The London Lounge

One of the most enjoyable things that you can do in Naples while waiting for your next appointment with your tailor is to stroll around, take your time and savor the city.

The people are lovely, animated, full of warmth. The city may be chaotic and frenetic but on a Sunday morning, things slow down, so enjoy the day with the rest of Naples.

The Neapolitans have a particularly civilized habit of closing the seaside road to cars on Sunday mornings and giving way to the city’s good citizens; here you will see large extended families out for a bit a fresh air and socializing, gelato and gossip.

What more wonderful feeling for you than anticipating your next fitting, while enjoying the Mediterranean warmth and a cold beer in a café on Naples’s corniche. With nothing more strenuous to do than watch the world go by and think about where to have lunch today as you let your thoughts meander. But if you’re of a mind to make plans, what better plan to think about than visiting with Maurizio Marinella tomorrow to help you pick out some luscious silks to have a tie or two made which will be ready in three days, just in time to wear with your spanking new suit.

Or perhaps have a new shirt made!

Just around the corner from Marinella, the sweet Gabrielle De L’Ero of Merolla and De L’Ero, shirt makers extraordinaire, is waiting for you in her tiny shop in the Palazzo Calabritto, with a wonderful selection of the finest Riva fabrics, all of which you’ll ofcourse be tempted to buy.

But don’t; do like the Neapolitans and choose blue, blue and blue again.

But Riva blue and Riva cloth is unlike any other you already own; you must try it to understand.

And if you want to be an honorary Neapolitan, dressing is simple: it revolves around the plain blue shirt, the very simple tie from a master like Marinella, Rubinacci or Cappelli , and a beautiful bespoke suit from your choice of 50 splendid tailors, in any of 50 styles. That is all.

Then you can make your passeggiata through Naples with the best of them, the newly minted, resplendent Neapolitan man!

Let Gabrielle help you and she will make you a smashing shirt. Her seamstresses share an intimate space with you, the changing room is right next to their sewing machine, as you try on your basted shirt, separated by a thin curtain, they will certainly peak in at you anxious to see how their work looks. If it’s not right, come back in an hour and it will be!

In Naples, you will come to understand and respect the critical role of women in making your clothes. Shirt making is a woman’s world. Their hands are fine, delicate and nimble; women are Naple’s secret in making the finest handwork in all of Italy. For all of your button holes, handstiching, lapel seams that we love and is admired around the world…..thank the ladies of Naples.

For those of you lucky enough to be off to the Naples area this Summer, consider dropping in on Gabrielle. I hope the pictures of her convey her warmth, the small artisanal nature of her work and the intimate collaboration involved in having a shirt made in Naples.

Many ,many thanks for a truly wonderful post. One can almost smell the sea breeze at the via Partenopea.
Very interesting to see Gabrielle's hard to find atelier featured. This maker seems to have dropped (unjustifiably) off the fora radar with the continuing attention to Anna Matuozzo.

I agree, Maran.

I met Mr Merolla when I was in Naples. Very unassuming little shop.

UC that beer looks nice and what a blue sky!

Great post.

I can remember when the enterprising couple, Mr. Merolla and Gabrielle De L’Ero started their shop. Both of them have other careers, but they saw an opportunity to make a business selling shirts with the help of this lady:



She is the shirtmaker. If you want advice or have a particular point to be addressed, it is best to make it with her as both Merolla and De L’Ero are relative newcomers to the craft. If you are arriving from foreign climes, it will be a good idea to learn this bit of Italian “giro manica a mano” so you make sure and get a real Neapolitan shirt and not one made for the tourists.

The shirts I had made by Merolla years ago from Riva cloth are still in my regular rotation and are very good. The prices are honest, pretty standard for Naples, and not doubled or tripled for the tourists. The last time I checked their CMT price was at the high end of the Naples or Rome spectrum but still very reasonable.

