The original Farmington High School stood at the end of School Street, off Grand River at the east side of downtown, on a street named for the thing at the end of it. Towns used to work that way: the school where children could walk, the shops where adults could walk, everything within a few blocks. Very little is arranged that way now, which changes how a family shops for a first suit.
What the walk used to do
It made buying clothes local and repeated. A boy was taken to the same place his father used, was measured by someone who knew the family, and came back when he outgrew it. Nobody had to think about whether the trip was worth it.
What replaced it
A choice between a screen and a drive. The screen cannot measure him, which for a growing boy is the entire problem: his size this June has very little to do with his size last June, and a number typed into a box will be wrong in the one place that can’t be altered.
So the drive
I-696 east from the Grand River strip to our exit. He gets measured, tries the size that produces, and Roman, master tailor at Lincoln Tailor, on site in our store, sets the length to the shoes he brought.
Also for Farmington: The Man Who Designed the Fox Also Built One Here. More on style consulting, or plan your visit to our Oak Park showroom.
