Naples is one of the world’s most creative and energetic cities, a Mediterranean version of New York. It has the same energy, the same beautiful people, and the same nonstop tempo as Manhattan at its most frenetic, and it’s been that way even longer.
Big factories have not done well there, but businesses based on high style and elegance have become world-class enterprises. Some of the finest furniture in Italy—from inlaid marble desks and tables to magnificent carved wooden pieces—is made in Naples, and men’s fashion has reached its highest level (and certainly its highest prices) in Naples, from Marinella ties to the super-chic ateliers of Borrelli, Isaia, Attolini, Kiton, Barba, Rubinacci, and others.
It may seem counter-intuitive that a city famed for mass misery should simultaneously be a world center of luxury men’s style, but the “Naples look” now dominates the top-of-the-line market throughout the Western world, from New York and San Francisco to Hong Kong, St. Petersburg, and Dubai. In fact, the city’s fashion industry is booming, accounting for 34 percent of Neapolitan exports. There are some 5,422 enterprises producing clothing, leather, and shoes in and around Naples.
The success comes, in part, from the fact that almost all garments from the leading Neapolitan companies are handmade. No two are exactly the same, even those that are “ready-to-wear” rather than custom-tailored. Moreover, there are two basic components of Neapolitan sartorial elegance that make these clothes special:
First, the quality of the fabrics. With rare exceptions, the fabrics are manufactured by select British and Italian mills and are unique to the Neapolitan tailors. The wool typically comes from New Zealand, where Merino lambs produce an unusually fine fiber which, in turn, is woven into very soft and flexible wool. The cotton is of the highest quality, as is the cashmere that is often blended into both summer and winter garments. Clothes made from such fabrics are extraordinarily comfortable, and really do feel like a “second skin.”
This feel is further enhanced by the second component: the internal architecture, especially inside the jackets. A very soft canvas chest-liner enables the jacket to move easily and still maintain its elegant design. It’s costly both because it is cut and stitched by hand and because the preparation of the canvas takes time and attention. This style is a distinct departure from Saville Row clothes, which are more rigid. The other Neapolitan stylistic innovation is a paucity of padding. Jackets are softer and more closely shaped to the natural slope of the back, neck, and shoulders than other styles. This approach, too, gives customers a greater sense of freedom and naturalness, and, while most of the suits and jackets you find in the United States have at least some padding, it is still minimal when compared to domestic products, or to British or continental clothes.
Fashion writers are sometimes at a loss for superlatives when they describe Neapolitan style. “I ponder the strange confluence of substance and accident,” wrote Jo Durden-Smith for the upscale American Express magazine Departures. “The weather; the dramatic geography; the Baroque sensibility; the English visitors; the Norman, German, French, Spanish, and conquerors; the royal courts; the street theater; the love of display; the tradition of craftsmanship—that has contrived to produce Neapolitan sartoria.”
I certainly see the Neapolitans’ great flair and sense of elegance, along with at least two other important elements common to all creative people, and particularly refined (and often overlooked) among successful Neapolitans: ruthlessness and arrogance.
If you talk to these captains of style, you will find that they are masters of marketing, superb salesmen, and utterly disdainful of their competition. Ciro Paone, the owner/creator of Kiton, is merciless when he talks about the other masters of Neapolitan style, proclaiming his own clothes more elegant, and more virile. His career bespeaks a toughness of mind and spirit that is common to all captains of industry.
It is not intuitively obvious that there are many men in this world who will enthusiastically pay $6,000 or $7,000 for a jacket and a pair of pants, no matter how elegantly crafted or how magnificent the fabric. But Ciro Paone and the others know better. Ciro didn’t start by making nice suits, building up a clientele, and gradually raising prices. From the very beginning, Kiton (named after the Greek robe, the chiton) charged top lira—more, in fact, than you would expect to pay for custom-made suits (Kiton clothes are entirely handmade, but they are rarely made to order). Paone now employs more than 300 tailors. As you would expect, he’s expanding the line: there are now handmade Kiton shoes, ties, and shirts, along with perfume and women’s clothes. And it is all done with the same single-minded attention to detail and elegance that characterizes the firm in everything it does.
Today, the Neapolitans are omnipresent in the luxury market. It is an amazing achievement, especially when you consider the prices. Kiton suits, for example, average around $6,000, and you can easily find a vicuna suit for more than twice as much. Attolini and Rubinacci are in the same stratospheric range, with Isaia and Borrelli marginally more affordable (roughly $4,000 a suit). Shirts, and even a pair of gloves, run in the $500 range.
