In 1973, Theodoros “Ted” Vasilas arrived in the U.S. with $50 in his pocket. This year, Vasilas is celebrating 50 years in business as a men’s clothier and tailor — and what the Greek immigrant says is his American dream come true.
Ted’s Clothiers has been a staple in Englewood for decades. Vasilas bought the business in 1975 from a tailor he worked for in one of three jobs he had during his first two years in the Denver area. After 10 years, he moved the store from West Girard Avenue to 3480 S. Broadway.
Even as chain stores have squeezed out small, local businesses, Ted’s Clothiers has grown. The store has expanded from about 1,200 square feet to 3,500 square feet. When the COVID-19 pandemic erupted, Ted’s added a separate tall and big clothing section when Kaufman’s, a nearby big and tall men’s store, closed.
Vasilas said people drive from Nebraska and Kansas to shop at Ted’s. The business also has clients in South Dakota and Iowa. “There’s no other nice big and tall store except here in Colorado.”
Vasilas’ daughter, Eva Vasilas Fry, in charge of marketing, said the internet has extended the store’s reach.
“My daughter, she does a very good job,” Vasilas said.
A key to the store’s many years of success is service, he added. “Our main thing here is nice quality and the best service. We make customers smile and happy and then they send their families, their friends. We have a lot of repeat business.”
Customers include second and third generations of families. Mark Branish’s father was the chief financial officer for neighboring Craig Hospital when he began shopping at Ted’s. His father used to have breakfast with Vasilas and a few others once a week.
“I was starting my career in the financial services arena, so I naturally migrated to Ted’s,” Branish said. “My brothers all go to Ted’s. My kids bought their homecoming suits from Ted’s. My brother-in-law from South Carolina, when he comes into town, goes to Ted’s.”
The store and the family are all about relationships and service, Branish said. “I like doing business there. There aren’t many of those local ones left and their service is just a notch above everyone else.”
Vasilas and his son Christos, who bought the business in 2016, travel twice a year to markets in Chicago and Dallas to pick out suits, sport coats, pants, shirts and ties. The store also sells shoes, socks and hats. The majority of the store’s suppliers are in Canada. Others are in the U.S., Italy, Turkey and China.
Eva said her father is attuned to the latest in fashion and what she called the “updated classics.” Vasilas said he has also been “very, very good for many years in colors.”
Like other businesses, Ted’s Clothiers expects higher costs because of higher tariffs.
“We’ll absorb some of the tariffs that are going to start coming in. We’ll see them this fall,” Christos said. “We have absorbed some of the costs and the factories have absorbed some to lessen the hit on the consumer.”
The heart of the business
The heart of the business, the family believes, is the tailoring shop that sits at the back of the building. Ted’s employs five full-time and two part-time tailors. They work on clothes the store sells as well as clothes people buy elsewhere.
Maria Nasious has worked as a seamstress at Ted’s for 45 years. She is originally from Tripoli, part of the Peloponnese region in southern Greece. She likes the work and the people. “We speak the same language.”
Christos said the store “really functions from the tailor shop.”
“Anybody can have clothes and sell them,” Christos said. “The thing here is having a one-stop shop where people can come in and they can walk out that same day with a suit with pants, with something that they needed.”
While working at the store and attending college, Christos took sewing lessons at the Emily Griffith Technical College so he could learn the basics.
Vasilas was around sewing from early on. His mother and sisters sewed for the whole family. They lived in a remote mountain village outside of Arta, more than 200 miles northwest of Athens. He sewed his uniforms when he served in the military and the police department in Athens.
And he learned more about being a tailor when he worked in a shop owned by his wife’s aunt and uncle in Denver’s West Washington Park area. Vasilas practiced in his apartment at night after dinner by taking apart a coat and putting it back together over and over.
“If you want to do something and you like it, you can do it,” Vasilas said. “You have to love what you do.”
Vasilas loves what he does. While the 78-year-old’s goal is to slow down, he said if he’s not on the golf course, he’s at work.
“Chris has the experience. He knows everybody. But we’re busy. We are very, very busy,” Vasilas said.
Vasilas attributes the brisk business to not having a lot of competition for the kind of service Ted’s Clothiers offers. The wedding business is booming, with the store providing 100 to 130 clothing rentals a week. The store has 16 employees and is looking to add more.
“It used to be just the four of us: me, my wife, Chris and one seamstress,” Vasilas said.
His wife, Angeliki, or Angie, still works at Ted’s. She was moving from one task to another on a recent afternoon.
“For 50 years, they’ve worked side by side,” Eva said.
Angeliki, who emigrated from Greece when she was 11, was her husband’s translator at work while he was learning English. Vasilas feels strongly about immigrants learning English when they move to the U.S. He went to the Emily Griffith school twice a week for lessons and then took classes at the University of Colorado-Denver.
“You’re in the United States. You have to learn the language,” Vasilas said.
Vasilas became a U.S. citizen four years after moving to Denver. His American dream has been pursuing the opportunities he’s had.
“Back in the old country, it’s very tough to even own your own house,” Vasilas said. “The American dream is to come here, to start working, to build either your own business or work for different businesses, to have your own house.”
