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Documented traces of an American menswear institution
Founded in New York in 1874, Rogers Peet Company became an established name in American menswear. Its history can still be reconstructed today through garments, catalogues and archival materials preserved by major cultural institutions.
Rather than relying on unverified anecdotes, these surviving records offer concrete evidence of the company’s role as a retailer, clothing maker, designer and publisher within the development of American men’s style. The Metropolitan Museum of Art identifies Rogers, Peet & Company as an American company founded in 1874, while the Kyoto Costume Institute records that the business operated twelve New York stores at its height.
Menswear Preserved by The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art includes several objects connected to Rogers Peet Company, covering different areas of the male wardrobe.
Among them is an evening top hat dating from around 1900, for which Rogers Peet Company is identified as the maker. The museum also preserves an early twentieth-century silk necktie associated with the company as a department store.
Other documented pieces include a wool bathing suit dated between 1920 and 1929 and a pair of wool knickerbockers from around 1930. In the museum records, Rogers Peet is identified respectively as the department store associated with the bathing suit and as the designer of the knickerbockers.
These objects provide tangible evidence of the breadth of the Rogers Peet offering, which extended beyond conventional business suits to include formal accessories, leisurewear and garments created for different aspects of men’s life.
Rogers Peet and Dobbs
A documented commercial relationship between Rogers Peet Company and the New York hatmaker Dobbs is preserved in the collection of Historic New England.
The institution holds a black felt bowler hat dated between 1930 and 1940. Its catalogue identifies Dobbs as the manufacturer and Rogers Peet & Co. as the retailer. The interior of the hat carries the names of both businesses.
This surviving object confirms that Rogers Peet retailed hats manufactured by Dobbs. The available documentation does not establish that the two companies jointly designed the piece, so it is more accurate to describe the connection as a manufacturer–retailer relationship rather than a modern fashion collaboration.
Catalogues and a Culture of Menswear
Rogers Peet Company did not communicate its vision of clothing only through the garments sold in its stores. Several publications produced by the company are preserved in The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
These include Personal: Being a Brief Treatise on What to Wear, What Not to Wear and How to Do It, published in 1898, and The Works of Rogers, Peet & Co., Outfitters, dating from approximately 1900.
The museum also preserves a Rogers Peet livery catalogue from 1904 and a related price book dating from around 1905.
Together, these publications document the company’s attention to clothing, presentation and the conventions of dress. They also show that Rogers Peet used editorial and illustrated material to communicate with customers well before the development of modern brand magazines and digital fashion journals.
Rogers Peet in American Cultural Memory
The Kyoto Costume Institute preserves a three-piece suit by Rogers Peet Company dating from the early twentieth century. The institution describes its straight, less waist-fitted silhouette as representative of the American approach to tailoring when compared with the more shaped British suit displayed alongside it.
The same museum record also notes the appearance of the Rogers Peet name in the Broadway musical Guys and Dolls. In the song “Marry the Man Today,” the company is referenced as an emblem of respectable, conservative and well-presented style.
This cultural reference illustrates how Rogers Peet had become more than the name of a clothing retailer. It was sufficiently recognisable to represent a particular idea of American respectability and masculine dress.
A History Supported by Surviving Evidence
The objects and documents preserved by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Historic New England and the Kyoto Costume Institute provide verifiable evidence of the place occupied by Rogers Peet Company in American menswear history.
They document a company involved in the making, design, retail and communication of men’s clothing across several decades. They also reveal a wardrobe that extended from formal hats and neckwear to leisure garments and distinctly American tailoring.
The historical importance of Rogers Peet does not need to rely on exaggerated or undocumented claims. Its surviving garments, catalogues and cultural references already tell a significant story: that of an American menswear institution whose work has become part of the material and cultural history of dress.
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- Posted on
Below is the original text of the article published by The New York Times on November 7, 1954, in Section F, page 6.
On November 6, 1874, three men pooled their talents to establish a new menswear business. Today, the company bears the names of the two partners who died shortly afterward: Marvin N. Rogers, a clothing manufacturer, and Charles B. Peet, a clothing wholesaler.
The third partner, Frank R. Chambers, built the Rogers Peet Company and remained its guiding spirit until his death in 1940 at the age of 89.
Looking back, Phillips Roome Turnbull, the company’s president, noted that Rogers Peet had grown slowly and carefully. Its policies were evolutionary rather than revolutionary—orderly and conservative, much like the garments it sold.
From the very beginning, the business sought to build its reputation on integrity. Rejecting the philosophy of caveat emptor—“let the buyer beware”—which was widespread in retailing during the late nineteenth century, Rogers Peet was among the first companies to attach a label to every garment indicating its fabric composition.
Rogers Peet also made extensive use of laboratories to test fabrics received from American and English mills. Mr. Chambers, a practical man, personally tested the weather resistance of cloth by spreading samples across the roof of the company’s building.
A Money - Back Pioneer
In 1880, Rogers Peet became the first menswear store to offer dissatisfied customers their money back.
Following the example set by John Wanamaker in Philadelphia, the company began marking merchandise with fixed price tags, abandoning the widespread practice of bargaining.
The only exception to the marked price was made for members of the clergy, who received a 10 percent discount—a practice that later became relatively common. Rogers Peet still counted many clergymen among its customers.
Although conservative in its approach, the company was far from old-fashioned when it came to advertising.
In 1879, it became the first retail advertiser to use illustrations of specific products. It introduced a light, approachable tone to its advertising copy that would later be widely imitated. The company also used cartoon illustrations at a time when they were still a rarity.
The Rogers Peet Company prospered. At one point, it operated stores in twelve locations across New York.
As retail merchandising increasingly shifted toward larger individual stores, the company consolidated its operations. At the time of the article’s publication, Rogers Peet operated stores at Broadway and Warren Street, Fifth Avenue and Forty-first Street, and Fifth Avenue and Forty-eighth Street. It also had a store in Boston.
Its wholesale operations extended the Rogers Peet name to more than forty leading cities.
Firmly Grounded
The man leading the company at the time joined it in 1920, after studying wool weaving in the mills of Scotland.
He began in the tailoring department and subsequently spent a short period working in each of the company’s departments, developing a thorough understanding of the entire operation.
In 1921, Mr. Turnbull was appointed assistant secretary, assistant treasurer and director. He became treasurer in 1923, vice president in 1928 and president in 1937—the same position his father had held from 1916 until his death in 1923.
During his thirty-four years with the company, Mr. Turnbull witnessed many changes in the menswear industry.
Clothing became lighter as heating systems improved both indoors and on public transport. Man-made fibres established an important place within the menswear market, while shorter working hours and suburban living increased demand for leisurewear.
A Look at the Near Future
What did the future hold?
Mr. Turnbull made no long-range predictions. He believed that the preference for dark colours would continue for some time.
He expected synthetic materials to find their most effective use in blends with natural fibres, believing that they could never completely replace materials such as wool or silk.
In the immediate future, he anticipated only minor changes to the popular narrow lapel and natural shoulder.
He also believed that the strongest market for higher-priced clothing would remain in the city rather than move to suburban shopping areas.
Under Mr. Turnbull’s leadership, Rogers Peet sought to remain up to date without sacrificing its traditions.
The president believed the company had succeeded. He was confident that both his father and Mr. Chambers would have recognised the contemporary stores and approved of the company’s modernisation.