Now, I don’t quite see the city’s long history incarnated in a Finamore shirt or one of Cesare Attolini’s suits. But I do see the historical connection. “See Naples and die,” a quotation attributed to wits from Virgil to Goethe, admonishes travelers to absorb the beauty of the setting and the drama of the city itself. But today, the world’s elite is more likely to say, “See Naples and buy.”
The success comes, in part, from the fact that almost all garments from the leading Neapolitan companies are handmade. No two are exactly the same, even those that are “ready-to-wear” rather than custom-tailored. Moreover, there are two basic components of Neapolitan sartorial elegance that make these clothes special:
First, the quality of the fabrics. With rare exceptions, the fabrics are manufactured by select British and Italian mills and are unique to the Neapolitan tailors. The wool typically comes from New Zealand, where Merino lambs produce an unusually fine fiber which, in turn, is woven into very soft and flexible wool. The cotton is of the highest quality, as is the cashmere that is often blended into both summer and winter garments. Clothes made from such fabrics are extraordinarily comfortable, and really do feel like a “second skin.”
This feel is further enhanced by the second component: the internal architecture, especially inside the jackets. A very soft canvas chest-liner enables the jacket to move easily and still maintain its elegant design. It’s costly both because it is cut and stitched by hand and because the preparation of the canvas takes time and attention. This style is a distinct departure from Saville Row clothes, which are more rigid. The other Neapolitan stylistic innovation is a paucity of padding. Jackets are softer and more closely shaped to the natural slope of the back, neck, and shoulders than other styles. This approach, too, gives customers a greater sense of freedom and naturalness, and, while most of the suits and jackets you find in the United States have at least some padding, it is still minimal when compared to domestic products, or to British or continental clothes.
Fashion writers are sometimes at a loss for superlatives when they describe Neapolitan style. “I ponder the strange confluence of substance and accident,” wrote Jo Durden-Smith for the upscale American Express magazine Departures. “The weather; the dramatic geography; the Baroque sensibility; the English visitors; the Norman, German, French, Spanish, and conquerors; the royal courts; the street theater; the love of display; the tradition of craftsmanship—that has contrived to produce Neapolitan sartoria.”
I certainly see the Neapolitans’ great flair and sense of elegance, along with at least two other important elements common to all creative people, and particularly refined (and often overlooked) among successful Neapolitans: ruthlessness and arrogance.
If you talk to these captains of style, you will find that they are masters of marketing, superb salesmen, and utterly disdainful of their competition. Ciro Paone, the owner/creator of Kiton, is merciless when he talks about the other masters of Neapolitan style, proclaiming his own clothes more elegant, and more virile. His career bespeaks a toughness of mind and spirit that is common to all captains of industry.
It is not intuitively obvious that there are many men in this world who will enthusiastically pay $6,000 or $7,000 for a jacket and a pair of pants, no matter how elegantly crafted or how magnificent the fabric. But Ciro Paone and the others know better. Ciro didn’t start by making nice suits, building up a clientele, and gradually raising prices. From the very beginning, Kiton (named after the Greek robe, the chiton) charged top lira—more, in fact, than you would expect to pay for custom-made suits (Kiton clothes are entirely handmade, but they are rarely made to order). Paone now employs more than 300 tailors. As you would expect, he’s expanding the line: there are now handmade Kiton shoes, ties, and shirts, along with perfume and women’s clothes. And it is all done with the same single-minded attention to detail and elegance that characterizes the firm in everything it does.
Today, the Neapolitans are omnipresent in the luxury market. It is an amazing achievement, especially when you consider the prices. Kiton suits, for example, average around $6,000, and you can easily find a vicuna suit for more than twice as much. Attolini and Rubinacci are in the same stratospheric range, with Isaia and Borrelli marginally more affordable (roughly $4,000 a suit). Shirts, and even a pair of gloves, run in the $500 range.
Now, I don’t quite see the city’s long history incarnated in a Finamore shirt or one of Cesare Attolini’s suits. But I do see the historical connection. “See Naples and die,” a quotation attributed to wits from Virgil to Goethe, admonishes travelers to absorb the beauty of the setting and the drama of the city itself. But today, the world’s elite is more likely to say, “See Naples and buy.”
