Everything’s coming up Harry Rosen
Toronto men’s fashion legend speaks about receiving FGI’s ‘Fashion Visionary Award’
From V-necks and oversized belts, to sagging jeans and socks in Crocs, fashion can be an ever-changing creature with unsightly trends.
But among its few constants has stood one Toronto man for over 60 years: Harry Rosen.
The 85-year-old retired menswear guru, who is being honoured this month with the “Fashion Visionary Award” from FGI Toronto, has been at the forefront of luxury clothing since he put a modest $500 down payment on a Parliament Street property in 1954.
As the business expanded and Harry Rosen Inc. became a respected tailoring goliath, Rosen came up with a “formula” for dressing businessmen: “It was a five-suit wardrobe. It meant that a man had a change for every day of the week so he didn’t wear the same suit twice,” he tells the Star.
Since then, tastes have evolved and Rosen has followed suit.
“Changes in lifestyles and the manner in which we go about conducting business and our social lives have created new dimensions for people who started like I did as a traditional tailoring operation,” he says.
Three suits are probably enough for the average businessman today, he says, as wardrobes have moved to more casual styles.
Add a blazer and a sport coat and the closet is complete.
Rosen spoke with the Star ahead of the event honouring his career hosted by FGI Toronto on Oct. 24 from 6:009:00 p.m. at the 80 Spadina Ave. Shopify offices. What does this new recognition mean to you after so many years in the industry? I’m flattered.
This organization has mainly its membership people other than those in the menswear field which is where I’m most often at home you might say. Nevertheless I’m flattered by the recognition. I’m retired now, you know, so I’m looking at doing other things. What “other things?” I’ve been doing a little consulting in the U.S. for a woollen merchant who distributed cloths to independents and manufacturers.
I bring a dimension of thinking into the process of selling that they haven’t considered in the past, which is why wool fabric is so malleable and the art of tailoring is really developed around the characteristics and the intrinsic qualities of wool. After six decades, Harry Rosen Inc. is still a player in men’s fashion. What was the key to staying relevant? Getting out in the world of retail and seeing and discussing with merchants how they run their businesses. I had friends in northern Italy, in Paris, in London and New York.
I always found that either I came back with one good idea or they reinforced what we were doing as being the correct direction.
You can’t talk to your competitors here in the city, you see.
You’ve got to search out people who are progressive or doing interesting things, and have meetings with these people where you can be honest about what you’re doing and speak of it truthfully, and they in turn will tell you what they’re doing. If I come back with one good idea I always found it very worthwhile. Looking back at those years, do you have a favourite decade for fashion? I really always thought of myself as being current, at least striving to be current.
I started the business in 1954, and I would say in probably the early ’70s the emphasis changed from the traditional man to the younger man and that’s where things began to happen and the young people emerged as the innovators.
As I was aging I had to make that extra effort to understand what was going on — to understand their music, to understand their lifestyle, to understand their mode of dress.
I found that I could maintain my traditional clientele as they were aging, I never lost sight of them, but I had to see what was happening amongst young people because that was telling me where things were going. Was that a difficult time for you in fashion? It was never difficult, it was always challenging. Even though I’m 85 right now, if you asked me “Am I current?”
I would say that I feel current. I still travel to New York and I make the occasional trips overseas looking at stores and talking to merchants and seeing how lifestyles are changing and how they impact the way people dress. Did the transition to casual clothing bother the traditionalist in you at all? No it didn’t. I was very careful to not fall into the trappings of many of the merchants I saw that went out of business.
They were in towns or cities with good downtown locations and their business was closing up.
In many cases it was a case that they were just not moving with the times.
“If I come back with one good idea I always found it very worthwhile.” HARRY ROSEN