Sun Nov 21, 2010 1:34 pm
From Solito I walked to Ambrosi's. They live at the southern end of the Spanish Quarter. Did not appear dangerous at all. The work out if the home. One room is dedicated to cutting and sewing, and there were three of them (father, mother, son) all working when I got there. There was also a man from Seoul there sort of "interning" and helping out for a month. He is going to help Salvatore drum up more business in Asia. Nice guy. Wore the slimmest pants I have ever seen.
This was the first time I had met the father. Again, the generation gap was apparent. Salvatore had on a very slim shirt and slim trousers. The father had on an almost blousy blue shirt and much fuller trousers. They had altered some stuff for me and cut me a new pattern since I have lost weight since my first was made. So the new pants were all basted. Antonio (dad) took a more active role in the fitting than Gennaro Solito had. He actually changed my pattern quite a bit. I am excited to see the result.
I spent a lot of time talking to Salvatore about his grand plans for expanding the business. This is probably the place to say, to all frustrated Ambrosi/Solito customers, that I did my best to have a "heart to heart" with both of them about reliability. My main message was: Don't try to come four for five times a year if that is too hard. Just come twice a year but make the visits regular, always in the same months. They said they understood. We shall see.
From there I walked to Chiaia. This is both a street and a district. The street connects the central district to the Chiaia district. It's hard to explain but it's a few dozen feet below the main street level of the town, like a trench or something. It's all shops and quite lovely. To get to it you literally take an elevator down. Strange.
OK, Via Filangieri is the 5th Ave, Rodeo Drive of Naples. It's quite short, and many of the nicest shops are on it. Rubinacci rather grandly anchors the NW corner at the top of the hill.
This is in the running for most beautiful store in the world. It really stands out among its peers for being far more opulent in every way. It reminds me a little of Hermes in that respect. It's not just the merchandise but the decor. Everything is absolutely top notch and high quality.
The fabled cloth room is astounding. You need a ladder to get to the upper shelves. Incredible variety.
OK, as to the merch. There are tons of ties. 100 E, 120 for cashmere. The make is different than the typical Naples tie, narrower either no lining or a very slight lining, no tipping and hand rolled edges. The selection is vast and close to faultless. It's also slightly atypical. I know someone will chime in and say "There is no Naples style" but I beg to differ. What we all know as the archetypal Marinella print -- heavy twill with a conservative flower or figured pattern -- is the official tie of the city. All the best stores sell tons of those. Wovens are available but outnumbered ten to one or more. There no cartoon prints or geometrics or giant wall paintings. You know this style instantly when you see it. (There were, however, in the more downmarket shops, lots of really hideous satiny stripes. Saw a lot of these on the street too.) Rubinacci does not sell this tie, or not many. He seems to have gone out of his way to select silks that are just a little different but still conservative and elegant. It's a tie collection that is unique in my experience. The selection in Naples was, IMO, quite a bit nicer than his selection in London.
They have several house designs for pocket squares which I gather never change. HMS Victory of course, the map of the Med, and one that shows the ceiling fresco of the Teatro San Carlo. The color palates were all so similar that I only bought one.
Also tons of accessories like scarves, socks, knitwear and the like. Also lots of RTW trousers, No shirts that I saw. Beautiful women's scarves. Some of the stuff was too "opulent" for my taste. But the only things I saw that really didn't work, didn't belong there (IMO) were the shoes. Very EYE-talian, sharp-lasted, Blake-soled and almost flashy. The better dressed men in Naples in my observation tend to wear heavier English shoes. The like bluchers, double soles and round toes. This is in fact what Mariano himself wears so it was odd to see those slick fashiony shoes in the store.
From there, Marinella. I actually went in more than once but no need to differentiate the visits. It's on a street that fronts a park which fronts the bay. It's really tiny. 10 feet square maybe. There are two large tables at right angles and a half dozen or so staff behind them. You tell them what kind of tie you want (silk or cashmere, print or woven, color, etc) and they haul out a giant wood drawer with dozens in that vein and put it on the table. Each table can hold two of these drawers at a time. I would say that no more than 8 customers can fit into the store at once and of them only 4-5 can get to the table.
There is a guy outside in ... livery ... I don't know what else to call it ... who directs traffic into and out of the shop. He is like a bouncer. He won't let you in if it is too crowded. Which it often is.
OK, the ties have been described above. To elaborate a bit, they are all made from heavy silk twill, woven and printed in England. It's a forum meme that "Marinella is made by Drake!!1!1!!" but I doubt this. I saw the workrooms. I saw ties being carried by hand from the work rooms to the show room en masse. Certainly, all the silk comes from England. They not only do not try to hide this, they are proud of it. They see it as a selling point. Maybe Drake has made some in the past and maybe they still do. But I can tell you from direct observation that they are making ties by the boatload in Naples.
The width is typically 9 cm, they are cut with that Italian "bottle" shape to give fullness under the knot (Rubinacci ties are not), the are fully lined and self-tipped. This is much more like the ties most of use are used to.
In the little main shop they also sell scarves, pocket squares, knitwear, and leather goods. They have a small selection of shoes, all Churches, definitely the best models, again, mostly on the heavy side, nothing modern or crazy. Around the corner, into another courtyard, and up some steps is a much larger shop where they have tons of stuff--outerwear, accessories, cuff links, long ties, bow ties, and tons and tons of silks for bespoke. It was a great store.
On Saturday, Maurizio Marinella was behind the counter. Blue SB 3 patch coat, blue candy stripe BD shirt (points unbuttoned), dark blue print tie, gray flannel pants. He spoke to me in Italian when I came in and when I stammered out my pidgin reply he switched to English. He recognized my suit as Solito instantly. He helped me pick out three ties, all of which were proxied.
Last edited by
manton on Sun Nov 21, 2010 1:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
