330CK
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It is with a heavy heart that I am informing the StyleForum community that my good friend and mentor, Giovanni Gagliano, passed away about two weeks ago.
His talent at tailoring was only surpassed by his talent of making you feel like family, whether you’d known him for five minutes or 50 years. He was patient, exacting, and effervescent—his love of life radiated in his demeanor and the clothes which he cut. He was loyal—he and his wife, Angela, had celebrated their 51st wedding anniversary this year. He was a great father—his children’s love for him was evident when I met them at his 80th birthday party just last month. He was a man to admire and imitate.
Though I knew him only a relatively short time, in that time he taught me more than I could have asked him to, both in life and in the art of tailoring. He had myriad stories about his childhood in Catania, apprenticing in a tailor’s shop as a pre-teen, to enlisting in the Italian army, and about the secret New York City after-parties of the 1960s-70s. A typical European housewife, Angela would keep my espresso cup and biscotti dish filled while he reminisced about his life, and their life together.
He worked with me until his last days, not only to help me but because he loved what he did so much that he was happier in the shop than at home. The world would probably be a better place if everyone had a career they loved so much they never wanted to stop practicing it, and were so eager to pass it along to future generations.
I am devastated that he has left this world, but I will never forget him and what he did for me. I hope that, if given the opportunity, anyone reading this will carry on Giovanni’s memory and help foster the coming generations at whatever talent you may possess.
Thank you for reading.
His talent at tailoring was only surpassed by his talent of making you feel like family, whether you’d known him for five minutes or 50 years. He was patient, exacting, and effervescent—his love of life radiated in his demeanor and the clothes which he cut. He was loyal—he and his wife, Angela, had celebrated their 51st wedding anniversary this year. He was a great father—his children’s love for him was evident when I met them at his 80th birthday party just last month. He was a man to admire and imitate.
Though I knew him only a relatively short time, in that time he taught me more than I could have asked him to, both in life and in the art of tailoring. He had myriad stories about his childhood in Catania, apprenticing in a tailor’s shop as a pre-teen, to enlisting in the Italian army, and about the secret New York City after-parties of the 1960s-70s. A typical European housewife, Angela would keep my espresso cup and biscotti dish filled while he reminisced about his life, and their life together.
He worked with me until his last days, not only to help me but because he loved what he did so much that he was happier in the shop than at home. The world would probably be a better place if everyone had a career they loved so much they never wanted to stop practicing it, and were so eager to pass it along to future generations.
I am devastated that he has left this world, but I will never forget him and what he did for me. I hope that, if given the opportunity, anyone reading this will carry on Giovanni’s memory and help foster the coming generations at whatever talent you may possess.
Thank you for reading.
