Showing posts with label Royal Tailor Shop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Royal Tailor Shop. Show all posts

Monday, April 2, 2018

RIP Gino DiGirolamo


[Photo of Gino in 2014 by Michael Paul]

Gino DiGirolamo, who ran a tailoring business in the neighborhood for 50-plus years, died this past Friday. He was 82. He suffered a heart attack several weeks ago, and never recovered.

Friends and customers had been leaving get-well wishes on cards on the gate at Royal Tailor Shop on 11th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue...




[Photo Friday by Vinny & O]

He was born Gioacchino di Girolamo in Palermo, Sicily. After active duty in the military, he worked for two years as a tailor in Palermo before deciding to move to the United States in the early 1960s.

He worked as a tailor on Avenue A near 12th Street (in space that is now part of Boris & Horton). He bought the shop for $1,000 in 1963 when the owner decided to return to Italy.

Gino moved to 14th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B in late 2006. A rent increase there almost caused him to retire. However, with the help of an East Village resident, he was able to find the 11th Street space where he had been since 2014.

Gino was known for keeping long — and often unusual — hours, working overnight, barely visible behind a mound of clothes, before calling it a day around 11 a.m.


[Photo from 2009]

Here's part of a post that Jeremiah Moss wrote about Gino in 2008:

He wears a measuring tape around his neck. He has two televisions sitting one on top of the other. His walls are covered with pictures of the Italian soccer team, boxer Rocky Marciano, and a poster showing popular lengths of sleeves and trouser legs.

A gray-haired woman sits with him. While customers are present, she is silent. But after the customer leaves the shop, she gets up and berates Gino, telling him what he’s doing wrong and asking why can’t he do things the way she says. The tailor just smiles.

You can read more on Gino in these features from years past at Jeremiah's Vanishing New York ... Town & Village ... and the Local EV.

And there is a series of videos with Gino from 2007 on YouTube... including this one...



Gino lived in Ozone Park, Queens with his wife Adriana, a schoolteacher, who died in October 2013. Their son Vito was a familiar presence in the shop.

Updated:

A longtime customer launched a crowdfunding campaign "to raise funds to honor Gino with a donation in his name or potentially a plaque or marker in the neighborhood." Find details here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
After 50 years in business, Gino DiGirolamo is closing the Royal Tailor shop

Report: Rent hike forced Gino to retire and close his Royal Tailor shop

Gino's short-lived retirement

Mary Pupillo - 'A true relic of the East Village'

Friday, March 16, 2018

[Updated] Get well soon, Gino!


[Photo by Steven]

Updated 4/2

Gino died on March 30. He was 82.

--

An EVG reader shared this from yesterday about the Royal Tailor Shop, owned by Gino DiGirolamo, on 11th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue...

I stopped by Gino’s on East 11th and there was a big sign on the door that the shop was closed due to illness. I stopped next door at the Ipswich Watch & Clock Shop to learn that Gino suffered a heart attack about two weeks ago and has been in critical care ever since.

People with clothes in the shop should leave their name and phone number at Ipswich so that Gino's son can contact them.


[Photo by Steven]

We haven't heard any updates about Gino's condition.

Gino has been working as a tailor the past 50-plus years in several locations. It looked like a rent hike at his previous space on 14th Street would force him into retirement. Thankfully, with some help, he was able to secure the 11th Street shop in 2014.


[Photo of Gino in 2014 by Michael Paul]

Previously on EV Grieve:
After 50 years in business, Gino DiGirolamo is closing the Royal Tailor shop

Report: Rent hike forced Gino to retire and close his Royal Tailor shop

Gino's short-lived retirement

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

A good sign for the Royal Tailor Shop on East 11th Street


[Photo by Shawn Chittle]

Last we heard, Gino DiGirolamo had planned to move his Royal Tailor Shop from East 14th Street to 434 E. 11th St., though he hadn't actually signed the lease just yet.

However, things must now be in order for the new shop here between Avenue A and First Avenue: Gino's sign arrived on the scene yesterday.

Gino has been working as a tailor the past 50 years. It looked like a rent hike at his previous space would force him into retirement. Thankfully, with some help, he was able to secure this new location.

