When Nick Cashman of Middletown Springs went looking for a suit for his wedding, he wanted one that would measure up to the magnitude and magnificence of the big day. What he found at McNeil & Reedy Mens Store in downtown Rutland in January 2024 was more than just a well-tailored tuxedo. It was a complete shopping experience.
“When I walked in, I was immediately overwhelmed by how different the vibe was” from other men’s clothing stores, the 29-year-old recalled. Cashman was greeted at the door by Casey McNeil, who shepherded him into a side room with an overstuffed leather couch and racks of suits, tuxedos, ties and other accessories. Casey offered Cashman a cup of coffee or cappuccino; McNeil & Reedy brews its own special roast, Red Truck Coffee, named after the store’s mascot, a 1956 red Chevy pickup that Casey parks outside in warmer months. Casey then explained the range of choices, from affordably priced tuxedo rentals, which start at $150, to bespoke suits that are made to measure, which start at $1,500. Cashman chose the latter.
“Especially for weddings, men want that suit to be as special as the bride’s dress, something that’s made just for them,” Casey said. “They can pick the buttons, the liners and all that stuff. It’s less, ‘I want to rent a suit for just one day’ and more ‘How can I create something special for this one day that I can wear for a lifetime?’”
Cashman was soon back at McNeil & Reedy with all the men in his wedding party. Then, the night before the wedding, Casey reserved time for the groomsmen to try on their tuxedos and get last-minute alterations by one of the shop’s tailors. He was also prepared to provide any additional accessories they might need or want, from dress shoes and suspenders to cuff links and pocket squares.
“I was really impressed with how it all came together,” said Cashman, who has since returned to McNeil & Reedy for three or four more made-to-measure suits for his work in the pharmaceutical industry. “This is a team of people that really prioritizes quality and the experience of buying a suit.”
This is a team of people that really prioritizes quality and the experience of buying a suit.
NIck Cashman
When people think about an immersive pre-wedding shopping excursion, they might think of the TLC television series “Say Yes to the Dress,” in which a bride, her mother and bridesmaids spend hours in a bridal shop drinking Champagne and anguishing over the right wedding gown. For the Vermont groom, there are few comparable options. The websites for both the Vermont Wedding Association and the Vermont Association of Wedding Professionals list just one store for tuxedos and fine menswear: McNeil & Reedy.
For 70 years, the haberdashery on Merchants Row in Rutland has been outfitting men for weddings, job interviews, corporate events, black-tie affairs and other formal occasions. (About a quarter of the store’s business comes from weddings.) As the oldest continuously operated retail outlet in Rutland, McNeil & Reedy is the go-to men’s clothing store for doctors, lawyers, bankers and other business professionals. As today’s consumers discover the quality, durability and style of a hand-tailored suit that cannot be replicated by the fast fashion sold by big-box stores and online retailers, McNeil & Reedy is educating a new generation of men on how to look sharp and dress for success.
Casey, 36, is a third-generation haberdasher who joined the family business five years ago after a career in finance. He’s now a co-owner, along with his father, Jim McNeil, and uncle, John McNeil, who are identical twins. The business is open seven days a week and employs six people, including two full-time tailors. McNeil & Reedy routinely draws Vermont customers from as far away as the Northeast Kingdom, and one out-of-stater drove five hours from his home on Long Island to buy a hand-tailored suit.
As Casey explained, McNeil & Reedy can work with anyone, regardless of budget, size or fashion preferences. Recently, Casey had a customer request a butter-yellow suit. Finding no such fabric available from his usual suppliers, Casey tracked one down at a textile mill in the United Kingdom, whose owners couldn’t find Vermont on a map.
Jim and John’s father, James F. McNeil, founded McNeil & Reedy in 1956 with his business partner, George Reedy. Both men had worked next door at the Economy, a now-defunct department store which in the ’50s was Vermont’s largest retailer. Its owner, William Ginsburg, was a businessman of considerable wealth and influence in the Marble City. He owned the Rutland Railway as well as two local hotels. And in an era when all but blue-collar workers routinely wore suits or jackets and ties to work, Ginsburg’s other businesses created a built-in clientele for his clothing sales.
