His attention to craft, quality suits and clients. So this is what Joseph Cortese does not understand.
It takes him three days, working 10 hours each day, to make a suit. He puts in at least 1,000 hand stitches. Plus some by machine. When he is finished, the pattern of the fabric will match at every seam. And every seam will lie smooth. The lining of the jacket will be meticulously done. And the suit will look great on the human frame it was tailored for. Better than great. The lines will be clean; the cut inspired. It will speak of quality. Nothing will feel tight, drape or ride up. The owner of a custom tailored suit will not tug at a sleeve or shift uncomfortable under his jacket.
Therefore, the handmade suit conveys confidence and makes known that the wearer is a person of taste and standards, and - having paid about $1,400.00 - of means. All that and yet, Cortese says, some customers,“they ask me why I charge so much. They ask why I change $50 an hour?
He blinks as if with astonishment behind the thin, gold rims of his glasses. The diploma on the wall of his shop read “Centro Nazionale Dell' Artigianato.” Cortese, 64 grew up in southern Italy.
Those days, the tailors in Itlay, they were respected
as artists,” he says. At 10, Cortese became a apprentice
in a tailor's shop. Step by step, he learned his art. It took 10 years. At 21, he opened his own shop. He married at 24 and moved to Canada, where he worked as a tailor for 18 years. In 1977, he and his family came there. Joseph's Custom Tailoring is on West A Street downtown San Diego. His cards reads, “Custom Clothing and Alterations for Men and Women”.
Some things rend his heart. “Polyester. Rayon. I don't like to work with that junk,” he says. He lifts a bolt of fabric off a shelf. His face softens. “Now this, So light. So beautiful. Very nice material.” When a project is hopeless, he says so. A customer recently brought in two old tuxedoes. “How much would you want to alter these?” the customer asked. “Nothing,” Cortese said. He wouldn't do the tuxedoes. “They're too
old. What do you want to look like that for? You're a
lawyer!”
The tailor is usually in his shop by 7:30 a.m. He has
an Old World approach to keeping hours. “What time
will you be here?” he has been known to ask.“That's how late I'll be open.”His customers are like family or friends, he says. “It's a business. But to me, it's not a business.” Meanwhile, the number of fine custom tailors dwindles.
“What I do”, Cortese says, “there's maybe four or
five left to us in San Diego County. When we pass
away, there's not going to be any more handmade
suits.” Then people will be forced to tug on, squirm into, make do with the machine made jackets, which are tweaked by department store alterations but have identical sleeves for different arms, identical fronts for different chests and tummies. The shape of the human race, Cortese says, “it's not easy.” So listen up. “What I do, you cannot do,” he says. “What you cannot do,” he says. You want quality, you have to pay
for it.” It's this simple: “I would appreciate it very much if people would have respect for everybody else”.