The Greek-Americans Who Made Suits Fine Enough for a President

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The communicative of Greek-American tailors who worked successful Rochester, New York, for Hickey Freeman, past considered among the world’s astir prestigious brands for suits.

By Evan Bourtis

Inside a four-story gathering of sand-colored bricks successful 20th-century Rochester, New York, tailors speaking antithetic languages enactment with sewing machines, agelong metallic scissors, needles, oregon covering irons. Each has a antithetic relation successful piecing unneurotic a men’s suit good capable for a president.

My grandparents – papou and yiayia successful Greek – immigrated to the United States to marque suits for Hickey Freeman, past considered among the world’s astir prestigious suit brands. They worked unneurotic connected the 3rd level of a mill successful the 1970s that made suits for Hollywood stars including Paul Newman and Ray Liotta.

That aforesaid mill besides produced suits for presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama – and much precocious – the suit that Joe Biden wore erstwhile helium was sworn successful arsenic the nation’s 46th president.

Hickey Freeman built its estimation by recruiting highly skilled tailors from crossed the globe including Greece.

Lenora Ince – a Rochester nonmigratory who served arsenic Hickey Freeman’s second-floor store seat during her 25 years determination – besides remembers moving alongside tailors from crossed Europe including Italy, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia. She besides had co-workers from Africa, the Caribbean, the Middle East, and The Philippines.

“I loved the diverseness due to the fact that you ne'er got bored. You’re ever learning caller things from people,” said Ms. Ince who started astatine the mill successful 1985.

Hickey Freeman and the long-gone Bonds Clothing Company relocated 100 families from Turkey to marque suits successful Rochester betwixt 1967 and 1969.

The latest of those years, my 40-year-old papou near the tailoring store helium owned successful Athens and hopped connected a one-way formation to the United States alone. At Hickey Freeman, helium was nary longer the boss. He was 1 Greek-speaking sewing instrumentality idiosyncratic successful a symphony of English, Italian, and Turkish speakers, each with a antithetic relation successful transforming a wide of cloth into a suit that would merchantability for today’s equivalent of much than $1,500.

The pursuing summer, Papou reunited with his 38-year-old wife, 4-year-old daughter, and 6-month-old lad and they began surviving unneurotic successful a heavily-immigrant vicinity successful Rochester’s westbound side.

Yiayia began cutting plush cloth astatine Hickey Freeman successful 1971, handing disconnected her trimmed creations until her hubby yet stitched the pieces together.

She besides met a seamstress who became her lifelong friend, Katina Petalas, a profoundly Orthodox Christian pistillate calved 88 years agone successful the mountainside bluish Greek colony of Nymfaio. Katina inactive remembers carpooling to the mill with Yiayia erstwhile I spoke to her implicit the telephone 1 July evening.

Katina, who outlived my grandparents, remembers moving connected the aforesaid level arsenic tailors calved successful Turkey, Greece’s geopolitical rival. Despite that, “Den malosame” – we didn’t bicker, Katina said portion reminiscing astir her aged workplace.

Katina said she and Yiayia worked connected abstracted floors but met successful the lunchroom, some packing accepted Greek dishes to devour during breaks.

Greek-Americans settee successful Rochester not lone to marque suits

My grandparents were among the 150,000 Greeks to arrive successful the United States betwixt 1965 and 1980s aft the U.S. authorities lifted its restrictions connected migration from Eastern Europe.

The astir fashionable destinations for Greeks successful those decades were metropolises specified arsenic New York City, Boston, and Chicago. However, the mid-sized metropolis of Rochester – astir 550 kilometers upstate of New York City – besides attracted Greeks acknowledgment to its booming industries including Kodak, printing institution Xerox, and Hickey Freeman.

Ms. Ince described Hickey Freeman arsenic a “mini–United Nations”. When she began moving determination successful the 1980s, determination were astir 1,200 employees. While immoderate were lifelong Rochester residents, others precocious arrived from different continent.

Ms. Ince, present an subordinate pastor and a hospice aide, invited maine into her location to stock her memories of being portion of a multicultural workplace. When I began speaking astir my papou bringing his household to Rochester aft a twelvemonth apart, her look lights up.

“The ones that came, particularly from antithetic countries, were hard workers and they came with their families,” she says. “They were trying to found and physique and marque definite their children’s children person a amended life.”

Sitting astatine her circular room table, Ms. Ince reminisced astir Christmas play parties astatine Hickey Freeman and her daze erstwhile archetypal seeing however accelerated second-floor women could sew an limb sleeve. She made circular motions with her hand, similar idiosyncratic dipping a spoon into a vessel of yogurt, to amusement however accelerated the women could repeatedly puncture cloth with a needle.

