Menswear as a Family Business

After being raised as a child at , Rosalie Morrison, 46, continues to thread together a business that originally started as a tailor shop. Her father, Umberto Spallone, began the business, and over the years expanded it into a full men’s clothing store. Her brother Joseph Spallone, 49, and their mother Velia Spallone, 75, also run the business. 

How did the business start?

1965 is the year when I happened to be born. My parents came here. My father clearly didn’t have his license yet, so he would get a ride to Natick everyday and work at Sears Roebuck as a tailor. Then he tailored at night in Milford, too. He was working two jobs. He was working in a little tailor shop and renting a little apartment upstairs. They put the building up for sale and he didn’t know what he was going to do because he had nowhere to go. They went to the bank and mortgaged the building and took a huge chance. My father opened the tailor shop and my mom would stay in the tailor shop. She didn’t speak English. My dad would go to work every day. He would come home and do whatever tailoring was there at night. I was literally born and raised in this building. The tailor shop got bigger and bigger. This space had been rented out to Lincoln Auto School. That’s what used to be here. 

In 1979, he decided to put a few suits in the store. They opened half of the store. My brother was at Bryant University at the time, so he would commute and come home and do the store thing. Then the store took on a life of its own. Joe expanded it. We added on the downstairs when I graduated from Bryant because, at the time, I was working at all different places. Inevitably, I always ended up working here too because we lived upstairs. Then I started helping my brother, and the four of us worked here. The business grew and we did really well. So, we all stayed. Then, I got married and had two babies. I basically did the same thing. I brought them here every day. They were raised in the tailor shop. My dad died in 1999. Joe, my mother, and I kept the business going. 

What do you sell here?

Primarily we sell men’s clothing, which are not just suits. We sell a lot of Tommy Bahama casual. I do a lot of destination weddings. If people are going to get married on an island, then guys want to wear Tommy Bahama type clothing. I do all that, put it together and do the ordering. My mother and my brother and I do all the alterations. If you buy clothes here we won’t charge for alterations.   

Where do your clothing items come from?

Most companies don’t have traveling salesmen anymore, but because I’ve been here so long, I have suit salesmen that come to me and bring a rollaway rack with suits. I place a lot of the orders over the phone. I go to the clothing shows. My Tommy Bahama saleswoman sends me packets and catalogs that I place all the orders in. I have a really good selection of Tommy Bahamas shirts because they don’t sell it at a lot of places. I literally hand-pick every shirt. There are some shirts where I only have one in a large, and a different one in an extra large so people aren’t going to walk by wearing the same shirt. 

Have the styles changed that you have sold here over time?

In the 80s, on any given Saturday, we would sell like 25, 30 suits because everybody wore suits. As people went more casual, then I started carrying more casual-wear. We used to sell just suits and ties.  I don’t feel like we can do that anymore, so we carry jeans, khakis. Anything you can image that a man needs to wear. 

Are there challenges to selling clothes?

Always. I order my clothing a year in advance. It is hard to know what sizes I’m going to need, what I’m going to sell more of. If I keep my suit order small, that fall, for some reason, I’ll have people coming in for all kinds of suits. It is not a problem because I can pick up the phone and order them. It is only a problem because I can only get basic type clothing. The challenge is that it is a guessing game. You don’t just order it from week to week. I place orders a year in advance so you have to guess on how much you’re going to sell and hope that you have enough, or not too much because I don’t want to end the season with full shelves. 

Are there busier seasons than others as far as selling clothing or tailoring?

[A busier season is] when school starts and people want to get their wardrobe ready for fall and winter. Right now, if anything, we’re slower. I think the change of spring time, when those first few nice days come, everybody wants new clothes. 

For tailoring, what are common adjustments you have to make?

They like the basic stuff like hemming. Everybody needs their jeans hemmed, everybody needs their pants hemmed. Mainly pant hems, all women need all their pants and skirts hemmed because they are never the right length. 

What equipment do you use to tailor?

We do a lot of hand-work. We have a blindstitch machine and a serger machine. We have a press machine because we press all our clothes and steam them. If someone brings in a bridesmaid dress, we’ll iron it and steam it after. 

What are the challenges of working with family?

Some people can do it and some people can’t. I find it, some days you get sick of each other. But I find it a gift to be able to work with my mother and my brother every day. I feel like if I was working full-time in an office, when would I really see them? Having two kids in the house and a husband and everything, I would literally not see my mother all week. I feel like every day is a gift because I get to be with my mother and brother every day. I feel like that outweighs everything. 

What are the best parts of working at a men’s clothing and tailoring business?

Helping people feel good about themselves and helping them feel confident. If a guy has an interview and I can pick out his shirt and suit and tie, I really care about what he looks like when he leaves. When someone says, “I felt so good in my new outfit,” it makes me happy. I think all three of us love to help people. It is not just a job. It is a way of life.