Previously on EV Grieve:
After 50 years in business, Gino DiGirolamo is closing the Royal Tailor shop

Report: Rent hike forced Gino to retire and close his Royal Tailor shop

Gino's short-lived retirement

Monday, June 2, 2014

Gino's short-lived retirement


[Photo by James and Karla Murray]

Back in early April, Gino DiGirolamo announced that he was retiring after 50 years working as a tailor.

Turned out that the retirement came about after the landlord at 520 E. 14th St. asked for a $1,000 monthly rent increase, an amount that Gino couldn't afford. So Gino set a May 31 closing date for his delightfully cluttered Royal Tailor shop …


[Photo by Michael Paul]


[Photo by Michael Paul]

But! Well-wishers who stopped in to say goodbye to Gino's shop over the weekend heard some good news …


[Photo by Michael Paul]

Gino has found a new storefront where he can continue his trade…



Now he has not signed the lease yet at 434 E. 11th St. between Avenue A and First Avenue … but he said that he has a verbal agreement and hopes to be up and tailoring again in a few weeks here…



Gino moved to East 14th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B in late 2006. Previously his shop was on Avenue A near East 12th Street.

Previously on EV Grieve:
A pile of clothes at the Royal Tailor

After 50 years in business, Gino DiGirolamo is closing the Royal Tailor shop

Report: Rent hike forced Gino to retire and close his Royal Tailor shop

Friday, April 11, 2014

Report: Rent hike forced Gino to retire and close his Royal Tailor shop

[James and Karla Murray]

As we first reported on Tuesday, Gino DiGirolamo is retiring, and closing his Royal Tailor shop at 520 E. 14th St. on May 31.

After 50 years in the business, it seemed as if a retirement was in order for Gino.

However, that's not the case. As NY1 reported, a rent hike left him no choice but to close.

"The man, he want a thousand dollars more. I pay the $3,000, he want $4,000," DiGirolamo said.

Also from the article:

"This level of craftsmanship, this level of care, this level of pride is really disappearing," said James Murray, an East Village resident.

Gino is also known for staying open and in his store literally all night. Max Chanoch came in to drop off pants to be tailored at 11 p.m., they were ready by 7 a.m.

520 E. 14th St., which also houses Dunkin' Donuts on the ground floor, is the lone holdout between ...


[Via Google]

… the two new retail-residential buildings expected at 500 E. 14th St. and 524 E. 14th St. …


[500 E. 14th St.]

And!


[524 E. 14th St.]

Per NY1: "Many say when DiGirolamo leaves it will be another piece of the old neighborhood no longer around."

You can say that again. And again …

Previously on EV Grieve:
A pile of clothes at the Royal Tailor

After 50 years in business, Gino DiGirolamo is closing the Royal Tailor shop

East 14th Street exodus continues

The disappearing storefronts of East 14th Street

[Updated with correction] 8-lot parcel of East 14th Street primed for new development

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

After 50 years in business, Gino DiGirolamo is closing the Royal Tailor shop


[Photo by James and Karla Murray]

It's the end of an era for the Royal Tailor shop … James and Karla Murray pass along the news that Gino DiGirolamo is retiring, and his shop at 520 E. 14th St. is closing on May 31.

Gino moved here between Avenue A and Avenue B in late 2006. Previously his shop was on Avenue A near East 12th Street.

Jeremiah Moss wrote about Gino in January 2008.

He wears a measuring tape around his neck. He has two televisions sitting one on top of the other. His walls are covered with pictures of the Italian soccer team, boxer Rocky Marciano, and a poster showing popular lengths of sleeves and trouser legs.

Matthew Handal shot several videos of Gino back in 2007…







So long to one of the delightful characters in the neighborhood…

Previously on EV Grieve:
A pile of clothes at the Royal Tailor

Mary Pupillo — 'A true relic of the East Village'

Monday, February 9, 2009

A pile of clothes at the Royal Tailor

Jeremiah has written about one of the treasures left in the East Village, Gino DiGirolamo, the tailor who has been plying his trade here for more than 40 years. He moved to 14th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B in late 2006.



I walked by his shop Friday night at 10...Per usual, he was still at work...barely visible behind a pile of clothes...





It appears business is good, which makes me happy...


For further reading:
Still Shopping, Maybe, but Now it's For a Tailor (New York Times)