The London Lounge

Roman and Neapolitan style

I have been reading some pretty incomplete and wayward discussions of Roman and Neapolitan styles recently and decided to draft a little introduction to the subject.

I suppose the best place to begin is with a view of sartorial Italy and its major centers. In the north and center of the country, the areas of Milan, Turin, Venice, Florence and Genova come immediately to mind. But it is the south and in particular the region of the former Kingdom of Two Sicilies with its capital in Naples, that is of interest to us in this tour. The major centers of sartorial production in the south of Italy have not changed for over a century: Abruzzo, Puglia, Campania and Sicily.

Domenico Caraceni 1919



Domenico Caraceni left his native Abruzzese village in the early years of the last century to venture to Rome where he set up a practice that would flourish to this day. Brioni’s tailoring still takes place in a factory in the mountains 70 miles east of Rome and only its showroom and boutique is in Rome. So the rustic denizens of the Abruzzo mountains have tempered over time adapting their work for a discerning Roman clientele. But there is something of the rustic there nevertheless.

For our purposes the story of Neapolitan tailoring begins with one man who started to create his version of the “lounge suit” about the same time as Caraceni in Rome and Scholte in London. His name was Attolini and when he joined up with Gennaro Rubinacci in the 1930s, London House was born. But the Naples story would be incomplete without the mention of Angelo Blasi who working in the same 1930s created a different tendency and completely different look whose trace can still be seen today.

Angelo Blasi



Biagio Mazzuoccolo was putting the finishing touches on a wonderful tweed coat when I posed him a question. “I have seen the works of fifteen tailors here in town. While the finishing and some aspects of the styling share common ground, there is a lot of variance with respect to cut and construction. How do you explain this? I mean is there really a Neapolitan style of coat?” Mazzuocolo stared into the tourist’s blue gray eyes and in a moment of generosity not common among his peers began a description of a city and its tailors, and more importantly a style that ten years later would become a global icon for well dressed men. “There are two major sartorial schools in Naples, the Blasi school and the Attolini school”, he began. Pen in hand and jotting notes all along the way as I listened, Mazzuocolo asked me “so you have probably seen a structured narrow coat and a long shouldered soft one. Is this right? ….The narrow coat would be almost two inches narrower in the shoulder compared to what we have in your coat”, he said pointing to the completely natural spalla camicia cuddled in his hand. “That narrow cut is Blasi and the one that suits you better is more Attolini.”

Mazzuocolo was right. The narrow team shaved a full two inches off the breadth of the shoulder measure I was used to on SR. The result would have made me look like an emaciated scarecrow with a huge pumpkin head. “You will be better off with a tailor like Rubinacci but don’t tarry too long at Attolini e Palermo behind the cinema, he will have you in a straightjacket these days.” The Attolinis had taken an entirely different direction from the one their ancestors had forged with Rubinacci. “It’s a younger look, narrow silhouette, close to the body a little pad in the shoulder. It’s gonna be big in confezione like Brioni and Kiton. “

Sure enough the new Attolini and Kiton looked much different from either the Blasi or Attolini heritages. They were essentially padded ready to wear coats tailored with lots of screaming gadgets and sartorial embellishments that were intended to put Naples on the map. “Go to take a trip to Brioni, if you want to see tailors who know how to work. They are the best in the world.”

The trip from the languid warm easy seaside of Naples, Capri, the Amalfi coast to the cold, dark green mountains of Abruzzo can be made in the hand, touching the two tailored coats of these regions. Mountain people favor protection and security. They are a different race of men, closed, protective, secretive, intense and hardworking. The sun bronzed gods by the sea live the real dolce vita with not an apparent care in the world except for the verses of the next song or the provenance of the next pleasure.

A Rubinacci coat and Domenico Caraceni circa 1938.



The mountain man’s coat is hard and square, there are edges sewn with care. The bronzed man’s coat is softer, with no rough edges, falling without a care in the world, only the essential pleasure of being an end unto itself and an art form.

