Four Names, One Factory: A Fall River Shirt Story

New England Shirt Co is the oldest ready to wear shirt factory in the country.  We've been making America's Oxfords since 1933.  Here is a record of our history as best we can prove it.

(Photo by Jesse Burke)

Fall River as Spindle City

Fall River was once the epicenter of Cotton Textile Production.  A city at its peak, now looking for a second act.  Fall River is the original of 26 'Gateway Cities' in Massachusetts.  This means it was a city built by an industry (textiles, in this case) that boomed, then hollowed out, leaving income and education levels below the state average. 

Formerly called 'Spindle City,' Fall River is littered with relics of the past.  Beautiful, monolithic mill buildings sprinkled throughout the city.  Some stand in disrepair, some converted to art spaces, others upgraded to 'loft style' housing.  There are a select few that still hang on to their past, manufacturing some of the highest quality products in America.  Enter Sander Epstein...

The Founding

Sander Epstein immigrated from Russia to America with nothing but a sewing machine.  He'd been a tailor in Russia before he left it, and tailoring was the only thing he knew how to do, so he kept doing it. In 1933, he found a partner, Bernard Lasker, and the two of them opened a shirt company in the old Flint Mill in Fall River, Massachusetts.  Lasker ran sales. Epstein ran the floor.

They called it Shelburne Shirt Co. It operated from the same address — 69 Alden Street for the next seventy-plus years. It has worn three more names since, survived a flood that destroyed everything inside it, and the cutting tables are still full.

He'd been a tailor in Russia before he left it, and tailoring was the only thing he knew how to do, so he kept doing it. In 1933, he found a partner, Bernard Lasker, and the two of them opened a shirt company in the old Flint Mill in Fall River, Massachusetts — one of the granite cotton mills built during the city's run as the largest textile manufacturing center in the United States. Lasker ran sales. Epstein ran the floor.

They called it Shelburne Shirt Co. It operated from the same address — 69 Alden Street — for the next seventy years. It has worn three more names since, survived a flood that destroyed everything inside it, and the cutting tables are still full.

1933–1988: Shelburne Shirt Co.

By 1973, Shelburne was forty years old and still family run with nearly 1000 employees and at its peak producing about 3 million shirts per year.

Sander's sons carried it forward. Seymour ran the company's New York office. Selwyn ran the factory in Fall River. In 1987, the Fall River Area Chamber of Commerce named Selwyn Apparel Manufacturer of the Year.

A company memo from December 1977 gives a sense of scale: Shelburne's full daily capacity ran around 700 dozen shirts a day.  With a cutting department of 41 people, a pressing department of 57.  The 1977 memo isn't proud company lore; it's an internal cost-cutting plan written during a bad stretch forcing layoffs due to offshoring.

The bad stretch didn't reverse. On February 23, 1988, Shelburne's board decided it could no longer keep the plant open. Two weeks later, the textile workers' union wrote to Selwyn Epstein to begin bargaining over severance and vacation pay for the closing. Later that year, Shelburne sold the business. The new owners kept the doors open. They called it Fall River Shirt Co.

1988–2006: Fall River Shirt Co.

Fall River Shirt Co. was still at 69 Alden Street, still building shirts, with 165 employees who called themselves "America's Shirt Makers." The company was launching a Custom Division that year and, by its own account, had never lost a single day of production for lack of work.  The factory's single biggest client decided to offshore all production, crippling the company instantly.

A short stint as Herringbone Shirt Manufacturing Company

Around 2006, Joseph Abboud took on the company under the name Herringbone Shirt Manufacturing Company.  Despite best efforts, the company still continued to struggle.

2009: New England Shirt Co.

Robert Kidder, an executive at Herringbone and veteran in the menswear industry worked closely with the union to reopen the business.  He took over the company and renamed it New England Shirt Co. in 2009 and carry its legacy forward for 25 years straight.

(Photo by Jesse Burke)

2018: The flood

In 2018, a pipe burst on the third floor. Water moved down through all three working floors before anyone could stop it. Every machine was destroyed. Every asset went with it. Eighty-five years at 69 Alden Street ended in a single night.

The company didn't fold. It relocated a block away to Tower Mill, where it still operates today.  Smaller now, a boutique operation rather than the plant that once ran three floors and eight thousand shirts a day, but running the same trade at the standard set by everyone who worked the floor before.

2026: New ownership

Ben McCosh acquired the company from Robert Kidder on July 20, 2026.  Bob and Ben are working together to maintain the legacy of the factory while bringing its operations into the future.  

(Photo by Jesse Burke)

Today

New England Shirt Co. is the oldest working shirt factory in Fall River, Massachusetts, ninety-three years after Sander Epstein cut the first pattern in a rented corner of the old Flint Mill. We continue to make for many of menswear's most respected labels as well as our own factory collection.  After four names, one address change, and now with its 6th owner, we are still very proudly the home of the American Oxford.