Neapolitan

[uppercase]

The style, characteristics, subtleties and mysteries of the Neapolitan jacket are what make it so fascinating and seductive.

Over at The Rake website, they now have a very nice write up on the Neapolitan jacket.
One of the best reviews I have come across.

Of course, who knows if it is true. The truth in Naples is always a difficult proposition to come by.

And that's why it is important that you get to Naples as soon as possible and find out for yourself. !!

https://therake.com/stories/craft/the-h ... -tailoring

[old henry]

Beautiful high gorge on this jacket. Beautiful linen too. Can't wait to read this article and learn from it.

[alden]

That informercial on Naples reads a lot like Ask Andy vintage 2005. The names have not been hidden to protect the guilty and they are, sadly for sartorial aficionados, the same names.

One day very soon, I plan on writing Alden’s Inferno, the sartorial epic set in Naples starring your’s truly and ten of the most famous and funny Neapolitan hucksters imaginable. No Virgil to guide Alden. No he faced the furies alone armed only with the sulfurous Pagine Gialle and he lived to tell the tale you will certainly enjoy reading. All of you except those weak of heart or those credulous enough to believe the Rake's and hundreds of other similar travelogs.

The story begins in about 2002 when I decided to return to Naples after very pleasant and productive trips in the late 70s and even later 80s. Sadly for me none of the tailors I knew from back then were alive much less working. But their names reverberated down the narrow byways of the Spanish quarter as I looked for them. I found others instead.

Yes, I found ten of the most famous names, the same names you’ll find stamped mercilessly across the webs’ commercial forums and blogs. But you’ll never read a story so full of romance and intrigue like the one I will tell. Never in a thousand Neapolitan nights.

I gave each of the ten “tailors” a length of cloth. My previous experiences in the deep South state taught me to give only cloth I was prepared to lose or never see again. This bit of wisdom wound up being the only balm to treat my ten savagely and most times charmingly inflicted wounds.

There were, however, two lengths of precious, vintage cloth I truly regretted. And I offered them with my own hands into perdition. One of them was a lovely Fox flannel gray chalk stripe and the other a truly gorgeous H & S jacketing that Philippe Noiret’s tailor at Charvet had just made for him. It was a lovely thick cashmere in oatmeal herringbone with a very fine ochre and sky blue windowpane. I still cringe thinking about it and the terrible treatment it was inflicted on the rack, er, the bench.

So there were ten who made the voyage into the unknown and nary a one of them returned. Its a tell all tale of ill fitting, machine making, cigarette holes burning, pricing inflating, Mafia meddling, tailor switching, and client swindling that will make your head spin.

Stay tuned for the ebook of the Sartorial century, a dark comedy from the sunny South, coming soon!

[uppercase]

I largely agree with Alden above.

Make in Napoli at your own risk.

There is a larcenous, cynical and deceitful smell about the tailors there.

I have to date used three Neapolitan tailors.

I would never return to the first two and the jury is out on the third as I haven't yet received the final coat.

Let me say this: we are complicit in the swindle, willing victims, and probably our own worst enemies.

Speaking for myself, I know that I always really want the tailor's - all tailors - whether in London, Milan, Rome, …- work to be great and wonderful and to succeed.
I always wanted to love our joint project.
I am always emotionally involved and enjoyed that.

But honestly, the majority of my bespoke commissions were failures, in Napoli and elsewhere, and never lived up to my expectations, rather a bit of myth, justification and self-deception substituted for, and softened my barely self-acknowledged disappointments.

There was a time when I tried every self justification to convince myself that a product, say a coat, was just fine. When in fact, it was really shit. But I just wanted to believe and was rooting for, and involved with the tailor on our joint project, our magnificent mission to the moon, despite the nagging evidence facing me in the mirror.

And I also, like Alden, had some great tailoring results in the old days. These are the standard by which I judge the recent last decade's results. And most everything made for me, has come out short.

The tailor's of Naples are very problematic to deal with because of a certain underlying cynical, exploitative attitude. This is my personal experience and perception.