Cheers

M Alden

Wonderful photos, Mr. Uppercase! Perhaps I should change my flight plans next week from London to Naples instead?

tepdoc wrote:Wonderful photos, Mr. Uppercase! Perhaps I should change my flight plans next week from London to Naples instead?

That's a decision only you can make.

Let me think.....umm, grey London, sunny Naples.

And you know where your sartorial heart belongs.

If I were you, I'd transit in London, hop the first plane to Naples, and take the boat straight to Capri.

Isn't your trouser maker calling you?

Uppercase commented that blue is the popular colour but which style is popular in Naples? Are single or double cuffs the norm? Do Neapolitans prefer spread or cutaway collars? Do they have pockets on shirts with single cuffs?

The shirts hanging up have white collars and cuffs. Is that a popular choice or just that of one particular customer who has placed a large order?

The shirts hanging up have white collars and cuffs. Is that a popular choice or just that of one particular customer who has placed a large order?

The shirts hanging with white collars and cuffs are awaiting collars and cuffs. The white muslin fabric is used to fit the shirts before the making of the final collar and cuff.

The most common style dress shirt has a moderate spread Windsor collar with tie space, single cuff, two button, no pocket, hand sewn giro manica

M Alden

Bishop of Briggs wrote:

Uppercase commented that blue is the popular colour but which style is popular in Naples? Are single or double cuffs the norm? Do Neapolitans prefer spread or cutaway collars? Do they have pockets on shirts with single cuffs?

The shirts hanging up have white collars and cuffs. Is that a popular choice or just that of one particular customer who has placed a large order?

Only blue single cuffs shirts with no breast pockets are the norm in Naples . As far as colored shirts with white contrast collar and cuffs , they are not a largely diffuse and traditional style in Naples. Only in the last years, according to a general phenomenon this kind of shirts are becoming more popular , although the very elegant people in Naples do prefer shirts with only the collar in contrast , leaving the cuffs in the same color of the shirt body , as the true British tradition indicates.


Angelo

alden wrote:

The shirts hanging up have white collars and cuffs. Is that a popular choice or just that of one particular customer who has placed a large order?

The shirts hanging with white collars and cuffs are awaiting collars and cuffs. The white muslin fabric is used to fit the shirts before the making of the final collar and cuff.

The most common style dress shirt has a moderate spread Windsor collar with tie space, single cuff, two button, no pocket, hand sewn giro manica

M Alden

Many thanks for the informative reply. I read that Merolla and De L’Ero charges less than Matuozzo so I did not think that they would use a muslin fitting like Bugelli.

I assume that two button refers to the shirt cuff rather than the collar. The two button collar seems fiddly and unnecessary to me. Does it offer any practical advantage over a single button collar?

Uppercase, you make me seriously consider returning to Europe - well, going to live in Naples, at any rate: not flannel; fact.
NJS

Naples (the parts my DW and iIand our children know, anyhow) and Capri are heavenly, at least in Spring. I cannot see the bay of Naples without remembering Pliny (whom I should have read...).
Walking the streets of Naples, one is stepping in the footsteps of the Greeks, the Etruscans, the Romans, the Normans, the Angevins, the Bourbons (I am forgetting more than I am remembering, I am sure-- one may prefer not to dwell on the brief Bonaparte presence--). They all left their mark (still visible, in many cases.
The Sybil of Cumes was near by, and "le cap Misène" as we call it in French.
The Posilippo ("...dans la nuit du tombeau, toi qui m'as consolé, rend moi le Pausilippe et le mer d'Italie... ") is sadly built up.
One could buy and rehabilitate a grand XVIIIth century palazzo...
One could indeed live there.
Frog in Suit

PS: and the food...

Dear Frog,
Your post sits very well on the plate of delicious pasta that I have (possibly subliminally prompted by the original posting), just had - albeit far away, for my supper... Do you really regret Bonaparte? My parents had a neighbour (now quite long deceased), who was collaterally descended from the Bonaparte line - and he and his wife were delightful and remarkable people.
NJS.