This is what separates Distante from all the other custom shops in Philadelphia!!!!!!!!! THE HISTORY OF CHALIE MORROTTA!! How Mighty Men Get Clothed On South Broad, A Shop That Fits The Creme De La Creme By Larry Fish, Inquirer Staff Writer Posted: April 20, 1987 The sweatshirt is priced at $750. Its made of fine gray cashmere thats only a shade less smooth than Charles Morrottas offhand explanation of why you might want to buy such a thing. Lets say you had someone over - you could hand them this to wear instead of turning up the heat, he deadpans, casually tossing it back on the shelf. Welcome to Lawrence, Morrotta & Silva, a small chapel to conspicuous consumption incongruously located on a scruffy stretch of South Broad Street near Tasker Street. From the outside, its a rowhouse that could only be called nondescript. Inside, though, it is hardly ordinary - all cool grays, track lighting and costly raiment. Sports shirts are priced between $120 and $360, lightweight silk sweaters at $600 and Italian suits off the rack start, but certainly dont end, at $750. Its a place where sports jackets are made of chamois, blankets are faced with creamy suede and shoe leathers are made from animals that less- knowledgeable consumers have never even heard of. The firm began four years ago when Morrotta teamed up with John Lawrence, a native of Liverpool, England, and Armando P. Silva to offer what Morrotta calls a buying service for a select group. Steve Appelbaum recently became the fourth member of the firm, operating semi-independently, as do the others, with his own group of customers he has cultivated. Each customers tastes and needs are meticulously noted. Basically what we are is, in the truest sense, a specialty shop in the service of the very rich, Morrotta says. There is some casual business and some customers who buy only the occasional suit or shirt. But Morrotta says that the core customer group, numbering about 250, is made up of men who buy every month or so and tend to spend as much as $20,000 each a year on clothes. The shop handles a token amount of womens clothing. The firms customers share certain traits, Morrotta says, including, not surprisingly, lots of disposable income; lets put it that way. Beyond that, they show a remarkable similarity in tastes - same kinds of cars (costly and sporty), jewelry (not too gaudy) and vacations (island hopping in the boat or a stay in St. Moritz), Morrotta says. The only thing that changes are the faces, he says. As for who those customers are, Lawrence and Morrotta nod knowingly and say that they are the mighty of the Philadelphia area. The pair add that they absolutely cannot violate the sanctity of the haberdasher-client relationship. These people, they like to run silent and run deep, Morrotta says, identifying them only as successful entrepreneurs, executives of large companies and doctors. One of them is named Larry. Larry phoned the other morning, while a visitor was in the store, to confirm an appointment with Morrotta, who was to drop by Larrys office that afternoon. As a matter of fact, Morrotta was at that moment collecting what Larry was going to see: There was a dressy Italian summer topcoat of worsted wool, $450; a double- breasted blue suit with a herringbone pattern and subdued burgundy stripes, perfect for evening wear, $1,150; a suit in charcoal and black houndstooth with burgundy windowpane, $1,050; a taupe-and-gray herringbone suit in superlight wool - Its almost like silk - for $1,100; a casual-looking silk and wool sports coat for $715; a pair of black slacks of feathery-light wool, $250; a very light silk sweater, $465, and a cashmere polo-type pullover, $635. Morrotta refused to identify Larry by last name, location or occupation, other than to say that he was an executive of a well-established company. Morrotta says he calls on him about once a month. And on this particular call, Morrotta says later, he bought it all except the taupe suit. That would be $4,805, in total. A customer who buys on that scale is not at all unusual for the firm, insists Morrotta, who grew up in South Philly, barely an ascots throw from the site of the shop. He still lives there. He used to live upstairs, over the store, but the 950-square-foot apartment is being converted to more selling space, so he has moved to a rowhouse next door. In the beginning, Morrotta and Lawrence each had a loyal list of customers cultivated when they worked at exclusive Philadelphia haberdasheries and menswear stores, but they didnt have much else. They had no inventory, nor a sales location. They sold their first batch of clothes with advance payments from customers, they say, and their store originally operated from the trunk of a car (it was an Audi). Lacking a tony address on Walnut Street, the two would call on their customers at their homes or offices, taking Silva - who handles the tailoring and fitting - with them. Even though there is a real store now, complete with a bar, Morrotta and Lawrence still go to the homes or offices of most of their bigger accounts. This kind of customer is only this big in the market - Morrotta pinches thumb and forefinger - maybe one-quarter of 1 percent, but we know this customer very well, he says. Not all the selling is done outside the store. Those who drop in are offered a drink and made welcome, even if they dont drop a couple of thousand each month. We have people who come in and buy just a suit and a couple of shirts each season, Lawrence says. We dont want anybody to think they have to spend $5,000. We dont want to discourage anybody.
Posted on: Sat, 25 Jan 2014 18:04:15 +0000
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