I write the above mostly only as a note to myself. I don't want to exhort or mislead or deter anyone from Neapolitan tailors and tailoring, etc. etc.

I just want to say to myself : take a hard look in the mirror, shed the scales from my eyes, and confront the bullshit and relentless promotion of Neapolitan tailors, and see clearly what looks good on me, regardless the myth and hype and origin.

[Melcombe]

Understand the past to see the present at a higher resolution.

You might care to take a read of this.






(My present bed time reading :



If ever Brexit needed putting in perspective, this is the tale to do it...

[NicoloVolpe]

In my opinion, the Neapolitan sartorial style and supposed excellency, are nowadays too much inflated.
I am from Northern Italy and while I know some gentlemen that are happy and satisfied with their Neapolitan tailors, others complain about the current arrogance, business oriented behaviors and high prices of Naples.

From Naples I got several bespoke ties and this the only thing I will continue to buy there.

On my side, even if I work abroad, I will stick to my tailor, in my hometown, with whom I often go for a glass of wine or a nice beer after a try.

I think that the best is to find a tailor in one's own region or hometown, with whom to share also the history and the cultural heritage of the area.

In this way someone can also support the development of the sartorial culture of his own area.

[culverwood]

I largely agree with Alden above. Make in Napoli at your own risk. There is a larcenous, cynical and deceitful smell about the tailors there.

I have to date used three Neapolitan tailors.

I would never return to the first two and the jury is out on the third as I haven't yet received the final coat.

Is this the one who dropped the G.P. bombshell?

[Screaminmarlon]

In my opinion, the Neapolitan sartorial style and supposed excellency, are nowadays too much inflated.
I am from Northern Italy and while I know some gentlemen that are happy and satisfied with their Neapolitan tailors, others complain about the current arrogance, business oriented behaviors and high prices of Naples.

From Naples I got several bespoke ties and this the only thing I will continue to buy there.

On my side, even if I work abroad, I will stick to my tailor, in my hometown, with whom I often go for a glass of wine or a nice beer after a try.

I think that the best is to find a tailor in one's own region or hometown, with whom to share also the history and the cultural heritage of the area.

In this way someone can also support the development of the sartorial culture of his own area.

I concur

[alden]

I think that the best is to find a tailor in one's own region or hometown, with whom to share also the history and the cultural heritage of the area.

Thanks Nicolo. Welcome to the LL.

Absolutely agree.

Sadly in many parts of the world, even the most affluent, there are no "real" tailors anymore.

Cheers

[NicoloVolpe]

I think that the best is to find a tailor in one's own region or hometown, with whom to share also the history and the cultural heritage of the area.

Thanks Nicolo. Welcome to the LL.

Absolutely agree.

Sadly in many parts of the world, even the most affluent, there are no "real" tailors anymore.

Cheers

Thank you Michael.

Indeed, it is sadly true. Some countries don't have "real" tailors anymore, especially these countries that, for several reasons, never had a strong bespoke tailoring tradition. In the Middle East for example, I can see old tailors doing mainly reparations and complaining on the fact that they are losing their skills, because of their lack of practice and lack of customers interested in bespoke.

Cheers

Nicolo'

[alden]

He went to 10 different tailors, with 10 pieces of dear cloth with sentimental value, and asked 10 Neapolitan tailors - who had been studied, scrutinized and pre-selected by Alden - to make him up a coat...presumably with the intention to find the top 1 or 2 tailors and establish a working relationship for going forward for future projects. 

(Is there anyone here who would be willing to go to 10 tailors at one go… or even 5…or 3… to find tailoring nirvana and replicate a memory from the 70s? That would be fanatical. But is it …possible? . A sartorial quest.!! Perhaps.)

Not exactly a sartorial quest, but a commercial one. I told you the story way back when. With some very serious financial backing, I had made unsuccessful attempts to purchase a very famous SR tailoring house. My backers had loads of money they wanted to invest and I came up short with the goods. What infuriated and pleased me was the interest my purchase attempt made on the family who owned the firm. They suddenly woke up to it and invested great sums themselves in its renovation. All of this inured to the general benefit and interest in the Row that was seriously flagging at the time. So good did come out of it but...... the market was down, it was such a good time to buy, and a great many houses exchanged hands, flipped as it were at very handsome profits. Oh well.

