At Enson’s, Jim and Nick Civitello talked to us about a century of menswear and suits, the transformation of downtown New Haven and the unexpected way a family business became, well, another family business.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Daily Nutmeg: Jim, how did Enson’s become yours?
Jim Civitello: I came to work for the family—it was the Enson family—in 1984. They had told me when I came that they were looking to retire soon.
Two years later, in 1986, they wanted to retire. I had no money, but a group of my customers got together to back me. They backed me, and I bought them out in three years.
That’s how we started.
DN: Presumably, you understood the menswear business before jumping in. How did you get into it?
Jim: I started when I was 16. Even when I was in high school and college, I worked part-time in a men’s store, in between playing sports and working at night.
Then I taught school for three years, and while I was teaching, at night I would work at a store. The guy I was working for promised me that I would become a partner in his store, and I left teaching to go there. That didn’t materialize.
But finally, this did in ’86.
DN: You’ve watched downtown New Haven from the same storefront for decades. What's changed?
Jim: It’s gone through a number of different changes. When I first started, everything was great.
Then a period came where it was so bad downtown—guys selling drugs on the street—that Yale University actually told parents, when they came in for alumni or parents weekend, not to leave the campus at all.
Then Yale started buying buildings on the street, and that all changed. It cleaned up the city to where it’s terrific again.
DN: Has what your customer wants changed just as dramatically?
Jim: Actually, the same things. We sell a lot of suits and sport coats. We sell a lot of clothing.
In the past 20 years, we’ve taken in a lot more sportswear—polos and sport shirts, casual slacks, T-shirts, sweaters. We didn’t sell as much of that before.
DN: What was the number-one-selling item in 1986?
Jim: A suit.
DN: And today?
Jim: A suit.
DN: So the more things change...
Jim: The more they stay the same.
DN: Has the suit itself changed?
Jim: It’s very cyclical. Back then, guys were wearing cuffs on their pants. The lapels were fairly narrow. Then, in time, they got wider, and pleats came in. Then pleats went out, and the lapels narrowed again.
Now we’re seeing in Italy and Europe that pleats are starting to come back again. We’re starting to see double-breasted suits make a resurgence a little bit again.
Back in the ’80s, double-breasted was popular.
DN: You’ve also lived through the rise of online shopping. What does that do to a store like this?
Jim: There are certain things that have hurt us and hurt the business in general, and that’s online retail.
But the difference for us is, guys want to touch and feel a fabric when they’re buying a suit or a sport coat or a nice sweater—and you can’t do that online.
Nick Civitello: When I first came to the business, I decided that was something I was going to change about what we do. I was going to go heavy on e-commerce and get us selling online.
Not only was it too much work for one person—it took away from what my father just described. We’re a type of place where people want to try it on. People want to come in and touch and feel.
We occupy kind of a middle ground. We’ll get people in that are used to shopping at a store like Richards in Greenwich or Mitchells in Westport, and they can’t believe what great value they get here.
Conversely, we’ll get people who are just not used to shopping at a boutique place like this who come in and get sticker shock. Part of what we do is educate customers. Spending a bit more means you get quality.
Jim: We have people, honest to God, who come in that bought a suit 20 years ago and come in and have it re-altered so they can continue wearing it.
DN: That alteration side of the business seems like another thing the internet can’t really replace.
Jim: We custom tailor on premises. Our tailor is from Greece, and he’s been with us for over 20 years. He’s the finest tailor that I’ve ever had.
DN: Nick, you grew up around all of this, but you didn’t originally plan to join the business.
Jim: I never thought he would come into the business. When he was growing up, he was a black-T-shirt-and-jeans guy.
Nick: There are certain things I always knew just from absorbing it through osmosis. I always knew which button you button on your sport jacket.
There are certain things I always just knew from being here and growing up and helping out in small ways. I used to come in and wrap presents at Christmas and that sort of thing.
Jim: He did acquire a nice taste level.
Nick: When I came to work here, I didn’t need too much massaging on that. I was pretty much like, “Oh yeah, you put this with this, this with this.” I knew how to build a picture of what to wear.
Ironically, I don’t think I knew as well how to do that with just the streetwear that I had been wearing.
DN: So how did you finally end up here full-time?
Nick: I was working for a restaurant group in New York, and they were the hardest-hit industry during COVID. I was doing accounts payable for them.
I came home for just a vacation, and by the end of my weekend trip, people were texting me saying, “We don’t really have to come back into the office, right?” because things were starting to get serious.
For a minute I was working upstairs doing accounts payable, and I was running down and helping him out when he needed a hand.
There came a certain point when I was living in New York where I was working hard and I was unhappy, and I had kind of avoided working here for a long time. Over the last few years I was there, I started saying to myself, “If I’m working this hard for something that I don’t care about, why am I not helping with the store?”
So I kind of knew it was coming. COVID presented a good opportunity to make it happen.
DN: What’s the hardest part about working together as father and son?
Jim: Honestly, since Nick’s been with us, I can’t think of anything. We haven’t had too much of an argument, have we?
Nick: Not a serious argument. We get on each other’s nerves a little bit from time to time, but I think that’s to be expected.
Jim: I had some serious health issues in the last couple of years, and I don’t know what we would’ve done if I didn’t have him. I was out of the store for just about six weeks two years ago, and he was here every day.
DN: After all these years, what have you learned about running a business that you’d want somebody else to know?
Jim: Don’t judge people.
Think good things every day, and good things will happen.
But it’s true. You never know. Somebody might walk in and not look like they would shop here but they’ll turn into a great customer. You just never know.
You’ve got to treat everybody the same. I treat everybody with respect and a welcoming attitude.
Nick: I think even more than other customer-service-oriented places, we’re a very service-oriented institution.
People come back here for a great experience and a high level of care.
DN: And I imagine you see people through a lot of their lives—a first suit, a wedding, then eventually their kid’s first suit.
Jim: Absolutely! We've seen it all.
Written by Daily Nutmeg Staff.
