FASHION : Modern-Day Alterations Transform Traditional Craft : A custom-made suit once marked a man of distinction. Today, there are few master tailors left.

Custom tailors are like cowboys--a dying breed. But there are fewer movies made about them; so a tribute is in order here.

It’s an intimate thing, making a man’s suit. Measuring every inch of him; fitting it on him, maybe twice; talking things over. You get to know him, like a bartender. Or, as one local tailor put it, “You got to be a psychologist.”

Some tailors didn’t want to talk about the passing of a way of life; they said they were too busy with alteration work. Those who did take time, speaking in a range of accents, made it clear that tailoring is serious business; and like the priesthood, or diving for pearls, kids don’t want to do it any more.

In the old days in Europe, tailoring was like studying ballet--you began training as a child.

William Winter of Simi Valley learned the trade after school in his native Poland. He was a designer and custom suit maker in Boston for almost 30 years; but since he came west to be near his children, he has stuck with alterations.

“A few people ask, but I talk them out of it,” he said, “Nobody here would pay that much. I advise them to buy three suits, and after I alter, they fit like they are made to order; and they listen to me. Everybody is happy with what I’m doing.”

A lot of so-called custom tailors are “fakes,” Winter said.

“They measure and cut out the suit, but they send it out, the pants to one place and the jacket to another place, and it’s just like any other regular suit. I don’t believe in that.”

Neither do Gina Chiaramonte and Bela Sendrey, partners at Universal Fashions in Thousand Oaks.

“We are selling our sweat, our work, our talent. It’s artistic work, there’s no other way to explain it,” said Sendrey. “It’s not a business.”

A few custom clients still find them, mostly from Sendrey’s old haunts in West Hollywood. He had a place on the Strip, near La Cienega Boulevard until ’68.

“It was different then, before the drugs,” said the tailor, who came to this country from Hungary in 1953. “Even the lowest class people had class. All the good people moved away.”

One wall of the shop is filled with signed photos of Hollywood’s big names Sendrey dressed. Not many of them make the trip to Thousand Oaks these days. Except Mickey Rooney--who’s a real hard fit.

“They get infatuated with the big (designer) names from Europe; they fall in love with those suits,” said Chiaramonte, who began tailoring in Italy 39 years ago.

“I did a custom jacket last week,” she said, “But all summer I did only four custom pieces. It’s a lost trade.”

Her partner piped in, “Three days for a jacket, one day for pants--that’s nine-hour days. If you ask for a suit $1,200, they get a heart attack.”

So the work is mostly alterations and women’s dresses, which take plenty of skill, and demand is great. Some days stretch to 11 hours, Sendrey said. He is planning his retirement.

His partner hopes that someone will come along “from Spain or Italy” and join her in the shop when that happens.

“American people don’t like to sew,” Chiaramonte said, “Even for a button they bring it here.”

Young Europeans don’t like to sew either, according to a man who bills himself as Italian Custom Tailor.

“Nobody wants to learn about design and custom-made tailoring,” said Dino Alinei of Ventura. “They don’t want to do very hard job.”

Even in Italy the days of custom suits are numbered, he said.

“There’s lots of factories going on,” he said. “There they work like, somebody do the pocket, somebody do the sleeves, somebody put the lining in . . . but they don’t know how to take the scissor in hand and cut the suit from scratch.”

At 43, Alinei is the youngest custom craftsman we found. He says he makes suits for local clients as well as some from Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. Part of his secret is a pipeline to good Italian fabric via his sister, who lives there.

“I lower the price,” he said, “In Italy, fabric costs about $40 for one meter. In United States, it gets through so many people, that this fabric costs $120 for one yard.”

Alinei exploded a myth about Italian suit makers. It seems not all of them live up to their famed reputation.

“Some Italiano, we are good. Some Italiano, they are lousy. They just learn how to tailor like make a pizza. The suit to me is no pizza, it’s a suit!”

So, the custom tailor is still out there, the era isn’t quite over. But it might be soon. “My daughter doesn’t even know how to thread a needle,” said Chiaramonte.

And in an aside spoken so quickly we nearly missed it, Sendrey added gruffly, “You don’t find tailors any more--only in the cemetery.”

Then, he didn’t ride off into the sunset--just went on bagging clothes for the next day’s pickup.

Kathleen Williams writes the weekly fashion column for Ventura County Life. Write to her at 5200 Valentine Road, Suite 140, Ventura, 93003 or send faxes to 658-5576.