Sleevehead: Montreal tailors: La grande mesure et demi grande quebeçois                                                          

Montreal tailors: La grande mesure et demi grande quebeçois

    When I was in Montreal recently, I visited a couple of tailors in the Plateau area: G. Tonino and Gerard Mayeu.

My first visit was with Tonino and they have been in the same location for 40 years. Signore Tonino has three working tailors in the backroom (plus himself) where the suits are made. He learned the trade from his uncle and is originally from Campobasso, south of Rome.

Judging from what I saw, he cuts essentially a Roman shoulder along the natural shoulder line but can make a softer shoulder and will remove padding according to the customer's frame. We were talking about current jacket styles in Montreal and it seems the vast majority of his customers order single breasted although he noted that a customer recently ordered a double breasted jacket - the first in a long time apparently.

Although most of his customers are from Montreal, he has customers in Toronto and elsewhere in Canada, as well as New York. Most are professionals (lawyers, accountants, etc) and some customers are multigenerational (i.e. fathers and sons). The shop carries mostly Italian mills (Vitale Barberis Canonico, Zegna).

It was a pleasure speaking with Signore Tonino about when he started and how he got involved in the trade. As a consumer, I was interested to hear that when he first started four decades ago custom suits were just $59.

I then dropped by Gerard Mayeu, a short hop away by metro or taxi, for a very quick visit.



Mayeu has also been in the same location since 1946 and now owned by the son of the founder. At the high end, custom suits range from $500 to $700 and are made on the premises on the second floor of the building. I didn't get a chance to closely inspect a suit but I suspect generous use of sewing machines is required (and perfectly reasonable) at this price. They have three tailors plus a dedicated shirtmaker. Quite a bit of Mayeu's trade seems to come from media and entertainment (films and shows).

Visiting either one of these tailors is easy. You can take a taxi from downtown or stay at a hotel near a stop on the Orange Line metro. Both Tonino and Mayeu are very close to metro stops (Beaubien and Mont Royal respectively).

Additional links
- Styleforum thread on Toronto tailors
- Styleforum thread on Montreal tailors

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