Alberto Sordi, in 1960s Caraceni



Vittorio de Sica wearing Rubinacci



Tyrone Power sporting Caraceni



Toto in pure Neapolitan splendor



I had a chance last years to spend a few moments with Mariano Rubinacci in London when he explained to me how his father sent a family member to live in London near Savile Row to learn from the styles that were developing there so as to bring them to Naples, to London House. “It’s a realization of a dream to be here in London after those beginnings.” And you do see Scholte in Rubinacci’s cut, the extended shoulder, drape and comfortable shape. You will find some nicely made clothes in Naples, but you won’t find another tailor who cuts like Rubinacci does and part of the explanation might come directly from Savile Row. Is this a hybrid look instead of a purely Neapolitan one? We will discover another example of same in Rome.

Arturo Cifonelli learned his trade from his father Giuseppe in Rome. But rather than stay put in the Italian capital in the business his father had crafted since the late 1860s, Arturo decided to go to London, to Savile Row. Returning to Italy in 1911, he opened his Paris shop in 1930. You will see the SR influence in this coat, one that is much more worldly than the Caraceni products of the same period.

A handsome Cifonelli suit



So buttoning the top two buttons of a three button front is taboo? Poppycock! So this Roman style is a hybrid style as much SR as Abruzzo and with charm to spare. Cifonelli and Rubinacci, two hybrids who benefited from some SR pollination? It very well might be.

Take a look at Abruzzo style and compare the Cifonelli for yourself.



So the Roman versus Neapolitan discussion is a bit more complicated than we might have imagined and we have barely scraped the thin surface with these notes. In Naples and Rome there are many different styles and cuts, not one single Neapolitan or Roman. In fact, there are as many philosophies about cutting and style as there are tailors to espouse them. Influences from the past and from foreign climes add to the sauce that is rich with flavor. The best way to understand is to go there and see all the works for yourself, hold them in your hand and if you are very lucky, listen to some great stories.

Michael, that is a fantastic post. Thanks for the education. So often I feel like I have no idea what I'm talking about. This helps put things in perspective.

mafoofan wrote:Michael, that is a fantastic post. Thanks for the education. So often I feel like I have no idea what I'm talking about. This helps put things in perspective.

I agree completely and feel the same. Thank you Michael for such a great, helpfull post.

This needs to be reread a few times and then reviewed again with the pictures. There is so much here.

Great post.

One question remains to pull it together for me, and that is, how did Cifonelli end up in Paris, and is there still an outpost in Rome?

One interesting anecdote about the famous white DB, is that it was obviously cut for somebody who was of the oddest build. I put it on one time and found that while it fit me well through the shoulders and chest, the waist was tiny and the sleeves a good two inches longer than I would need.

I'm getting this, as I recall, from Unto the Sons, which is about Cristiani, Cifonelli's great competitor, but it discusses Cifonelli.

They eached opened Paris shops after WW1, because (they thought) that's where the money was. In the '20s especially Paris was booming in way no town in Italy was. They were inspired by what Poole, Lobb and others had done before WWI. The idea was to have the Paris shop as a branch. Caraceni even had one.

Both Cristiani (brothers, actually) and Cifonelli found that they did so much better in Paris, that they closed up the home office and stayed. Caraceni, on the other hand, did well enough in Rome to stay open. Their Paris shop closed in 1940, as did Poole's.

Alden this is a great post, it just goes to show that there is no one key element that makes something more or less Roman or Neapolitan or even Savile Row!

i'm guessing it is all down to climate need balance and fuction of the wearer

this is what makes LL special and jst goes to show that if it was not for the LL this kind of infomation will be lost

Yes, Poole's was on rue Tronchet (no. 10).

Lobb and Hilditch opened up Paris branches pre-war; both are (or were) held in higher repute than their London counterparts. Dunhill did too, although their shop is a depressing shell of what it once was. There is even a shop on av. Friedland selling equestrian gear but which still bears the sign "Moss Bros."...

Henry Maxwell had a shop on rue Marbeuf. Sound familiar? After they left, Berluti took over the space. Mauvaises langues say that they had an in with Il Duce, but I have no way to confirm.

Other British shirtmakers set up in Paris -- Edouard & Butler, hailed as one of the best (and consequently no longer with us; the quality simply wasn't cost-efficient), was at number 10 Place Vendome. Their neighbors at the time were likely Charvet, which was at number 8 until moving into the stately no. 28 -- that must have been interesting. Washington Tremlett also set up shop in Paris... Kilgour later bought the name for its bespoke shirtmaking operations, although now I think they simply trade under their own name of Kilgour, and what they offer sounds more like MTM/stock special.

