Location, location, location is the motto for those in the retail or hospitality business yet even if you work in an office building, having close proximity to those who are in a similar field is helpful.
About a year and a half ago, I moved the I. Buss offices to 36th Street. When the lease ran out at our last location off Park Avenue South, I decided that we should be closer to the garment district. First off, I wasn’t quite ready to give up the convenience of being near our Manhattan clients, and secondly, but equally important, there are still a number of fabric, trim and buttons shops that I often go to for special orders. And given that a large part of our business is focused on highly customized special orders, it seemed to be the right choice.
A bit of history…..being near other fashion businesses and clothes manufacturing has always been important for us. When my grandfather ran the company, it was located on lower 5th Avenue. In the mid 20th century, the area centered on 5th and 14th Street was the center for men’s fashion. During this time, there was a lot more manufacturing in the city itself and it made sense to be in the thick of it.
In the 70’s we moved to a loft space on 17th Street between 5th and 6th. While the West 30’s had most of the show rooms and designers, Chelsea still had a lot of clothing commerce. Unbeknownst to us at first, it was destined to become the perfect place to be mid-decade when military surplus became a part of our business. There were a lot of artists in the neighborhood at the time who liked this look and its affordability and even though we were not at street level, people found out about it and we did a lot of retail business.
This led to the next move, three floors on Broadway in the Village including a storefront. By the early 80’s, having a visible presence in a happening area made sense. However, uniforms have always been at the core and in 1986 we decided to strictly focus on that again and moved to East 24th Street. This takes I. Buss & Allan pretty much full circle. We’ve always realized that even if our business can’t be seen from the street, it was important to be in the right place, at the time.
Location might not be as crucial today as it was in my grandfather’s day, at least in certain industries, but I really do believe in continuing to support manufacturing domestically and in NYC when possible.
