Domenico Spano, a New York custom clothier who outfitted captains of industry and Hollywood stars, and whose own dandyish style made him a highly recognizable peacock on the streets of the city as well as in newspaper fashion pages, died on Oct. 23 in Manhattan.
His daughter Elisabeth Spano said he died in a hospital of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
Mr. Spano, who went by the nickname Mimmo, was born in the Calabria region of southern Italy.
But although he grew up in a country known for its illustrious fashion history, he made his name in New York as a champion of classic American style, as epitomized by the timeless elegance of silver-screen legends like Fred Astaire, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Cary Grant and Gary Cooper.
With his own head-turning outfits, rendered in colorful patterns and bold prints and complete with felt fedoras, paisley scarfs, suspenders, bow ties and an ever-present carnation in his lapel, he would become a fixture in street-style columns like The New York Times’s “On the Street,” written and shot by his friend, the photographer and fashion-world institution Bill Cunningham.
Persons:
Domenico Spano, Elisabeth Spano, Spano, Fred Astaire, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Cary Grant, Gary Cooper, fedoras, paisley scarfs, Bill Cunningham
Organizations:
Hollywood
Locations:
New York, Manhattan, Calabria, Italy, York