Style-Mart, anyone?

[skyvue]

I own three vintage suits, and two of them are Style-Mart brand. I also have a newly acquired Style-Mart sport coat.

The two suits I purchased without even realizing they were the same brand, but now, the name Style-Mart catches my eye whenever it turns up (which is admittedly not that often).

Anyone else own a Style-Mart garment? Anyone know anything about the company -- how long it was around, for instance, and when?

Joan Crawford was apparently a fan (or was willing to pretend to be for what was probably a handsome fee).

 

[skyvue]

I've begun to crack the case a bit now. Style-Mart was a brand name used by the Merit Clothing Company out of Mayfield, Kentucky, a town that was also home, as it happens, to Curlee Clothing.

This is the from the Graves County entry in The Kentucky Encyclopedia, published by University Press of Kentucky in 1992:

After the [Civil War] an 1860 woolen mill in Mayfield was reorganized, and a second textile mill, Mayfield Pants Company, began operation in 1899. Later both were expanded and as the Curlee Clothing Company and the Merit Clothing Company, respectively, they helped make Mayfield a men's clothing manurfacturing center.​

And this comes from The WPA Guide to Kentucky (1938):

The Merit Clothing Company Factory (open) and the Curlee Clothing Company Factory (open) together employ 1,800 men and women in the manufacture of men's and boys' suits and overcoats.​

When the Merit Co. started using the name Style-Mart or when the company went under or was purchased, I've not learned. But it was interesting to learn of Merit/Style-Mart's connection to Curlee Clothing.