We opened in 2008 with the suits still in boxes

Zeev was on the floor unpacking ties — no furniture in yet — when a man walked in off Main Street and asked whether this was a menswear store.

“Yes.”

“Can you fit me for a suit?”

“I’m sorry. Right now we’re only selling ties.”

The suits were still in cartons. There were maybe eighty or a hundred of them. Today we carry more than that from a single one of our brands.

In 2005 Zeev began travelling into Manhattan to learn the fashion business from the inside — how it’s cut, how it’s sold, how it’s meant to fit.

By 2008 he had seen enough to know what was missing. There was nothing like this in Flushing. So he opened his own store on Main Street, a few blocks from where we are now.

By 2011 we had outgrown it and moved into the space we’re in today. By 2013 Zeev was running it on his own.

Casual through to custom, and everything in between — suits, shirts, t-shirts, outerwear, shoes, accessories. Brands you know, and our own label.

Three tailors work on the premises. The alterations are done here, by people who answer for their own work, not sent out and hoped for.

But the clothes aren’t really the point.

Zeev’s gift is fitting people.

If he has ten seconds with you he’ll find something to like about how you’re dressed, and then show you one small thing that would make it better. He does it for customers. He does it for people who wandered in. He does it whether or not you’re buying.

There’s a young man whose bris we dressed in 2008 — the year we opened. Then his bar mitzvah. This year, his wedding, and the whole entourage with him.

We have been dressing him for exactly as long as we have been open.

When Zeev walked into that wedding, guests kept coming over to him. Not to thank him for the clothes. To show him the way they were wearing them.

That’s what this shop actually is.