NEW ORLEANS — Italian suits in the window, the clacking of the St. Charles streetcar, the distant sound of street musicians rising from the French Quarter. The scene outside of Rubensteins, the 100-year-old New Orleans menswear retailer, has remained relatively unchanged in a century. Inside is another story for the third-generation business, which has evolved with consumers’ lifestyles and adapted to new trends, all while navigating one unprecedented event after another.
The agility and willingness to change while maintaining core values like quality, service and a unique product assortment have been key to the Rubensteins’ enduring success, said president David Rubenstein, who co-owns the store with his brother Andre. Whether it’s trying out a new line, venturing into a new business, or knowing when to bow out of one, Rubenstein said the future is always change.
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“I said to my father, ‘Is this a good business to be in?’ And he said, ‘So long as people aren’t naked, you’ve got a future.’ You just got to change,” Rubenstein said.
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Rubensteins was established by Morris Rubenstein in 1924 as a haberdashery selling men’s shirts and ties. His brothers Sam and Elkin (father of David and Andre) joined the budding business less than a year later. The sons of Russian immigrants, the Rubenstein brothers stayed afloat during the Great Depression in the 1930s by negotiating reduced rent with their landlord. During World War II, they added womenswear to help sustain business. When the war ended, they famously advertised white dress shirts, encouraging the young men reentering the workforce to charge the tops to their Rubensteins credit accounts.
Through the 1950s and 1960s, the brothers expanded their assortment, snapping up six buildings on Canal Street and St. Charles Avenue, one of the Crescent City’s most famous corners and the backdrop to some Mardi Gras parades. The business also benefited from an injection of youth when David and Andre came on board after finishing college in the ’70s.
Shortly after, the family added Madison Shop geared toward young men. “They didn’t want to come into their old man’s store, so my uncle opened Madison Shop on the second floor with a separate entrance eight feet away from the main entrance. The kids would go upstairs, while their dads would be downstairs shopping,” David said. All American Jeans was introduced as hippie culture went mainstream. “Hippies didn’t want to buy suits, so we started a casual pant business,” David said. “About that time, the Vietnam War started to get bad and young men and women began to wear jeans.”
These efforts to connect with young consumers are what kept customers coming in. David said they see a lot of customers who worked or shopped at Madison Shop while they were students at nearby Tulane University and who went on to become doctors and lawyers. “They come visit again and lots of times they bring their kids who are at Tulane and say this is where I worked, or this is where I shopped when I was a young man.
“We appeal to the new generations,” he continued. “That’s why a lot of stores close. They get old with the owner, and then the kids go elsewhere. We’ve been able to keep them coming.”
Big Easy Business
Aspects of the business have come and gone. A second location shut in the ’90s, the family exited the women’s category, and the store currently houses denim, sportswear and tailoring under the banner Rubensteins name.
Whereas competitors skewed Southern traditional or ventured into brands also carried in department stores, Rubensteins has kept an edge with its roster of Italian men’s labels, appealing to stylish locals and the streams of visitors looking for something different. It was the second store in the U.S. to sell Brioni. It was the first U.S. store to offer Zegna. “We’ve always brought people the new Italian things. That was really what our biggest forte was when I grew up, it was bringing things in from Italy,” David said.
The store still sells Brioni and Zegna suits, as well as made-to-measure suits (the store has an in-house tailor) by Coppley, Munro, Ravazzolo, Stile Latino and Canali. The latter is advertised on what may be the most elegant billboard in New Orleans on top of Rubensteins’ three-story building. The store also carries denim and sportswear from Barbour, Billy Reid, Faherty, Paul Smith, Robert Graham and others.
“We’re still one of the main sources for people who wear suits and sport coats for business. There are still a lot of restaurants that require men to wear a jacket…and there’s still a big business community here, not to mention lots of weddings,” David said. Sport coats are the biggest driver in terms of sales, but he said jeans have been strong lately. “A lot of people have a dress wardrobe, but now they’re starting to build a casual wardrobe and that becomes outerwear and footwear. To a guy who likes fashion, shoes are important,” he said.
Rubensteins’ longtime sales staff is also in tune with what locals and tourists want, while newcomers have the benefit of learning from the second generation. “I can teach you to sell. I have a way of structuring a sale that makes it real easy. Everybody does it and they’re good salespeople,” David said. “I just want a person who looks nice and has a nice handshake because then I know they’re comfortable with talking to strangers. That’s my two criteria. I’ve taken people who have never sold clothing, and they have done very well.”
