Article from "Avenue" magazine - Men of the Cloth  -     March 2001

Merkin painting of Vincent, Tom Wolfe, Eddie Hayes and Richard Merkin

"In the right hands, a custom-tailored suit becomes a work of art.

There are only a handful of tailors left who still do everything by hand and on the premises... . There names are mostly Italian. Some grew up in the Old Country, others in the outer boroughs.... They have devoted their lives in perfecting the intricate architecture of the hand-tailored suit... There were ten times as many top-notch tailors in New York just a few decades ago, before anyone heard of casual Fridays. Then, a finely tailored suit was not the rarity it has become today.

'Thirty years ago. I would get dizzy walking down Madison or Park, everybody dressed so elegant,' says Vincent Nicolosi. When Tom Wolfe bought his first suit from Nicolosi in the late '70s, it took six fittings before the author was satisfied. At first the tailor had thought that Wolfe didn't like his work. More than 20 years later, he understands that the author, who still comes to Nicolosi's shop on Madison, is a perfectionist just like himself. The two men share an appreciation of the finer points of dressing. 'He's very meticulous and puts tremendous care into it,' says Wolfe, who buys all of his signature white suits from Nicolosi. 'He does as many fittings as you want to get things exactly right. He's just in general good at what he does.' Wolfe heard about Nicolosi from his friend, the attorney Edward Hayes, another dedicated customer who still has the first sports jacket Nicolosi made for him... Hayes credits Nicolosi's expertise for his own frequent appearances on the International Best-Dressed List. 'He does all the work himself,' says the dapper attorney. 'He's a powerfully built man, and you feel that power in the suits that he makes.'.."

by Andrew Page