The wise tailor

[alden]

I was in Naples the other day and paid a visit to the senior citizen among local tailors, an eighty year old who (still) makes some of the most beautiful suits in the city. And with nearly 6.5 decades of experience he is a reference on Naples’s real sartorial history. Amazingly, his hand work remains among the best I have ever seen.



“I am a tailor. My job is to satisfy my clients’ wishes", he told me, " I can make any kind of clothes they can imagine or desire. But most importantly, and its the thing younger tailors have forgotten, I accomplish my task with grace, and polite respect. That is the way I was trained.”

My question about rounded or square shoulders seemed out of place, gauche, irrelevant. “I can make the man clothes, Michael, but I cannot give him style. That is just something he has to work out for himself.”



Cheers

Michael Alden

[uppercase]

I like old tailors. I like talking to them. I like learning from them. The slow pace suits me. I'm not in a rush. Where am i going?

This is one of the many pleasures of working with an Italian tailor. The sensibility is so different to SR. The work is not technical but emotional.

If they make you a good suit, well, all the better. This tailor's work looks very traditional, though not 'Neapolitan'. A few years ago I could not have appreciated this though now, I am closer to ready.

And I am always ready for sharing an espresso with an old Neapolitan maestro. This is what it's about for me.

[alden]

This is one of the many pleasures of working with an Italian tailor. The sensibility is so different to SR. The work is not technical but emotional.

At a certain level it is about emotion. I have seen it in some of the best SR and US based tailors as well. They love it as much as we do. They live to dress us well. To make superior clothing, the technical skills cannot be far behind, but it is the love of the craft that separates the great from the merely competent.

This tailor's work looks very traditional, though not 'Neapolitan'.

The coat, which hearkens from another time, reflects the ancient and dominant influence of English tailoring on the Neapolitans. It is trim, subdued and extremely elegant in line and overall form. There is no painful flourish or exaggeration here. Look back at the old pictures of De Sica, Toto and others and this is what you will see.

Do not confuse this original look with the “Neapolitan” brand that has grown from Kiton in recent times and embraced by other tailors who seek entry into the world of fashion and the riches of RTW. The kitsch of loud hand work, and gaudy lapels is not at all Neapolitan to the tailor featured in this article. It is instead napolitanita, a cliché, a derivative of little merit.

And I am always ready for sharing an espresso with an old Neapolitan maestro. This is what it's about for me.

Ditto.

Cheers

Michael

[alden]

This tailor's work looks very traditional, though not 'Neapolitan'.

UC,

Here is a picture of a DB coat cut in 1957 by the famed Neapolitan tailor Angelo Blasi. Notice the similarity with the lapels on the coat pictured above. They look more SR than the exaggerations dubbed "neapolitan" of today. Worthy of mention is the lovely shoulder, similar in both photos, neither too round nor too square.



Notice how they are similar to these lapels?








Don't confuse authentic Neapolitan with today's facsimiles.

Cheers

[andreyb]

A bit off topic: it is known that in addition to Caraceni, Agnelli patronized Huntsman. Shoulders of the coat on the photo look like Huntsman to me.

Is the coat indeed tailored by Huntsman?

Andrey