Fall River tailors soldier on during pandemic

FALL RIVER — They're not exactly hanging on by a thread.

But six and a half months after COVID-19 was declared a national emergency, the owners of Fall River’s two full-time, storefront tailor shops are quick to acknowledge their bottom line is still struggling as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

“My business (initially) went down 60 percent,” said Tony Saraiva, owner of Tony’s Tailoring & Dry Cleaning at 540A South Main St., located a stone’s throw from the heart of downtown.

“People were afraid to go out,” he said.

Saraiva, who was born on mainland Portugal and opened his Fall River shop in 2002, says he never completely shut down — despite the fact that tailor shops weren’t on the state’s list of essential services back in late March, when Gov. Baker ordered a wide range of businesses to cease and desist.

“I never closed down,” Saraiva, 61, said. “I put a mask on right away and saw customers by appointment.”

He says he also reduced his hours by three hours a day.

Saraiva says he began to allow customers into the shop without appointments and restored normal business hours at the beginning of June, one week before the governor implemented Phase 2 of the state’s four-phase, reopening process.

“I’m still down 20 percent,” in terms of revenue, he said.

Saraiva says it’s no secret that the pandemic, which this year has forced high school proms to be cancelled and weddings to be postponed, has dealt a grievous blow to tuxedo and bridal shops.

“All that was wiped out,” he said, noting that, as a result, he lost business in alteration and stitching work he normally would do in the spring on gowns, tuxes and ties.

And because of remote and blended learning models at public schools, Saraiva says he's not making many alterations to children's school clothes.

Purchase Street shop

Dennis Lebow has been sole proprietor of Reuben the Tailor since his father Reuben, who opened the shop in 1954 on Spring Street, died in 1982.

The business for the past 24 years has been located at 57 Rock St., just on the outskirts of downtown.

Lebow, 61, was blunt in his assessment of his current revenue and sales figures.

“It’s way off,” he said.

Lebow says he’s lost a significant amount of tailoring business from lawyers who are making infrequent court appearances, and instead have been utilizing Zoom video conferencing to participate in court hearings and trials.

Working from home, he said, means that lawyers are buying far fewer new suits that normally would require fittings and alterations in his tailor shop.

Lebow says he heard about one attorney who wore a tie and jacket during a Zoom court hearing. What the judge and everyone else watching the hearing didn’t know was that the man was also wearing pajama bottoms.

Unlike Saraiva, Lebow said he closed shop “out of safety and legal concerns” as soon as Governor Baker announced a state of emergency in mid March.

A few weeks later, in April, he said his wife called both City Hall and the governor’s office for clarification as to whether his business was or wasn’t considered to be an essential service.

“No one knew,” Lebow said.

He added, “And that term (essential services) pisses me off big time. Who’s to say who’s essential?”

Lebow said he waited until June 18, a few days before the state’s Step Two of Phase II began.

“I decided I’m going to open as soon as TJMaxx, Burlington (Coat Factory) and Marshalls open,” he said.

Lebow said when he reopened, after being closed for three months, customers “slowly started calling.”

But he says there didn’t seem to be any pent up demand or big rush: “This pandemic is scaring the pants off people,” he said.

Lebow, who also can place special orders for men’s dress clothes and does some consignment sales, said that demand for wholesale jobs he’s done in the past for local dry cleaners has dropped off — as more of their customers have made the transition to working remotely from home.

He said his revenue in the weeks after he reopened in June were down between 50 to 60 percent.

“I have no plans to retire,” Lebow said. “I’m going to stick it out as long as I can. But if I was 20 or 21 now I’d be very nervous.”

Saraiva, who during the mid and late 1970s worked in the alteration department of the former Anderson-Little clothing manufacturer and retailer, said that a woman with a tailor shop on Stafford Road closed down about a month ago.

Lebow said he doesn’t necessarily want to be the last man standing.

“I just want both of us to survive. I know he does good work,” he said of Saraiva.

“I don’t think there’s a business around that hasn’t gotten clobbered,” Lebow said, as he worked on a pair of slacks with his circa 1950s Singer sewing machine.

“We need a vaccine," he added, "or a huge reduction in the numbers (of COVID-19 infections) to have some sort of normalcy.”