International Male started out in San Diego with stores there and West Hollywood. Known for style and outrageous underwear and swim wear. Eventually they created Undergear to focus on under, swim and active wear. All went great. Regular shoppers had personal shoppers that would know your likes and notify you of new merchandise before catalogs came out (pre Internet).
Somewhere along the line they made a Devils pack with Hanover House and moved the operation to Pennsylvania. Service suffered and the personal shoppers were eliminated. Eventually International Male was dissolved and only Undergear remained. Now it seems they have destroyed that.
Once Hanover took over and moved it from California the cutting edge styles were lost as was the personal service. Without the California eye for style the double knit thinking of Hanover House took its toll and it became just another mail order men's catalog. Another case of big business thinking they know better and screwing things up. Maybe I'm being politically incorrect but it seems when you take a gay oriented store with the gay eye for selecting clothing and hand it to a middle America polyester double knit mentality, style suffers.
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