Photography: Clayton Hauck

Rocco Giovannangelo

Few clothiers in the city can lay claim to having outfitted everyone from Cary Grant to a certain recently disgraced governor. But Oxxford Clothes has been making bespoke suits for 97 years. “We try to keep it the same as we always did before,” says Rocco Giovannangelo, 72, Oxxford’s Italian-born master tailor, from his West Loop office (he lives in Arlington Heights).

Giovannangelo comes alive when he displays his handiwork (suits start at $3,895), crushing a cashmere jacket in his hands and pointing to the way it springs back to its original wrinkle-free form. His painstaking attention to detail is evident in the perfectly balanced lapels, the thick button necks, and the matching pattern lines on the underside of the arm, a spot rarely seen by anyone but the maker. “You have to sweat for this,” Giovannangelo says proudly. “Nobody does this. But I do.”

 

Oxxford Clothes 1220 W. Van Buren St., 312-829-3600, oxxford clothes.com