Katina served arsenic 1 of those lightning-fast needle and thread workers until she near successful 1977. During my mother’s play telephone with Katina, we took turns asking her questions successful Greek astir her clip sewing connected the 2nd floor. She described her workplace from 5 decades agone amended than I tin retrieve what I did astatine enactment 5 months ago.

Katina told stories astir seamstresses who ate luncheon successful the bath to prevention time. She recalled that galore seamstresses were Italian but determination were plentifulness of Greeks to talk with astir cooking and religion. She remembered her hubby driving her and my yiayia to Hickey Freeman and 8 hours later, my papou would instrumentality them home.

Immigrants helping chap immigrants

In the epoch erstwhile my grandparents worked astatine Hickey Freeman, determination were truthful galore migrant tailors that the mill held naturalization ceremonies to observe employees becoming caller American citizens.

Ms. Ince recalled that well-established, multilingual tailors translated orders from bosses into English for recently arrived immigrants. That was a comforting thought knowing that my papou spoke virtually nary English erstwhile helium arrived and ne'er became proficient successful English.

I ideate Papou’s recently recovered chap Greeks explaining however to fold, pin, and sew the wrong of a jacket, Hickey Freeman-style. He was ne'er obstinate, truthful I couldn’t ideate him getting upset if his brag told him to Americanize the sewing instrumentality techniques helium perfected successful Athens.

When Yiayia joined her hubby successful the factory, they worked unneurotic connected the 3rd floor. As Ms. Ince explained, each level had its specialties.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the archetypal level was dedicated to printing ads, repairing clothing, lawsuit service, and bureau spaces. The adjacent level up was dedicated to sewing by manus and removing impermanent thread. It’s besides the level wherever Ms. Ince became the archetypal ever pistillate to property suits for Hickey Freeman, utilizing a covering robust to support their shape.

The 3rd level is wherever Yiayia’s specialty of cutting cloth and Papou’s specialty of instrumentality sewing took place. Using scissors, Yiayia would chopped cloth laid beneath an outline, marked up with pencil to bespeak dimensions. Later successful the suit-making process, Papou would usher cloth pieces past a metallic level to permission an even, stitched trail.

From seeing images of tailoring scissors from that era, it’s casual to ideate wherefore cutting would person been a satisfying relation for my yiayia.

The battle-ax crisp scissors of charcoal-colored metal, astir apt the magnitude of Yiayia’s forearm, seemed brutally heavy. Neither digit spread had immoderate padding similar children’s information scissors do. Despite that, the scissors would beryllium nary lucifer for a pistillate who, adjacent successful her 70s, lifted foam-covered dumbbells from her seat portion keeping an oculus connected her 2 troublesome grandchildren.

Yiayia’s singular limb spot made up for her trouble walking from being afflicted with Polio arsenic an babe calved connected the Island of Evia. Instead of letting her limb symptom clasp her back, she focused connected what did work: Her caput (she was a mathematics wiz) and her arms.

First time connected the occupation successful a overseas land

I could visualize my yiayia astatine Hickey Freeman taking an elevator up 3 floors and, archetypal thing, selecting which benignant of cloth to cut. For suits, her colour choices of 100% wool cloth included smoky gray, a shadiness of bluish darker than the Aegean Sea, and a plaid signifier with achromatic stripes connected a pewter-tinted background.

At slightest those were the choices successful a outpouring 1987 catalog of cloth samples. The samples, chopped to astir 2 x 1.5 inches, were wedged into the catalog’s pages. The catalog was conscionable 1 of the items successful a Hickey Freeman predisposition packet folder archived astatine the University of Rochester.

The university’s room is location to the “Hickey Freeman Company papers” – a record holder containing photos, type-written letters, and paper clippings saved betwixt 1881 and 2004. I didn’t spot my grandparents successful immoderate of the photos I examined.

However, the predisposition packet helped maine to visualize my grandparents archetypal time connected the occupation successful a overseas land. Papou near the mill successful 1973 and Yiayia near successful 1977 but the packet is the closest model into their past that I tin find.

The packet includes 2 black-and-white laminated photos of a bald antheral successful his mid-50s – with an exaggerated, toothy grin to greet caller employees – modeling 2 of Hickey Freeman’s designs.

One suit, appearing the aforesaid blended shadiness of grey arsenic TV static, has a modern look with a notched lapel stretching down conscionable past the man’s chest. The jacket’s cloth has clusters of parallel and perpendicular lines intersecting to signifier a plaid pattern. The dapper exemplary casually stands with a flimsy tilt successful his caput and rests his near elbow connected a woody desk, showcasing however the luxurious cloth moves.

The different suit appears coagulated colour and old-fashioned. The breast-pocket-side overgarment flap is stretched implicit the different flap and buttoned to springiness it a tight-fitting look. The exemplary has 1 limb successful his pouch and the different leaning atop an imitation Greek column.

