No need for statistics to prove that Quebecers have gained weight during the pandemic. Just check out Tony the Tailor, aka Tony Cecchini: “Waistlines are at least an inch longer.”
From the top of his 81 years, the Italian of origin – he left Teramo, in Abruzzo, for Saint-Michel, in Montreal, when he was 16 years old – launches this sentence, a smile in corner, in an impeccable French at the strong Italian accent.
Well settled in a captain’s chair in his business on rue Bélanger, you can tell he has a lot to say after 56 years of making custom clothes.
“Before, my clients were mostly workers who bought something special. Today, they are professionals, accountants, lawyers, judges”, observes the one who has not been seen without his measuring tape around his neck since the advent of color TV.
Business is going well (+25% in turnover for 18 months). Customers come from father to son.
“I’m a better tailor than a salesman. I am too honest, ”boasts the octogenarian in a rare deviation from humility.
“Even though it costs a lot more to make,” his clothes still sell for $795 or more, inflation or not.
The more it changes, the more it is the same
This store, this room with loose fabrics on the wall and muted Italian music, allows you to see the time pass. To see fashion change.
“Even on TV, they don’t wear it anymore,” Tony laments about the tie, which has practically become a museum piece.
The pants have shrunk.
“From 24 or 25 inches wide at the bottom before, we went to 15”, he mimes, massaging his calf to emphasize the fact that the skinnyit’s tight.
The clothes, like the TV, have taken on colors.
“The pale blue is the most popular. Beige, green and especially burgundy, we never saw that before. And now, oh boy! the eldest gets carried away.
Don’t leave it on the shoes!
“Everyone wears running shoes with his suit. I don’t mind, but it’s easier to take the measurements with a nice leather shoe,” complains the tailor, pretending to be exhausted.
Because exhausted, he is only half exhausted.
“I am a free man, I have no boss and I like what I do”, justifies the workaholic who still works 6 and a half days a week, from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
On Sunday afternoon, he takes his leave. To do what ? “Sleep,” he said without flinching, a smile on the corner of his lips.
Like a sport-study
He learned his trade at the age of 12, like a sport-study. In the morning, it was school, and then, hop to the tailor.
Since then, he measures, sizes, cuts, sews, adjusts, readjusts.
“I don’t have time to play cards with the people in the neighborhood, I have 33 clothes to make that are waiting for me in the back”, he says in all seriousness.
Behind it is the engine room, which, as much as they are, could have appeared in a film by Fellini.
These objects are, so to speak, the longest relationships maintained by this hardened bachelor.
“My work allows me to continue, otherwise I would be at home watching TV and bored,” he admits candidly.
The time travel that Tony the Tailor offers isn’t going anywhere. The little guy from the Saint-Michel district will be, as he has been since 1966, in his studio in La Petite-Patrie until the end. In a suit… and sneakers.