Tom's Work

Tom and me I the door of the store.

Tom works part-time in a men’s wear shop just off of the Peel Metro.
This is my second visit to Montreal when he has been working there and I did want to see it.

This is a better men’s wear store.

It is no surprise to see a suit for $10,000.00.

The store’s co-owner showed me the hand stitching on the lapels and on the shoulder seems of one of the suits.

As well he showed me how the lining for the sleeve had been hand stitched into the coat, as well as the coat’s label.

I felt the wool. It was the finest cashmere. 

None of this is lost on me. In high school I took Sewing 10, 20 and 30, though for the life of me, I can’t figure out why when there were music and art courses that I would have liked as well.

... a beautifully tailored coat and scarf ...
Scarf: $1190.00

And then as an adult I took all of the sewing courses at SAIT – how to sew men’s pants, men’s shirts, drapes – I took them all.

As well, one year at Relief Society they had 3 hour courses for many weeks and Dagmar Moller came and taught women how to make suits – how to hand pick the lining into the lapel and how to and sew a hidden zipper into a skirt. 

Dagmar was a Danish immigrant woman and she didn’t think she had the language to teach the class. I think someone helped her, but she didn’t need a posse.

It was the rest of us who were without skills, not she. Tom took me over the ties, to the socks that were neatly piled, colour coded and neatly folded. Eric says his favourite part of the shop is the shoes and with no wonder – the smell of that Italian leather. Tom and I talked for a while about his favourite shoe which had a soft, supple upper shoe with a classy sole.

... one of the better brands ...
... Tom commented that most people don't know
the names of the better brands of suits ...

I think he is right.

I climbed to the second floor and then up a black winding staircase, each stair fine iron steps of small squares of black that can be seen through.

Up, up, up to where the tailor was sitting by her machine.

We chatted for a while.

She learned how to sew when she was 14 in Italy and has sewn ever since – for Eatons as their dressmaker, running her own business, and now with this company for 20 years.

On running her own business she said, it is not fun to be doing alterations for people when you are also trying to serve your family dinner.

She had a tape measure hanging around her neck and was wearing a tailored suit to work in.

... swatches of suit fabric in a leather bound book ...

The employees all like Thomas and wanted to tell me what a good job I had done at raising him. 

I don’t know if Tom was laughing the loudest inside, or if I was. 

The ties were artfully hanging over dowling.  Not crowded all over each other as they are in other stores, but artfully blending with one another in a triangular formation.

The owner told me that they shop the world for these styles, so that their customers don't have to.

We talked a bit about the styles for the coming Spring and Summere.

I did look at the window display as I left. Tom said that he had laid the tile mosaic that was on the floor, small and grey white tiles with an intricate interwoven design in the middle. 

He has another career set out for him if he doesn’t want to sell men’s suits.

Arta