Only a few suit jackets and cotton tops are left hanging in the store that was once a shopper’s paradise.
But stare into the display cases, and old advertisements of glamorous women in European-made clothes will bring you back to the Larchmere shop in its heyday.
It was a store that carried items you wouldn’t find elsewhere in Cleveland, which attracted an eclectic mix of doctors, lawyers, businessmen and street hustlers as customers.
"People who want to look good, who wanted to dress well," said Walter Thompson, who took over Gentleman’s Quarters from friends after returning from fighting in the Vietnam War in 1969.
“The store was struggling because there was no direction," said Thompson. "The world was upside down — Vietnam protesters, seven days of rage (during the 1968 Chicago Democratic National Convention).”
In the 1980s, he recruited a curly-haired woman named Susan Geller to sell women’s accessories and clothes at the store. At the time, she was a teacher, working part-time at another clothing store, while the teacher’s union was on strike.
“He came to drop off my jeans after they'd been altered," she said. "He was totally impressed with the way I handled my customers. At the time, pants had like a cuff on the bottom, but I used to take a rubber band and pull it over and make a cuff. He thought that was very creative.”
Standing behind the cashier counter, Thompson nodded.
“She understood what we were doing," he said.
Together, they were innovators. Selling men's and women's clothes in the same store was uncommon at the time. Their clothes, made of silk, cotton and linen blends, cost more than some retailers, but about the same as the department stores.
Geller said their pieces sold well, because their customers saw the value of high-quality pieces that fit well and would stay in their closets for a long time.
"We've always pushed (customers) to wear what looks good on you. You don't have to be ‘très chic’ in style," she said.
But success didn’t happen overnight. Thompson and Geller worked hard to learn their customers’ habits — imagining their workplaces, the parties they went to. They traveled to New York trade shows to hand select items for the store.
“We'd fight in the showroom," said Geller. "(Thompson said), 'You’re not buying that.' And I said, 'Trust me, let me buy three of them.' I would take one and I immediately sold the other two."
The pair said it's time for their run to end. Geller is ready to retire, and the business has become too much for Thompson, who said many of their suppliers have closed since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is a business where, if the mill doesn't make the fabric, you can't make your clothes," Thompson said. "(During COVID) the mills were shut down."
With changing tastes, his customers growing older, and new competition from manufacturers selling direct to consumer, Thompson decided not to look for a successor to take over the business. He wasn't willing to lower his standards, either.
"I personally never wanted to buy anything made in China, because I don't like the way they treat their people," he said. "I only wanted to buy from those people who made their own clothes.”
The announcement of the store's closure came as a shock to those who have long associated it with the Larchmere business district.
Susan Rozman, owner of Fiddlehead Gallery and the head of the Larchmere Merchants Association, said local businesses are still struggling in the aftermath of the pandemic, when customers changed to more online shopping.
The city could do more to help businesses weather long-term challenges in retail, she said.
“If you've got someone just going to give you $25,000 to start this business, and someone else is going to give you some money, well, that money will go away pretty quickly and you got to pay it back," Rozman said.
Thompson and Geller reminisced as they sorted through a stack of photos, including some of them posing in formal clothes at the weddings of their customers. They were always invited as a couple, even though they were only partners in business.
“We've been working together more than people are married," Geller said, laughing. "We know the buttons to push, the things to do, and we do them."
Before he could respond, Thompson turned from the photos and moved to answer the phone. He couldn't keep his longtime customers waiting.