With customer service and attention to fit are priorities, the store has also decidedly stayed offline. “Online is not a business that we really could support with the staffing that it needs or the quantity of merchandise. We don’t buy like a department store, 20 units of a size,” David said. “Plus, our customer comes in to buy a suit. You can’t alter a suit if you don’t see the guy.”
During COVID-19, many loyal local and out-of-town customers found ways to support the business. “They would call and say, send me some clothes,” he said. “We know what we’ve sold them, they didn’t have an empty wardrobe. They just wanted to support us so during COVID-19, we were shipping stuff all around the country to our good customers. We’ve been fortunate to have really good friends and good customers.”
The store’s connection to New Orleans and its community deepened in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. With 80 percent of the city submerged, the category 5 storm and failed levees caused more than $160 billion in damage and 1,390 deaths in New Orleans. Thousands more were left without a home and the city’s population plummeted by half.
“The reality was that when we evacuated, we told our staff that we would continue to pay 75 percent of their salary until they came back and if they came back, we’d give them the other 25 percent because it was important that people knew they had an income, or they would have left town to go work somewhere else,” David said.
The store got lucky. “The water stopped right on the corner,” he continued. “We had no problem because there was Anderson Cooper outside doing news broadcasts. We had the police because this was the only place they could stand and stay dry. We were protected all the time.”
Rubensteins reopened 51 days after the storm on Oct. 18, 2005, becoming the first store on Canal Street to get back to business. The whole staff returned, except for one person who had children in a new school. The store welcomed a lot of customers whose homes and clothes were destroyed. Those who had insurance came in to shop and start over. Vendors and other friends in retail also provided assistance.
“No one really knew what was going to happen after Katrina,” said Ozzie Hunter, a sales associate at the store for 42 years. “I remember my mother saying nobody is going to come back to that store. But I wanted to come back because my job is what I love to do. It changed the whole arc. That one incident changed the whole persona of our store. And it shows that we are resilient and that we care about our customers.”
“You have to come back because people need to start putting one foot in front of the other,” David said about the decisions made after Katrina. “Otherwise, people get lost. And that was one of the main things that we talked about: we’ve got to give them a place to come to work and look forward to going. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be here and that was kind of what we did for the city of New Orleans. We ran some ads. We had some good publicity, but we kept telling the people in New Orleans, you’ve got to get back to make this city the same.
“It was just the most fortunate thing ever to be on this corner,” he said.
Though it’s celebrating its centennial, he said the store is “one of the new kids on the block.” Next door is Meyer The Hatter, the 130-year-old family-owned and -operated hat store. Down the street is Adler’s, the 126-year-old independent jeweler.
The store has been a second home to David, who would take the streetcar there with Andre after school. “The streetcar stopped within a block of our school. Our dad [Elkin] would meet us on Canal and St. Charles where the streetcar would stop,” David said. “We would come into the store, mark things and do things around the store. We were already learning.”
The third generation of the family followed in their footsteps. Andre’s son, Kenny Rubenstein, is general manager and David’s daughter, Allison Marshall, manages marketing.
“I remember visiting my grandfather and my great-uncles at the store. It became a place where you knew there was family,” Kenny said. “My grandfather would take me to lunch at places like Kolb’s, which was across the street. Seeing the respect that all these men had for my grandfather and uncles had a lasting effect on how important community is. There were also a lot of fun times horsing around with the salespeople.”
The third generation is also nudging the business into a new territory: hospitality.
Rubenstein Hotel on St. Charles Avenue opened on Dec. 31, 2023. The family partnered with the late Joe Jaeger, who owned J Collection Hotels and Development, to transform the two unused floors above the store into the 40-room boutique hotel. The hotel is also home to the Madison Shop Bar where the Madison Shop entrance used to be. “As we acquired the six buildings, the retail went downstairs,” David said. “So, these were empty buildings. The hotel allows the next generation to utilize the space and earn an income for the future. The hardest thing to do is to generate income from the upper levels.”
Bookings are slowly building, especially during big weekends like Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest. David anticipates a busy early 2025 when Super Bowl LIX takes place just eight blocks away on Feb. 9, and Mardi Gras wraps up a few weeks later on March 4.
Despite the revelry and 24-hour parties, the New Orleanians know how to get back to business. The family is conscious of the changing retail landscape, especially how consumers come in knowing so much more about the styles and brands they’re looking for. “When you’re in a family business, you’re on the ground every day. You can see changes and trends coming in and you can adapt,” Kenny said. “That’s the key.”
