Nick DiMatteo: Longtime Saratoga Springs Tailor to Celebrate A Big Day

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Nick DiMatteo grew up in the 1940s in a little town by Naples, Italy and made his way across the Great Pond to America while in his twenties. He set up his first shop in Saratoga Springs the late 1970s, more than half-a-lifetime ago.  

“I got to Ellis Island September first in ’68,” DiMatteo says, seated in his shop at number 119 Church Street, where accompanied by various scissors, measuring tools, pins, pincushions, and needles and thread, he has served his clientele for more than 40 years. 

His first location in the Spa City, which also served as the first time he ran his own business, stood west of Circular Street across from the Holiday Inn. 

“January 2, 1979,” he says. “I remember the day.”

In May 1981, he relocated to number 119 Church Street, a shop he has occupied for more than half his life, and one in which he continues to work in. He is exceptional at recalling dates, and a big one is fast approaching. 

On Aug. 23, DiMatteo will celebrate his 80th birthday. 

What does he want people to know?

 “To know that I’m on Church Street!” says the longtime tailor, whose shop sits on a tree-lined street accompanied by residential homes and a few blocks west of Broadway. Its existence is simply pronounced by a brick entryway, a trio of stone steps and a subtle flash of neon that reads: Tailoring.  

For the past 40 years DiMatteo’s custom tailoring work has well placed him within the community, his days often dotted by people coming in for a chat. 

“People call, people come in. When they call, they ask a lot of questions,” he says with a laugh. “Come in!” He is open five days a week: 9-5 Tuesday through Friday, and Saturday 10 to 1, so there is the invitation.   

“I have a wonderful clientele, beautiful people,” DiMatteo says. “I enjoy working for them.” 

He grew up in a little Italian town with a population of about 5,000 people and started learning the business of tailoring at a young age.   

“I was very young, maybe 8?  “My mama said: if you don’t want to follow in your dad’s footsteps and go to the farm, you better learn a trade.  I didn’t want to be a mechanic. I was going to elementary school and after school I went to the shop,” says DiMatteo, gesturing to vintage photographs on the walls depicting the young apprentice in his hometown in Italy. 

“I learned how to use a needle and thread, a thimble on a piece of cloth,” he says. “It kept me off the street, because my parents didn’t want me to not have supervision after school. They were on the farm –  so either I had to go there, or somewhere like this, to stay off the street.” 

He relocated to America in the late 1960s and lived in upstate New York where he had family. 

“I went to an apprentice shop in Italy so I learned to sew over there. When I came here I worked for somebody in Schenectady for 9-1/2 years, then decided to open my own,” DiMatteo says. 

“When I decided to open up my own place I was searching for a spot. Schenectady already had tailors,” he says. He found an initial location in Saratoga Springs – “a very small room, 10-by-10 maybe,” and soon relocated to the space where he currently continues his work, on Church Street.   

“1981 – Saratoga was different then,” says DiMatteo, whose early work consisted largely of men’s custom-made suits, and added the work of making alterations to already existing outfits. “With a custom-made suit – you buy the material and it’s made to fit you. It takes over a week and you satisfy only one customer. With alterations you satisfy 50 people,” he says, explaining the difference.     

“Today, I have new customers every day, and I have folks who I have known for 40 years,” says DiMatteo. “There are not a lot of tailors now compared to 40 years ago when there were many, but there are a few of us still around.”

This month he celebrates birthday number 80, more than 40 years as owner of his custom tailoring shop on Church Street and a lifetime of working in the craft and art of helping people to look their best.