The elder James McNeil started at the Economy literally at the bottom — as an elevator operator. He worked his way up, as it were, to the men’s clothing department, where he met Reedy. When the two men decided to open their own store, Ginsburg gave them his blessing and support. He provided them with fixtures, clothing racks and other accoutrements to outfit the 2,000-square-foot space that McNeil & Reedy still occupies. Why help his competition?
“Back then, everybody walked store to store and block to block, and a lot of people didn’t own cars,” said Jim, 67, who joined his father and brother in the business when he was 20. For Ginsburg, having a competitor on the block gave shoppers yet another reason to go downtown.
In the 1970s, when Jim started working in the family business, downtown Rutland still had two other full-service men’s stores, as well as one that specialized in blue jeans and another that sold men’s leather goods.
“Our competition has always been fierce,” Jim said. “But nobody has the service we have.”
John came to work at McNeil & Reedy when he was 15, greeting customers, washing windows and restocking merchandise. His mother, a seamstress, taught him how to sew, and Jim honed his tailoring skills by watching the older Italian tailors down the street who handled McNeil & Reedy’s rush jobs. Today, John still does many of the store’s alterations.
“You can come in, buy a suit, go have lunch and come back and take the suit home with you,” he said. “You can’t do that anywhere else.”
During the pandemic, when brick-and-mortar retailers faced both prolonged closures and an existential crisis — fine menswear didn’t qualify as an essential business like grocery stores and pharmacies — Casey joined McNeil & Reedy and began infusing the shop with fresh ideas and youthful energy. He installed new front windows and removed the drop ceiling, revealing the original tin one that had been hidden for decades.
The improvements gave the shop a brighter and more airy feel. Later this month, Casey will renovate the wedding side of the store to expand the lounge area and install a walk-in humidor for selling cigars. Both should be ready in time for peak wedding season, which starts in early spring.
Last year, he also began to develop the store’s own line of tailored clothing, which will be made in Rochester, N.Y., where, coincidentally, his grandfather bought many of his goods. McNeil & Reedy’s clothing line, which debuts this spring, will feature items that customers cannot find elsewhere.
For example, Casey discovered that it’s nearly impossible for men to find a made-in-America overcoat, the kind that lasts a generation or more. After several customers came in looking for a Harris Tweed coat, Casey saw a business opportunity. He now plans to sell four different styles.
“They can’t find them, so we’re going to make them,” Casey said.
Evidently, eyeing new business opportunities runs in the family. Jim, who served seven years in the Vermont legislature, would invite to his shop fellow lawmakers, some of whom had never owned a tailored suit.
“We now have a nice clientele on both sides of the aisle,” Jim said.
In the past year or so, McNeil & Reedy has also seen an unexpected windfall from such weight-loss drugs as Ozempic and Wegovy, which have enabled men to shed dozens of pounds and keep them off.
“People are coming in with their clothing, whether they bought them here or elsewhere, and we do a makeover for them,” Jim said. If a customer’s weight loss was significant enough that the jackets, vests and trousers cannot be properly altered, McNeil & Reedy will sell them new ones.
Bringing his son into the business gave the store a stylistic makeover of sorts, Jim added. Casey introduced more casual and everyday clothes. As a man in his mid-thirties, he is also at the age when many of his friends are getting married. And having spent years working in finance, he is dialed in to the latest fashions that young professionals are wearing.
“My goal right now in life is to work with my grandchildren,” said Jim, who is partially retired. Though Casey’s son, Axel, is only 3 years old, his grandfather boasts that the boy is already picking out his own shirts, pants, socks and blazers to dress up for dinner.
“If you ask him,” Jim added, “he’ll tell you he’s the lead designer for McNeil & Reedy.” ➆
The original print version of this article was headlined “Beyond Measure | For 70 years, Rutland haberdashery McNeil & Reedy has been outfitting the sharp-dressed man”
This article appears in Love & Marriage Issue • 2026.
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