There are only a few places in Utah where you can buy a $4,000, hand-made Brioni suit.
Utah Woolen Mills Clothiers is one of them.
After nearly 100 years and five family generations, the store that extols the wonder of wool has remained a constant presence at its exclusive downtown location.
With the selling of ZCMI, Utah Woolen Mills is thought by some to be Salt Lake's oldest continuously running downtown retail business.
The store was founded in 1905 and has outlived recessions, polyester fads, floods, clothing store chains, even light-rail construction.
Bart Stringham, fourth-generation owner and president, said the success of the business can be traced to its quality products.
"We have ties for $250. We have suits for $4,000," Bart said. "We have whatever people want. . . . We want to have quality, and that's kind of why I think we are still here."
Whether it's celebrities, tourists or business executives flying in from New York, customers keep coming back for the family's exactness in personalizing the buying experience.
"If price is the issue, we are out of luck," Bart said. "Department stores are price. We are strictly into quality and service."
That service is why Dana Kendrick shops exclusively at Utah Woolen Mills. Kendrick, an investment banker who moved to Salt Lake City three years ago from Dallas, buys suits and custom-made shirts.
"I have gone in there and bought a suit and a year later bought a new suit, and they pull out a tie and say, 'This will go with the one you bought a year ago.' That's an unbelievable thing that they can remember something like that," he said.
Kendrick also gives high praise to the store's tailor, Enrique Perez, a fourth-generation tailor from Mexico, who, Kendrick said, can make anything.
In addition to a local clientele, Bart quickly boasts about customers who fly in from San Francisco or New York to buy their clothes.
"Our out-of-town business is probably better than our in-town business," Bart said. "People recognize there are no stores like this."
Utah Woolen Mills started with the Lloyd family. In the early 1920s, Bart's great-grandfather and grandfather, Henry and Briant Stringham Sr., bought a controlling interest in the company.
The business eventually was passed to Briant Jr., who is now 71 years old and still helps manage the store a couple days a week.
Briant Jr. began to learn the trade when he was 12 years old, working in his father's blanket mill in Murray.
"My father was in charge of all of it," Briant Jr. said. "He was the CEO of Utah Woolen Mills, which had a blanket factory, a tailor shop and a knitting shop."
Back then, the store manufactured 90 percent of its knitted ware, including tailor-made suits, sweaters, women's dresses and underwear, socks, blankets and outerwear.
"Our shirts were famous throughout the Intermountain West," Briant Jr. said. "We made a gabardine shirt that was equal to none. We made a flannel shirt also that was wonderful. We made thousands and thousands of them."
All items carried the company's famous Jack Frost label, a trademark that extends to this day.
"It was all custom made, made to order," Briant Jr. said. "Our business was selling directly to the consumer."
In its 96-year history, the store has never witnessed an unprofitable year. Its peak was in 1953, the same year a gallon of gas was 29 cents and a first-class stamp cost just 3 cents.
At that time, more than 350 salesmen scoured the nation peddling the Jack Frost label.
After the 1950s, synthetic clothing began to make its mark on American consumers, a love affair that would last until the late 1970s.
"It's changed. We are back to a more dress look," Briant Jr. said, insisting that he has never worn a polyester suit.
More than 20 years ago the original store and mill, located on Richards Street, were torn down after condemnation proceedings were started by the Salt Lake Redevelopment Agency to make way for the Crossroads Mall, which opened in August 1980.
That ended a 75-year tradition of manufacturing clothing.
Since then, Utah Woolen Mills has been located at 59 W. Temple, directly across from Temple Square.
Bart's four children, Brette and Brooke, 24, who are twins, B.J., 21, and Brandon, 18, each contribute and work at the store.
Brette and Brooke designed a basket for Olympic tourists that features all Utah-made products — soups, non-alcoholic wine, Bear Lake jam and chocolate. The baskets cost anywhere from $40 to $300. The two are also buyers for the store, which carries women's brand names such as Geiger, Double-D Ranch and Pendleton.
Brandon designed a Web site. And B.J. is launching a campaign aimed at businesses that want exclusive service by appointment only.
What's it like working for Dad?
"It's not like he is our boss. There is nothing he would ask us to do that he wouldn't do right then," B.J. said.
The mix between Bart's children and Briant Jr. provide a balance, Bart said.
"That's why our business will continue," Bart said. "We are not stymied by old beliefs or things that are too innovative."
E-MAIL: danderton@desnews.com