suit ever bought was at Vaisler's, a grey flannel glenn check that retailed for $69.00. It had no pockets of any kind, flared legs and was paid for over umpteen months with the amazing Vaisler Bond credit card! This was before "Chargex" or any form of credit was available to a 14 year old! Managing debt started at a very early age.
Who knew that this teenage boy would go on to work at three of those great menswear shops '71-H.W. Ball - '74-Bud Gowan's - '74-Thomas Clothing before going on to open my own interpretation of a menswear shop.
May 1 1980 DAVID E. WHITE CLOTHIER LTD. first store opened at 4 The Square Goderich, Ont.
Nov. 1,1987 our first London shop opened at 483 Richmond St. in what is now the Tasting Room Restaurant.
Sept. 1.1990 opened the Talbot Centre shop Richmond & Fullarton St.
Sept. 1.2000 our next move was to the corner of Richmond & Queens
cont'd...
RICHMOND ROW RICHMOND ROW R
Our History
Longevity is
key and here we are in year 42!
Fast forward 42 years...2021
and still walking and working the streets of Downtown London. Those streets have indeed changed over the decades, but here we are loaded with many stories of designing & opening nine retail shops. In small towns of Goderich & Bayfield, four different locations in London and we even throw in a Vancouver shop for a little excitement!
Along the way a young Aussie named Brian Watts showed up on my doorstep explaining that he knew everything there was to know about coffee and planograms and wanted to get into the menswear business. As I had very little expertise in either areas it seemed like a natural fit. It turns out we have never talked much about coffee (he drinks it black?) but his planograms have come in very handy and now he is indeed not only very well entrenched in this London menswear business, he represents the future of it!
In 2019 Brian and I made a decision to move out of the larger shop at Richmond & Queens and downsize into the "condo next door" figuring this will serve our needs quite nicely. That decision appeared to a sound one for a number of months, but then along came a thing called Covid! There will be books written about this plague, and its effect on our businesses and lives. Our chapter reads, (like many of our peers) that covid has had a significant impact on our business, we were in the eye of the storm. We also discovered as we sat out the multiple lockdowns, that we were not quite ready for the business obituary page and in order to come out of this in one piece and thrive, we would need to spread our wings once again.
So we got out the planograms and the spreadsheets, and after months of planning, designing, painting and packing, London here we are, in what may well be described as our best for last rendition, and one more chapter to write!
DAVID E. WHITE
ONE RICHMOND ROW
517 Richmond St. London