Sorry for the hijack.

Tommy Caraceni of Caraceni Roma was another tailor sent to London by his father to study the styles and practices there; perhaps 60 or more years ago. I believe that he apprenticed at Poole.

So the cross fertilization of Savile Row and the Italian tailors is well established historically even with the unique Caraceni style so closely associated with Italy: Roman Style.

Mario Caraceni's family, of A. Caraceni Milan, ofcourse had their shop in Paris. I don't know if anyone apprenticed in SR but certainly they are a small firm with an international cllientele and outlook. Their silhouette is moderate and reserved with SR origins.

As an aside, It's a pty that the history of some of the great Italian sartoria has not been recorded and written about in book form or film, in the same way that SR's history has been recorded and preserved.

Perhaps there are some books in Italian on these Italian tailors who dressed some of the great personalities over a long period; I don't know.

But as the Caraceni's, Attolinis, Rubinaccis, et. al. are getting on in years, and their sartoria's history is really a verbal history, time is running down to record events. One needs to look at the heirs to these smaller tailor shops to consider whether these firms will have a future. Certainly writing a book on them would be a wonderful project for someone.

The history of some of commercial Italian firms, which sprang from tailoring or textile origins - Zegna, Brioni, Loro Piana, Barbera, some of which are still founding family owned, also would make an interesting story. But these are all positioned to survive in the longer term.

The history of our interesting little hobby here is really quite fascinating.

Anyway, this post is a wonderful pictorial tour and I continue, as usual, to be struck by how good these clothes looked on their owners, and really how stylish and wonderful the whole impression is.

There is something special about these tailors' older work which is not captured today.

uppercase wrote:

Anyway, this post is a wonderful pictorial tour and I continue, as usual, to be struck by how good these clothes looked on their owners, and really how stylish and wonderful the whole impression is.

There is something special about these tailors' older work which is not captured today.

I am not sure this is fair. It may be, but it also may be that our experience with the suits of yesteryear are through pictures taken for magazines and journals by professional photographers and through movies where the best looking and most elegant men of the time were sporting them under favorable lighting conditions.

I am not sure that what you get from Caraceni or Rubinacci today is any better or worse than what you would have gotten from them as a standard client in 1950. It may be better or worse, but it is hard to compare apples and oranges.

Thank you for the post Mr Alden .. I feel like I did in my studying years. A lot to learn !


Vassilis

I am not sure this is fair. It may be, but it also may be that our experience with the suits of yesteryear are through pictures taken for magazines and journals by professional photographers and through movies where the best looking and most elegant men of the time were sporting them under favorable lighting conditions.

I have to agree with UC. We have just as good cameras and photographers today. It’s the subject matter that is missing or is inferior. But that is another and very interesting topic that parallels the decline of elegance, the extinction of masculinity.

I am not sure that what you get from Caraceni or Rubinacci today is any better or worse than what you would have gotten from them as a standard client in 1950. It may be better or worse, but it is hard to compare apples and oranges.

I would probably we more inclined to agree with you here. The difference in the photos and the style they evidence lies in the quality of cloth used. All the pictures from the past that we admire show cloth that drapes, cloth that is at least 16-20 ozs in weight. The Cifonelli glen check has to be a 18-20 ozs flannel for example.



Cheers

alden wrote:
I have to agree with UC. We have just as good cameras and photographers today. It’s the subject matter that is missing or is inferior. But that is another and very interesting topic that parallels the decline of elegance, the extinction of masculinity.

I agree with this. The last time I was in Naples, somebody told me that the problem was not that there were no good tailors, but that there were so few good customers.

iammatt wrote:

alden wrote:
I have to agree with UC. We have just as good cameras and photographers today. It’s the subject matter that is missing or is inferior. But that is another and very interesting topic that parallels the decline of elegance, the extinction of masculinity.

I agree with this. The last time I was in Naples, somebody told me that the problem was not that there were no good tailors, but that there were so few good customers.

In the Ian Kelly book there is a quote from Brummell to the effect that "Men make tailors, not the other way around."

The man makes the tailor and the clothes. I have been writing this for years.

Cheers