CityTypes: The Tailor

Glistening with a pair of red-gold earrings passed down by her Italian progenitors since the 1600s, tailor Anna Mogaveco said she was born with the gift to sew.  With the earrings, she matched a handmade black dress.   

"I was the best in my town in Sicily," she said, steaming a satin skirt with an industrial iron from the 1980s.  "I got my diploma in cut and sew and embroidery.  In Italy they say anybody can cut and sew, but to put on a person's body--that's a trick. My customers don't tell me what to do, they ask me what to do."

Sewing with machines as old as her immigration papers, Mogaveco said her clients come from all over Los Angeles County to get their clothes fitted by a pure Italian tailor.  They've grown accustomed to each other over the years--as Mogaveco couldn't speak English when she arrived in America.

"I didn't need to talk to sew, and Italians talk more with their hands than their mouths so ... . The way I talk--my teacher was my customer--I've never been to school.  I speak the best I can."

Click on the pictures to continue reading the latest addition to Patch's CityType series, which is designed to get behind the people that make the city go round.