At 82, tailor decides to close shop

For almost 60 years, Angres Chapman has been fitting clothing for just about everyone.

	[Times photos: William Dunkley]
	Angres Chapman is meticulous about his work. "I never put a machine buttonhole in one of my suits," he says.
	Chapman moved back to St. Petersburg in 1984 and opened a new place on Central Avenue. His plans were to work part time. "Let me put it this way," he says. "In the 15 years (at that location), I never got caught up."

ST. PETERSBURG - Angres Chapman has a problem. The jacket he is constructing is off a little. The fabric is a Tartan plaid and must match at the seam. His client's shoulders taper inward, and so far he is not happy with the fit of the sleeves.

Chapman takes pencil and chalk and redrafts a pattern on brown kraft paper.

For almost 60 years, he has fitted clothing for doctors, lawyers, clergy, business executives, even Motown stars.

But the building he rents now, at 2530 Fifth Ave. N, has been sold, and his lease is almost up. Mr. Chapman, as he is known to almost everyone, is about to close his tailoring shop.

"I'm not sure I'm ready to retire," he said. "But at 82, it's about time to stop."

* * *

When Chapman opened his shop in 1947, he was the first black business owner on Central Avenue.

A decade later, with work vaporizing in the summer heat, Chapman and his wife, Mamie Lois, moved to Detroit. There his clients included jazz legend Miles Davis and members of Ray Charles' band. He sewed for the Four Tops and the Spinners. "Stevie Wonder used to come in the shop and talk," he recalls. Aretha Franklin, too.

Chapman doesn't dwell on the constellation of celebrities. The only photographs in his shop are of family.

"You know the story about six degrees of separation?" asked Terryence Chapman, the couple's only child. "With my father, it's probably three degrees of separation."

Terry Chapman, a patent attorney and a partner in Flynn, Thiel, Boutell & Tanis in Kalamazoo, Mich., was 8 when the family moved to the Motor City.

"Cannonball Adderly - I met him at the shop," he said. "Stevie Wonder - he used to go to school past my father's shop.

"My father's kind of a proud man. (Motown Records founder) Berry Gordy told my father he would give him some business if he would come to (Gordy's) business" and take his measurements. Chapman declined.

Augie Busch, the beer and baseball magnate, was a friend. So was Mickey Shore, the electronics genius who put eight-track tape players and other gadgets in automobiles, Terry Chapman said.

During their Detroit years, the Chapmans kept their house in St. Petersburg. Angres Chapman moved back to town in 1984.

He opened a new place on Central and planned to work part time. "Let me put it this way," he said. "In the 15 years (at that location), I never got caught up."

* * *

Chapman prefers to work with natural fibers such as silk and linen. He orders fine wool and cotton from Holland & Sherry of Savile Row, London's fabled tailoring district.

These days, even altering some garments is difficult. Fusible interfacing melts. Scant seam allowances do not allow for significant weight gain.

"It's cheap stuff now," Chapman said. "A cheap garment is made. A quality garment is built."

One of his clients, retired St. Petersburg gynecologist Jim Rothermel, had Chapman make him a cotton tuxedo.

"I went a little cotton crazy, because I never used to like to be hot," Rothermel said. "He lined it with red satin. It was the cat's meow."

Rothermel, who now lives in North Carolina, wore the jacket to numerous social events, including his daughters' weddings. Chapman also ordered lightweight 4-ounce wool from England for suits and sport coats the doctor still wears.

The Rev. Peter Fleming, retired rector of St. Thomas' Episcopal Church, said Chapman reconstructed several suits for him.

"They were good suits, but they weren't very well-made," Fleming said. "So he just kind of remade them for me. He's the best tailor I've ever had. He's a real artist in his work."

The machinery in his shop is minimal, and vintage. There's an ancient heavyweight Singer sewing machine, a blind-stitch apparatus, a serger, a commercial steam iron.

He constructs only handmade buttonholes.

"I never put a machine buttonhole in one of my suits," he said. "That just cheapens it."

His shop has no computer. He notes measurements on a stenographer's pad. There's a touch-tone phone near the manual cash register, a rotary-dial model in the back room.

"It seems like everybody's in a hurry these days," he said. "But when they come in the shop, they stay for a conversation."

Looking across Fifth Avenue N at St. Petersburg High School, Chapman said: "I remember when that was nothing but woods.

"I enjoyed the journey of those 58 years, but the joy isn't there anymore," he said.

He recalled an old saying: "Old tailors don't retire. They die."

"I'm hoping to prove them wrong on that."

--Times staff writer Waveney Ann Moore and news researcher Angie Drobnic Holan contributed to this report.

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