COLONIE — A little piece of Albany history will be gone in less than a month.
More than a half-century after it opened its doors in what was then a bustling stretch of downtown Albany, and seven years after relocating to suburbia, Amore Clothing will close at the end of June.
“It’s been 36 years of standing on my feet,” Rob Amore said of his work at the eponymous men’s clothier that was started by his late father, master tailor Angelo “Joe” Amore, who opened the shop in 1967 on Albany’s State Street. The elder Amore learned his craft starting at the age of 8 in his native Italy, eventually immigrating to the U.S.
For decades, Amore Clothing made and sold custom suits to Albany’s elite, from longtime Mayor Erastus Corning 2nd to Gov. Mario Cuomo and countless others in the worlds of commerce, politics, finance and law. For those customers, a custom-tailored suit was as necessary and natural as a pair of spit-shined shoes and a fedora hat.
Angelo Amore kept a distinctly Old World flavor in the shop, bantering with customers as opera music played in the background.
Rob Amore, 59, entered the business in 1987 after college. While he never became a full tailor like his dad, he built on the store’s extensive list of customers who were like family to him and Angelo.
He figured he would enter the family business by his second year at The College at Saint Rose, when he accompanied his father to trade shows in New York City. That was the 1980s when flashy Italian suits were coming into fashion.
Style wasn’t the only thing that changed over the years.
Rob Amore moved the main store from State Street in Albany to a new larger location in Newton Plaza, Latham, in 2016 when it became apparent that downtown could no longer support a high-end haberdashery, given the decline in foot traffic and ongoing suburbanization.
Angelo Amore…
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