Providers for customized tailor Domenico Spano will likely be held on Nov. 11 at midday on the Crestwood Funeral House in New York Metropolis.
Spano, generally known as Mimmo, died on Oct. 23 at NYU Medical Heart in New York of pulmonary fibrosis. He was 79.
Spano was born and educated within the Calabria area of southern Italy, and graduated from the Istituto Tecnico per Geometri in 1963 as a land surveyor, in addition to the Suola Ufficiali Carabinieri navy college in Florence in 1970. His household had a protracted historical past within the navy and he had anticipated to make that his profession till he met Rina Gangemi, an American who was learning in Florence. His life instantly took a flip.
“Three days after we met I informed her I used to be going to marry her, go away the whole lot and comply with her to this nation,” Spano mentioned in a 2013 profile in Keikari, a web based web site about males’s fashion. “I do know this appears a little bit uncommon, however that is my persona. By nature, I’m an incurable romantic, and all the time comply with my instincts and goals with out worrying in regards to the future or penalties. This kind of persona is mirrored within the fashion and design of my product.”
He moved to the States in 1971, and though he had no formal coaching in vogue, Spano mentioned he had all the time been fascinated by ’30s American films and dreamed of dressing like his heroes Humphrey Bogart, Gary Cooper, Douglas Fairbanks and others of that period.
When he arrived right here, he didn’t converse English and didn’t have a job, however his future father-in-law, Joseph Gangemi, was among the many premier customized tailors in New York, counting Nelson Rockefeller and Joe DiMaggio amongst his prospects, so Spano joined the enterprise as a bookkeeper making $75 every week.
“My father-in-law, Joseph Gangemi, with my uncle Nino, have been my mentors and inspiration; the one for uncompromising high quality and sense of proportions, the opposite for fashion and panache. Whereas I used to be there I discovered so much, and when my father-in-law died, the store closed, and I needed to search for a job,” he wrote in Keikari.
That led him to Roy Rogers — “I dressed like a cowboy for 2 years and discovered to say, ‘Blissful Trails,’ ” he mentioned in a 2009 WWD interview — however after he noticed an advert within the New York Instances from Dunhill in search of a bilingual tailor, he joined that firm. After Dunhill, Spano managed the Alan Flusser customized enterprise for 5 years earlier than becoming a member of Bergdorf Goodman to oversee that retailer’s tailoring store. He finally created his personal label for Bergdorf’s till transferring on to Saks Fifth Avenue in 2002, the place he the place he was honored with the shop’s inaugural Males’s Put on Icon award in 2009.
“The shoppers appreciated me, my fashion, my shows and my sense of colours and the best way to coordinate them,” he mentioned on the time.
However whereas he turned generally known as a tailor, it was really not one of many expertise he possessed. “As a matter of reality, I don’t know the best way to sew a button, I’ve a number of gifted tailors that work underneath my route,” he mentioned in 2009. “My manner of gown, I imagine, is traditional however has its personal persona. The fashion is as a lot as attainable Thirties Hollywood, with emphasis on the fabric itself and its texture and colours. A lot of the vogue folks speak about fashion, minimize, variety of stitches per sq. inch, and so forth., however only a few converse in regards to the material, and what it provides to the fashion.”
In 2001, he opened his personal atelier on 57th Avenue, which relocated down the block in 2017 and remained in enterprise till final yr when he turned unwell and closed the store.
Other than vogue, Spano’s different pursuits included studying of traditional authors equivalent to Victor Hugo, Dumas and Dickens; cooking, gardening, listening to classical music, lengthy walks and lengthy bicycle rides “with out a helmet.” He was additionally a daily within the New York Instances’ fashion part because of avenue photographer Invoice Cunningham who typically shot him strolling down Fifth Avenue in one among his signature fits.
He supplied some recommendation to others who would possibly wish to comply with in his footsteps, writing in his Keikari interview: “Educate your self about vogue, learn books associated to it, watch outdated films, comply with blogs, and so forth., however all the time be a person, comply with your individual intuition and your particular person fashion. When you actually are fascinated by vogue, you may develop your individual fashion and don’t should essentially take for gospel what you learn. Style shouldn’t be an actual science, however moderately a car to develop your individual fashion. In different phrases, be a person, don’t comply with anyone. In case you have fashion, it’ll present.”
Tom Ott, who had served as head of menswear at Saks throughout Spano’s tenure, mentioned: “Mimmo was a terrific stylist. He didn’t wish to be generally known as a tailor however moderately his story was about fashion. He labored arduous at making a ‘look’ for his purchasers. The best material from Scotland, Huddersfield and Biella. Cool appears reinterpreted for a brand new era.
“Mimmo was the primary on the sixth flooring tirelessly contacting high purchasers about wardrobe for the subsequent season. A pencil and black e book have been his instruments. He was a mentor to me and I’ll miss him dearly.”
Jeffrey Banks referred to as Spano “the final word gentleman, and never not like Invoice Cunningham, was a New York establishment, which New York journal as soon as identified.”
And photographer William Karam, who had labored with Spano at Bergdorf’s, mentioned: “Mimmo was not solely knowledgeable in his trade, however he lived it. Collectively, we made our working relationship a terrific success. And as well as, he all the time stored us laughing on the finish of the day. I’m certain that’s the reason he was good friend of Invoice Cunningham as properly.”
Spano is predeceased by his spouse and brother Francesco, and is survived by his daughters Elisabeth Spano and her husband Greg Falkowski; Cristina Spano and her husband Grant Gardner, a granddaughter, Maeve Spano-Gardner, and a sister, Tina Spano.
In lieu of flowers, the household requests donations be made to the Pulmonary Fibrosis Basis to fund ongoing analysis into the illness.
