geschrieben von balletboy  am 26.03. um 02:12:16

Your story rings so true with many of the danseurs I have known.

You wrotes: Maybe that explains what happened the one time I ventured>into the Freed's that used to be just North of 57th Street in>Manhattan. I asked whether they had any dancewear for men, & the>woman looked at me as if I had asked for pink tights & a tutu....

I lived half a block from this store.  Freed's used to make these 100% nylon tights for men that were just about the best tights a man could have dreamed of before lycra blends were introduced.  Maybe even after lycra blends were introduced, the 100% nylon tights for men made by Freed were the best!

So!  I don't remember this kindly woman's name (even though I've pulled out some old special orders and receipts, they don't have he name.  I can see her though!).  But she custom fit and ordered my first pair of toe-shoes.  She would special order the Freed Performance mens' ballet slippers for me (very thin calf-skin that molded to my foot).  She would even call me when they had sales so I could stock-up on slippers, and probably sold me stuff at sale prices when the special items were not on sale!

But she passed, and so it goes!  I can't even get a call-back from the voice-mails I leave on the Freeds phone.  They used to have molds of my feet, and would customize the Performance slippers.  I've offered to pay whatever it would cost to have slippers made, like the old days, but they don't call back.

One buddy once went into this store and asked if he could try on a leotard.  He was told, not so politely, that this was a womens' style and they did not let men try on dancewear at their store.

So if Freeds in America only wants female customers, they can have them.  But they've lost my $1,000+ (estimated based on what I spent in the 70's and 80's, inflated) a year business in custom ballet slippers.

balletboy