When the remainder of Ecorse Township became a city in 1958, the name was picked, in the words of township supervisor Thomas Anderson, because of the shopping center then under consideration. A whole city named after something that had not been built yet. It’s an unusually candid piece of civic history and it tells you what the founders expected to matter.
They were broadly right
Retail did define the character of a great many suburbs built in that era, and the shape of a place still follows where people were expected to buy things.
What that shape does to one purchase
Suburban retail is arranged for breadth: many kinds of shop, each carrying a manageable range of any one thing. That serves nearly every household need, and it structurally cannot serve a suit, which requires one specific size to be physically present.
Which is the whole reason for the drive
32,000 suits under one roof, running 34 short to 70 long with portly included, so that trying on is choosing between several that fit rather than settling for the only one that nearly does.
Also for Southgate: A School Named for the First Mayor. More on style consulting, or plan your visit to our Oak Park showroom.
