Former Dayton's head tailor discusses changing industry of helping others look, feel good

Prior Lake American

Prior Lake resident Denise McBride started sewing and tailoring clothes when she was a little girl.

Her mother would work on projects and the leftover fabric would go to McBride to design and create clothes for her Barbie dolls.

And McBride hasn't stopped since.

"I remember taking home (economics) and loving it, but when I went back to my high school reunions and my girlfriends or people I hadn't seen in a while ... were like, 'Do you remember doing my apron or hot pads?'" McBride said. "I don't, but they still remember me sewing for them."

After high school, McBride took an aptitude test where apparel arts scored high on the list. She attended a year of school at St. Paul Technical College before getting hired as the head tailor at the department store Dayton's in downtown St. Paul.

"I just worked my way up the ladder," McBride said. "I would never go back to retail. People don't want to go to the malls anymore like they used to in the 80s or the 90s. They would rather have an experience and go do something or go eat somewhere."

At Dayton's, McBride met Tony, an Italian man who taught her old-world, European tailoring like narrowing lapels or refitting a suit.

"It's stuff that you don't use anymore because it's not really worth doing it," McBride said. "You can find a suit easier, better. It's something that's great to know."

After having her second child, McBride quit retail and opened up a tailoring shop out of her home near downtown Prior Lake. For 15 years, residents would come to McBride with their clothing woes — an ill-fitted suit, or a misshapen hem.

"Without bragging, I'm one of the top tailors in the Twin Cities," McBride said. "There's not a lot of us either. It's a dying art. They don't teach it in schools. I'm not open to the public any more, even though I get calls every single day and I don't even know how they can still find me because I shut my website down."

With the onset of cheap clothing production, tailoring as a necessary art form is falling to the wayside, McBride said.

"It's not good money," McBride said. "It's a tough living to make. I'm a single parent. I have three kids, I have a deadbeat ex who doesn't help, so it's tough. When I was a tailor, I was probably doing 70 to 80 hours a week just to continue to pay my mortgage and put food on the table."

McBride now travels to clients and custom fits an entire wardrobe for them in her work for J. Hilburn.

"It's a full-service concierge," McBride said. "I go to them, take their measurements and they get to pick out the fabrics and what kind of linings they want, what kind of pockets, the whole spectrum of the wardrobe."

Her work as a tailor ties into her work as a stylist, McBride said.

"I know how to measure men and I know what their bodies are like, getting them into a suit that fits them really well and comfortably and accentuates the good parts of their bodies," McBride said. "I know what they do for a living (and) what they need to look like when they present themselves to their company."

Though tailoring can be expensive for quality work, the price is worth it for the feeling you get when you wear appropriately fitted clothes, McBride said.

"I think it's important that people look presentable, their clothing fits, they look professional and like they care about themselves," McBride said. "When you look good, it makes you feel good and I think tailoring is a huge part of that."