I envision my papou examining the photographed exemplary connected his archetypal time to conjecture astatine however American suits are tailored compared to Greek suits – from the bulkiness of the enarthrosis pads to the grooves successful the lapel.

I wonderment if helium was ever jealous of the suits that Hickey Freeman produced compared to his tailoring store of respective employees successful Athens. Or possibly helium saw Hickey Freeman suits arsenic excessively unvarying, constricted by the choices successful a catalog, whereas his tailoring store successful Athens would springiness him much state to experiment.

A caller section for the Greek-Americans beyond suits

Papou near Hickey Freeman for a occupation to physique cameras for different booming Rochester industry: Kodak. Four years later, my yiayia and Katina besides near Hickey Freeman for Kodak. They some near successful 1977 aft Hickey Freeman brought successful “I michani”, the fabric-cutting machine, arsenic Katina called it erstwhile I spoke to her implicit the phone.

Yiayia suspected that her presumption mightiness not beryllium astir for overmuch longer, truthful she followed my papou to Kodak. Soon after, my yiayia showed up astatine Katina’s location with a occupation exertion for Kodak and, successful a substance of time, they were co-workers erstwhile again.

Decades later, the unit astatine Hickey Freeman would trim to a fewer 100 due to the fact that of changes successful demand. However, a customized covering elephantine aims to respire caller beingness into the factory.

This May, the announcement came that Hickey Freeman suits would nary longer beryllium manufactured successful Rochester for the archetypal clip aft much than a century.

The New York City-based Authentic Brands Group, proprietor of the Hickey Freeman marque since 2010, licensed the suit-making to the Rochester mill successful speech for royalties. When the licence was up for renewal this year, the Authentic Brands Group decided to springiness the rights to marque Hickey Freeman suits to different covering company, which plans to determination the accumulation retired of the U.S.

The mill continues to nutrient high-end suits, lone nether a little recognizable name: Rochester Tailored Clothing. Jeffery Diduch, RTC’s elder vice president of design, said the mill is inactive utilizing the aforesaid tailoring techniques that gave it a world-class reputation. Those techniques person been passed down for generations and shared crossed continents.

“Hickey Freeman was the champion successful the world, barroom none,” Mr. Diduch said. “Most of the factories that we deliberation of contiguous successful Italy making the top-quality stuff, their technicians came present and learned what was called the American system. They went backmost and taught radical implicit determination however things were made astatine Hickey Freeman.”

Mr. Diduch was calved successful Canada and came to the U.S. connected a visa thirteen years agone to enactment successful plan for HMX GROUP, past the genitor institution of Hickey Freeman. Mr. Diduch, present a naturalized citizen, says galore existent tailors astatine Rochester Tailored Clothing are of migrant backgrounds, particularly from Turkey.

Now, the mill is entering yet different era. Less than a period aft the mill completed its last Hickey Freeman – a Navy bluish blazer with an alternating achromatic and airy bluish signifier connected the interior lining – the Tom James institution announced its plans to bargain the factory. Tom James, the largest U.S. shaper successful customized clothing, has pledged to adhd 45 jobs implicit the adjacent 5 years to the factory’s existent unit of 200.

As Mr. Diduch is looking toward the aboriginal of the factory, helium is besides moving to sphere humanities documents from the Hickey Freeman era. Above his bureau table lies archetypal stencil sketches of 20th period Hickey Freeman suit designs. He has besides collected decades-old suit patterns, photographs, and booklets that were erstwhile scattered passim the building.

For galore second-generation Americans, these materials service arsenic a reminder of their ancestors’ speculator tailoring skills that brought them to Rochester from overseas. One of my reminders is simply a suit my gramps made astatine his location successful his 70s, apt utilizing supplies from a section cloth store, successful the aboriginal 2000s arsenic a acquisition for my dad.

My dada pulls retired a fuzzy, acheronian grey two-piece suit from my closet, takes disconnected the wide integrative cover, and lays the suit connected my bed. I look beneath the close overgarment flap wherever a marque statement is expected to be.

Instead, there’s lone silky achromatic lining, proving that the suit is simply a merchandise of my papou’s ain creativity, from the notched lapels to the broadside pockets heavy capable to acceptable my full manus in.

Knowing that each 8 buttons – 3 connected each limb sleeve and 2 connected the flaps – were sewn by my papou fills maine with bully memories of spending summertime days astatine his home. I tally my digit on the wrong seam that binds the bladed lining to the thick, cozy cloth and wonderment wherever Papou’s aged sewing instrumentality is now.

The pants are made of the aforesaid grey fabric, from the 7 loop loops to the bottoms that are cuffed astir an inch. Even the thread seems to beryllium the aforesaid hue of gray.

My dada convinces maine to enactment connected the ineffable object. It felt similar getting a hug from my papou.

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