Though no dates are set, David said he and his brother plan to retire soon. Allison laughs at the idea. “When he retires, he’s still going to come to the corner and give everyone directions and suggestions for restaurants,” she said. “He’s never going to leave here.”
“If the next generation adds or changes things, that’s up to them, but we still have a lot of people to dress,” David said.
From the Sales Floor: Rubensteins’ Staff Share Their Memories
James Conner, valet
The unofficial president of Canal Street, James Conner began working at Rubensteins in 1977. As the store’s valet for the last 27 of those 47 years, he has had a front row view of the city’s highs and lows. Rubensteins, he said, has served as a steady anchor, however, supported by family-oriented values and an unwavering focus on quality clothes. “Quality and professional service — that’s the reputation of Rubensteins. Our motto is nothing less than the best,” Conner said.
Often the first face customers see, Conner recalls a time when an unassuming greeting had a positive impact. “When we had a women’s store, a lady brought back a dress three times. The fourth time her husband came to raise hell. He was so angry. I opened the door for his wife, I went around to open the door for him and said, ‘Welcome to Rubensteins, glad to have you.’ At that moment, he later told Mr. Rubenstein, that all the anger had disappeared because of my kindness.”
Arthur Simon Jr., sales associate
Arthur Simon’s goal to work for the best retailer in New Orleans landed him at Rubensteins six years ago. Quality menswear has always been a passion for Simon, who previously interned at Ralph Lauren. However, his time at Rubensteins has introduced him to the world of Italian tailoring, where understanding the nuances of a Brioni suit compared to a Munro suit, or knowing about a specific fabric is invaluable to the customer. “I have customers come in from Italy and Turkey, and even though they know they can buy it cheaper back home, they buy it at Rubensteins for the experience,” he said.
Having access to the store’s second generation and their experience has helped Simon grow into the role. “The Rubensteins are a great family — always helping and teaching,” he said. Other aspects of the job are easier, including his approach to customer service. “Just treat everyone the same,” he said.
Ozzie Hunter, sales associate
A deep love for fashion and personal style drives Ozzie Hunter, who joined Rubensteins’ sales team 42 years ago. “I love to sell clothing. I love what I do. I like putting things together and making people feel happy….I consider myself an artist putting together colors and fashion,” he said. Hunter has built a loyal roster of clients over the decades, one of them being Allen Toussaint, the late musician, songwriter and New Orleans R&B icon. A fan of Robert Graham, Hunter said Toussaint often bought his stage looks from Rubensteins. “I just love the way he personified our clothing on stage,” he said.
Kelly Doyle, buyer and sales associate
An iconic location and positive reputation with locals and visitors alike make working at Rubensteins a unique experience, according to Kelly Doyle, a buyer and sales associate at the store for the past 13 years. The store’s focus on Italian brands, in comparison to the more traditional offerings from other local stores, also make it a standout as does its ability to evolve. Doyle said he sees menswear shifting toward soft tailoring, wider legs and more relaxed pieces.
The next generation of consumers is discovering the store, but Doyle said they’re shopping in a new way. “They’re not afraid to wear the same brands as their father. They know what they want; they bring in photos and screenshots and we help them make it happen,” he said.
Marshall Hardwick, floor manager
“The people, more than anything, is what stands out about Rubensteins,” said Marshall Hardwick, who joined the team as floor manager a year and a half ago. “I was encouraged by David to join the team, and I’ve been blessed to have fantastic teachers and mentors.”
Working for a family-run company provides just the right amount of formality and warmth, he added. “I do appreciate the fact that they’ve been in it for 100 years — they obviously know what they’re doing,” Hardwick said about the Rubenstein family. “But we also enjoy what we do every day and enjoy the people that we work with every day.”
Roberto Manzanares, buyer and sales associate
Roberto Manzanares started working at Rubensteins fresh out of school almost 10 years ago. As the sportswear buyer, he stays in tuned with shifts in menswear by attending Chicago Collective, Dallas Market Center and visiting showrooms in New York City. “We try not to carry the same thing because that gets kind of stale. But we do try to add new brands or maybe different categories from the same brands,” he said.
Part of the store’s success, he said, is its Italian-inspired curation, services like an on-site tailor and making sure customers can walk out with what they want. “We definitely sell a lot of clothing, so we’ve tried to keep a lot of clothing in stock,” he said.
