North Vancouver’s Iconic Roman Tailor Sewing Still After 5 Decades In Business – BC | The Canadian News

At first glance, Guiseppe Dente’s workshop seems to have exploded.

Between the shelves of suits and piles of clothes, you will find the 78-year-old tailor who still does the work he loves after more than 50 years on the North Coast.

“So far, everything has worked out right,” Dente told Global’s This is BC.

Business has slowed down a bit over the years, but the calls are still coming in. There are no ads, no website. It is his reputation and word of mouth that has built the business.

Anyone who walks into his store on Pemberton Avenue in North Vancouver will wonder how anyone can get something here. But Giuseppe has his own filing system.

“When they bring it in, I try to more or less remember where I put it,” he explained.

Many customers have become close friends.

“He’s a legend,” said one gentleman who popped in for a coffee. It does not take long for his other guest to join, adding: “You are a legend, Giuseppe.”

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Leave a pack and stay for a visit, just like they did in Italy.

‘Some people go to the dressmaker, you know, do a little, talk a little. That’s how I try to do it here too, ”Dente explained.

Dente learned his mastery skills near Naples and Milan and in Rome.

He opened his store in West Vancouver in 1971. It was destroyed in a fire in 2011, but four months later he was back in business.

He has had many well-known customers over the years, including Vancouver football legend Bob Lenarduzzi, who has been taking his clothes to Dente since 1981.

“Jimmy Pattison, Pat Quinn when he was alive, and there are many others,” Lenarduzzi said. “I think it’s also something that also contributes to his mysticism.”

“What makes me come back is Giuseppe,” explained former Canucks defender Dennis Kearns, another longtime client.

“He’s a wonderful person and he’s an artist.”

After more than half a century, Dente still makes clothes.

“Time goes by so fast,” he said.

His old sewing machine may not be buzzing as much these days, but as Dente says, as long as he can see, he will continue to sew.

“I come here, I enjoy it,” Dente said.

“I’m having a good time being here and I never know what else to do.”

To contact Jay Durant with a story idea for This is BC, email him details and contact information at [email protected]