Kabo Corsets, 23-25 E. 21st St. (2004)

A Chicago-based company, The Kabo Corset Co. was owned by members of the same Florsheim family that created the well-known Florsheim Shoes. Simon Florsheim (born Germany 1837, immigrated 1854, naturalized citizen 1859), initially in the fur business, was a corset manufacturer in Chicago from around 1880. By 1902 he was in business with his son, Norman S. Florsheim (1865- ), and their company, S. Florsheim & Son, became the proprietor of the Kabo Corset Co. by 1903. The New York branch office and salesrooms of Kabo opened at 388 Broadway the same year.

In 1906 notice appeared in The New York Times of the dissolution of the partnership of S. Florsheim & Son, trading as the Kabo Corset Co., "owing to the retirement of S. Florsheim, senior partner." Norman S. Florsheim became president of Kabo with his younger brother, Leonard S. Florsheim (1878-1964), secretary.

Kabo was located at 23-25 E. 21st St. from 1916 to 1922. Probably they did not manufacture corsets in New York after that date (see Kabo ad from 1937.), although the business continued until at least the mid-1940s (see Kabo ad from 1943). The New York Public Library's Picture Collection has a Kabo ad from 1910 available at digitalgallery.nypl.org.

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