Toronto’s bespoke master, Francesco Sr.

Inside Francesco’s workshop.

There is a black and white photo somewhere of a young, dark haired Francesco Pecoraro. He is 16 years old and standing on the streets of Palermo, Sicily. He is wearing a grey stripped double breasted, the first suit he ever made. By himself. It’s now over 60 years since that photo was taken and Francesco is one of this country’s finest bespoke tailors. As he tells me about the photo in his gravelly but warm Italian accent, he looks away, beaming with pride, “For a 16-year-old, that suit was a masterpiece.”

Double breasted sport coat, Francesco’s signature style.

No one taught Francesco how to make a suit. “I don’t have a diploma,” he tells me. His career began when he was twelve years old and he decided he wanted to be a tailor. Since he was the youngest of seven, and all the others had done well for themselves, Francesco’s father felt tailoring was a worthy gamble. So Francesco moved away from his little village into the nearby town of Palermo, where he spent the next five years working in tailoring shops, his room and board paid for by his father. “You don’t have to be intelligent for this job,” he tells me, “but you have to be smart.” Smart enough to learn from observation and figure things out for yourself. At 17,  wanting to learn even more and refine his craft, he moved to the tailoring mecca of Milan.

That is where Francesco met his wife-to-be while working for her father, a master tailor in his own right. Francesco learned much from his father-in-law, but they didn’t see eye to eye. It was the classic ‘young man striving for change, old man refusing to change’ scenario. “I never thought in my life I would leave my country and come to Canada,” and yet in 1970, with little English and no family here, Francesco and his wife immigrated.

Francesco Pecoraro

He arrived with a black cashmere coat and a dozen new suits. He began working at Studio 267 on Yonge Street. Every day, he would show up in another of his new suits. The owner was so impressed by their quality, he asked Francesco to replicate his look in their ready-to-wear collection. Francesco enjoyed his time at 267, but two years later, he was ready to move on again, this time out onto his own. That’s when “Francesco Sr.” was born.

I have to admit, when I first met Francesco, I wasn’t sure how to address him. His window says: “Francesco Sr. Bespoke.” Was he “Signore Francesco”? Or “Francesco Senior”? Not really either, it turns out. When he launched his company in ’72, the graphic designer who came up with his logo simply thought “Francesco Sr.” looked cool.

For the next few decades, while Francesco honed his art, many of his compatriots in Toronto moved away from traditional methods. They started using fused (glued) and pre-assembled canvases and gave up on handwork. Many outsourced the main assembly of suits to large factories that now dot the peripheries of the city. But not Francesco. He believed so passionately in the art of bespoke, he stuck to it.

His definition of bespoke goes something like this:

• Francesco himself measures the customer and they consult on the details of the suit
• A paper pattern is created for the customer based on Francesco’s own block patterns
• Francesco cuts the cloth himself
• The customer then comes in for a number of fittings: the first basted fitting, the second forward fitting and if needed, a final fitting
• All work is done on site, and most stitching by hand except for the long seams and parts of the pants
• Francesco uses a full canvas that is built by hand, and the collar is also assembled and rolled by hand
• The final, key step in the process is that Francesco spends up to 90 minutes carefully and skilfully pressing the suit into shape

The sublime Milanese buttonhole (this one is closed before delivery to the client, at which point it will be liberated).

It isn’t only the construction of Francesco’s suits that is top drawer. You will find mastery in the features as well. For instance, the Milanese button hole, a notoriously difficult and labourious process that results in a three dimensional, sensual buttonhole.

The Barchetta “little boat” scooped breast pocket.

There’s also the breast pocket, which curves slightly upwards, called a Barchetta or “little boat.” But why does he bother? Many tailors have abandoned these features and many customers aren’t even aware they exist. “I like to be different,” he tells me as his eyes widen, “but I use difference within harmony.” He describes the Barchetta as just one part of a whole: “It’s all about harmony, music. You think that the violin by itself is important? No. But, if you put it with other instruments, it makes an orchestra.”

Another of Francesco’s personal features, a floating inside pocket.

But beyond the beautiful buttonholes and breast pockets, why does Francesco bother with bespoke at all? Part of what drives him is passion: “”A car is a car. You drive a Ford or Toyota. But why do people still produce Ferrari and Maserati? Because there are people with a passion [to make them and drive them].” But it’s more than just passion. “”The reality is, it doesn’t matter how many years you do something or how old you are, you’re still looking for something.” That something, Francesco tells me, is perfection. “When you think you’ve made a masterpiece, you will find something which doesn’t satisfy you. Some will say ‘people can’t see it’, but I can see it.”

The affect of a hand constructed canvas and hand pressing: luscious, three-dimensional lapels.

Francesco is in his late 70s, a time when most people have retired. “Don’t talk to me about retirement,” Francesco says loudly while gesturing with his hands, “To do what? Wait to die? I need to push, push, push.” And he’s still pushing. He tells me there is a very big project on the horizon, a big, positive change to his business coming soon. “I feel good,” he tells me with real fire in his eyes, “ready to do anything.”

Francesco in his workshop.

And what would he say to that other Francesco, the 16 year old standing in his double breasted suit on the streets of Palermo? “Do the same thing, I would do exactly what I did. I have two kids, beautiful, successful, wonderful family. And I’m ok, I’m happy.” He pauses. “Just not completely satisfied.”

Francesco Sr. Bespoke is located at 82 Avenue Road as part of LeatherFoot Emporium available by appointment only at 647-274-1496.

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