ebay suits, sportcoats, and other clothing - Page 183

Originally Posted by slycedbred

That's actually my auction! I appreciate the comments everybody

Also, another item of interest/shameless plug:

Isaia 37R...Current bid: $264 -- This gorgeous suit could be a steal for someone.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MESE:IT&ih=004

Originally Posted by Dewey

funniest defunct store name i've seen in a while: the manhole

Originally Posted by gumercindo

Barbera suit pre-owned, $12.00 bid with 3 hours to go. Might be an old model, but might be a good buy.

http://cgi.ebay.com/LUCIANO-BARBERA-...QQcmdZViewItem

Originally Posted by ineffable

Purple Label Pea Coat, Medium

Bin @ $300.. Pictures look.. eh. But it's a really nice coat, if it's the one I think it is (from fall 06?). If it was a small I'd buy it. And a medium would probably work for me, but I'm trying to get this sold before I decide what the hell and pull the trigger... I really don't need another pea coat.

Originally Posted by gumercindo

"Luciano" Attolini.

40R NWT

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...TODAY.m238.lVI

Originally Posted by slycedbred

Thank you for directing my attention to this listing! I was the winning bidder =)

Originally Posted by SATOR

I brought two of this seller̢۪s Luciano Attolini suits for around 120 Euro each. I thought it was a potentially genuine bargain although I had fears about the quality. The worst case scenario would have been that you would have found that they were Chinese mass produced fused junk sporting a gaudy 'Made in Italy' badge. At the time the seller listed things mostly in German which I speak and read fairly fluently. He had good pictures pointing out the hand-stitching on the inside of the jacket and the hand picking on the lapels. All of this made it worth risking at 120 Euros a pop. So I bid on one in black and one in navy and won both.

What I received was a pleasant surprise. It was obviously a canvas construction with a nice light and soft material. All the hand stitching was for real. When my Italian tailor, Sam (who is a bit of a cynic in these matters) saw the suit he agreed that it looked hand-made with a 'very light canvas' but just had to point out that even then it could still be hand made in China rather than in Italy. I pointed out that while that was certainly possible, I had never seen such a well put together Chinese or for that matter Eastern European mass produced suit. That totally silenced Sam who had no reply. I guess he was miffed (deny it though he did) that I hadn't ordered a bespoke suit from him, but at 120 Euro even he agreed it was a pretty fair deal.

As for being Neapolitan, there were many convincing little signs of this. Firstly, the German seller makes it clear that the sizing of these suits is in 'italienische Konfektionsgroesse' (Italian sizing), which is a size smaller than 'deutsche Konfektionsgroesse' (German sizing). You can see this in his charts. Often suits made outside of Italy are in general European sizing, which is more like French/German sizing ie too big for me as I wear a size 34-36S. Next, the cut is extremely slender including narrow trousers with a non-pleated front. Sam who is Sicilian just had to ask "why on earth do they make the trousers so narrow???...". However, I understand that this is a typical feature of Neapolitan tailoring. The shoulders too have very little in the way of shoulder padding and the construction looks scarcely much inferior to a Brioni suit I own. All that combined with the hand made construction evident in the jacket made it seem pretty authentic. Indeed an extensive use of detailed but just slightly irregular looking hand stitching is far more obvious on the inside of the shoulder of the Luciano Attolini suits than it is on the Brioni. I suspect that may reflect the fact that the Luciano Attolini suit makers are a small family owned business who don't have access to the sophisticated and expensive suit making machinery that Brioni own - so they are forced to do certain things manually that the Brioni group would use a machine for.

Cesare Attolini learned and took over his trade from his father along with his two brothers. It would therefore come as no surprise if there were other members of the Attolini clan in the business of suit making in Naples.

At the time I purchased from him, the seller had something in German in his article descriptions that stated he only ever sold genuine hand made goods and never mass produced items. From what I have seen this seller seems a pretty honest one. Now, I have seen other sellers since on eBay claiming that these Luciano Attolini suits have a retail price of several thousand USD. This seller however at least has the decency to say that the actual retail price is about 1200 USD.

OK maybe I'm just a sucker who has been completely fooled, but the fact is the suits were just incredible value for the price. However, my gut feeling is that the lower retail price reflects the fact that a smaller family business spends less on advertising than Cesare Attolini, Kiton and the like.