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Clothing Des Moines for 95 years

21.05.12

Bill Way bought his first pair of Levi’s at G&L Clothing when he was 11 years old.

More than 50 years ago, he went to the place anybody with a lick of sense would go to find a pair of jeans. Back then G&L had, and still has, one of the largest selections of Levi’s around. Ditto for Carhartt and Dickies brands.

“It’s where you went to buy school clothes,” the 64-year-old Des Moines retiree said.

G&L — with its familiar “the size, the style, we’ve got it all” ad jingle — now sits at 18th Street and Ingersoll Avenue, just west and north of downtown. It has been a Des Moines fixture, in a few different downtown spots, for 95 years. The store isn’t, and never has been, flash and sass, but it’s familiar and dependable, like a worn flannel shirt or a comfortable pair of boots.

For just shy of a century, G&L has been the place where local construction and line workers buy uniforms, jackets and shoes. Farmers stock up on heavy work coats and gloves. Outdoor enthusiasts pick up their flannel lined jeans. Teens get overalls and painter’s pants in their school colors.

Source: DesMoinesRegister.com