At first glance, selling ascots in San Diego may seem like a bit of a stretch. But when your store is named the Ascot Shop, it comes with the territory.
The menswear store in the city’s upscale suburb of La Jolla traces its roots to 1950 when Jack Matzinger opened a conservative, traditional haberdashery on Girard Avenue.
Leo White, who had relocated from Minnesota to the sunny California city and opened the first Merrill Lynch on the West Coast, began shopping in Matzinger’s store and became friends. Bill White, who attended grade school across the street from the Ascot Shop, began working there while attending college.
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As his son Andrew White tells it: “My mom and dad were getting settled down — they were high school sweethearts and got married at 20, which is the same year he started at the store. He was going to San Diego State, and he worked for Wheaton Movers.” But Matzinger said that if he joined the Ascot Shop while he was in school, he could not only build a wardrobe, but he would also meet the local businessmen who could help him when he graduated. “So he took a pay cut to work at the Ascot Shop.”
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That part-time job ultimately led to a full-time career. Matzinger knew a gifted merchant when he met one and immediately began grooming Bill White to one day take over the business. When he retired in 1980, White officially bought Ascot Shop.
While the store remains in its original location, a lot has changed inside its double Dutch front doors over the past 75 years. Although Bill White, now 73, continues to be active in the business, his children are key to its continuing success. Andrew White, who started working in the family business in the mid-1990s while he was in high school, has been instrumental in modernizing the store, and his sister Aly oversees marketing, advertising and bookkeeping.
With a name like the Ascot Shop — which derives from a racecourse in Berkshire, U.K., that hosts the Royal Ascot festival each year that draws the elite of British society and the royal family — it would seem more logical for the store to be located in Connecticut or Massachusetts, in the stronghold of Ivy League country.
Andrew White said Matzinger actually borrowed the name from a classic men’s department within the Carson Pirie Scott store in Chicago. “It was traditional British: regimental ties, herringbone sport coats, oxford button-down shirts,” he said. When Matzinger decided to follow the sun to La Jolla, he asked permission to open a store with that name where he could sell traditional Ivy League-style apparel.
“That’s where the name came from — not after the necktie, but the race track,” he said. “But because of the name, we have to carry ascots in here.”
But the Ascot Shop sells a lot more than ascots. Although tailored clothing continues to represent a significant portion of the business, the mix has changed significantly over the years to focus more on sportswear, which accounts for between 60 and 70 percent of the mix today. Among the brands offered are Peter Millar, Johnnie-O, 34 Heritage, AG, Naadam and Reyn Spooner.
“It was really traditional when I started, and I didn’t like it at all,” Andrew White said. “So we started exploring the market and figured out we should probably carry jeans and things like that. I was the youngest person here, so I got lucky. My dad let the leash out pretty long for me.”
Andrew White visited the trade shows in Las Vegas to shop for alternative brands along with Ascot Shop’s buyer. “I’m dressed like a CPA in a blue blazer and khakis,” he said with a laugh, “but it was so cool — there was so much stuff. And I said, ‘We’ve got to change this up.’”
That resulted in a department that they called “fashion, for lack of a better word,” he recalled, where the Ascot Shop offered more trendy jackets, pants, shirts and knitwear. “I kind of created my own little department within the store,” he said.
Even though he made a lot of mistakes, “it was a good move, and we found our way through it.”
At the same time, the tailored clothing offering was also elevated with brands such as Corneliani and Zanella joining the mix.
Today, the Ascot Shop’s top seller is custom, which it produces with Trands. “It’s a really popular price point and it turns around very fast,” he said. “There are a ton of options and you can make outerwear too but we usually use it for suits and sport coats.”
Trands also has a ready-to-wear collection that is part of the mix. “I’ll pick a couple of jackets with really fun linings,” he said. “You can write underneath the collar so we put ‘Stay Classy,’ which is kind of our tag line. It’s from the movie ‘Anchorman’ with Will Ferrell where he plays Ron Burgundy and he’s in San Diego. It’s pretty cool.”
After that is AG jeans followed by Eton shirts, Peter Millar, Baroni, Corneliani, Hagen, Georg Roth and Baldessari.
While San Diego has a casual, beach-y vibe, Andrew White said the bulk of the store’s customers are 40- to 60-year-old professionals, primarily real estate brokers and attorneys. In fact, one of Ascot Shop’s best customers is an attorney who buys gift certificates for his male associates every holiday season so they can get a new suit. “He always hires younger guys out of college who can’t afford good stuff, but he thinks everybody needs to wear a suit and tie to the office every day. He buys probably 25 gift certificates because he doesn’t want them wearing a $200 suit from the mall and representing his firm.”
That law firm notwithstanding, he said the “uniform” for most guys in San Diego is a sport coat with jeans or causal pants.
Since Ascot Shop has been in business for more than 75 years, it’s not unusual for the store to serve multiple generations of the same family. And like many other successful specialty retailers, it treats its customers like family, inviting them to stop by and visit. The store features a pool table and a room with a TV, leather couches and a bar.
“We want you to feel comfortable, like you’re at home,” he said. “So we offer water, we offer same-day tailoring if needed. We offer coffee or a drink. We have seats for the ladies when the men are trying stuff on.”
They’re also invited to the store’s frequent trunk shows and promotions where Georg Roth, a Los Angeles-based men’s designer, will come down and meet with customers every quarter. “That’s a cool thing. He’s a real person and our people like to meet him.”
Although Ascot Shop is proud of its longevity, Andrew White said the company didn’t really do much to celebrate its 75th anniversary. “We had a lot of things planned for our 70th year,” he said. “We had Champagne bottles and wine bottles made with our logo and we were going to throw a party. But that ended up being 2020.”
So with those plans scrapped by the pandemic, they decided against revisiting them in 2025. “All we did was change the logo from a zero to a five for the banners and the windows,” he said. Instead, the family decided to invest in renovating the store to position it for the next 75 years. “We redid the carpet and had our hardwood floors redone, repainted things, remodeled our bathroom,” he said.
So where do the Whites see Ascot Shop in the future?
“I don’t want to say: continuing to do the same thing, but basically, continuing to do the same thing,” Andrew White said. “Our whole business is built on referrals and we’ll just keep nurturing those relationships. Everybody’s got a ‘guy.’ You need an electrician? I’ve got a guy. You need a landscaper? I’ve got a guy. You need a suit? I’ve got a guy that’s cool. That’s how I look at it. That’s the plan to keep going forward.”