So not being able to buy an existing SR firm, the only other option was to build one. I went up to the North of England and had conversations with a very skilled tailor and his impresario communications expert about building a firm from scratch. The two of them latched on to my idea and built their own instead.

As a final alternative I set off in search of an Italian team to build a new tailoring house around, ie to build and sell. So I went to Naples with ten pieces of cloth and my good memories of the place. It was not a bespoke capital of anything back then (and still is not.) It was a dirty, dusty forgotten town right out of a bad Spaghetti western complete with villains, fair damsels, not many heroes.

And I went ZERO for ten with ten at bats there.That is batting .000. Won’t get you into the big leagues. My experiment failed and I am very thankful it did. Because one day I woke up and realized that times were a changing and that the business model I had imagined would not work …for many reasons. And in fact I had done my partners a favor when I told them to buy bonds and let the whole idea set with the sun over yonder.

Now I can confide in you that I had corresponded with Alden years and years ago trying to pry from him the names of only 1 or 2 hidden, master, Neapolitan tailors so that I may learn 
And as I recall, he did not give up a name. 
It was a mystery to me, why.? 

And I never will, at least not right away.

I do plan on writing the book of my sartorial adventures. And I may do it sooner than later.

Right now I am fully involved with writing the book of my amorous adventures. And all last night I worked without respite on a key chapter that wandered from Paris, to Vienna and finally to Lake Como all on the strength of a single kiss. One that is with me to this very day, decades later and will probably be with me to the very last.

Now that is the kind of a quest whose enterprise I thoroughly and unconditionally support.

Cheers

[uppercase]

I’ve got to say, that is a really fantastic, and admirable story. !!
I had no idea.

How great would it be for Alden to have owned and run a SR concern.!!??
Imagine if it had been, say, A&S.
Can you imagine what they would be producing today ??!!

Customers would be lined up to get an appointment.
I would have been among the first. Certainly!!

Yet the story also pains me. Imagine what might have been ....
It is our loss, Alden. Sincerely.
And, selfishly, I would have had a home on SR sipping good port and scotch... a London Lounge, indeed.

Of course, there could be no accommodation with the Neapolitans, or other Italians.
These are all insular, family concerns, with their own ideas.

London is certainly the center of all international, upright, honest, accessible bespoke. Ahem.

But that’s where the magic could have happened.
Italian skills with London efficiency at an international crossroads.
Top class all the way.

Alden, I can only imagine what might have been....

However, I am sure that you will carry on with other quests and conquests.
And that is what we have ....

Looking forward to your forthcoming book, though I prefer short stories.

[old henry]

I , myself, honor Mr Alden greatly for giving me the worthiest for cloths to ply my trade with pride and trust. Trust that the cloth is exceedingly worthy of old hand stitches and pride knowing that I'm giving my customer the best.

[ismailalmurtadza]

I would like to hear comments from some of LL members of their expereince with The House of Rubinacci.
Rubinacci was listed as and recommended as one of the Bespoke Artisan in Napel


Nik

[davidhuh]

I would like to hear comments from some of LL members of their expereince with The House of Rubinacci.
Rubinacci was listed as and recommended as one of the Bespoke Artisan in Napel


Nik

Dear Nik,

I can wholeheartedly recommend them. I'm a client in Milano, but have done fittings in Naples as well. So far, I commissioned two suits in Rangoon cloth and an overcoat using the LL Etna cashmere. I especially like the trousers, the excellent finishing and their DB style.

The Etna cashmere was what I would consider a "high-risk" commission - I wanted a fully reversible wrap overcoat without buttons. The result is nothing but brilliant. I also took my godchild to Rubinacci for an initiation to bespoke. It was impressive to see Mr Luca Rubinacci responding to the needs and views of a 20-year old student. They are also a good address for customers not speaking Italian.

The price tag might be higher than elsewhere, but this is matched by excellent customer service, relatively short turn around time and reliability.

Cheers, David