This is a continuation of my interview with Mina Adamo and Dino Romano of Napolisumisura. You can read the first part here.
SF: Is the Neapolitan-style jacket better for some than others? For instance, maybe someone who wants to hide their own shape rather than reveal it would prefer a more structured jacket?
Mina Adamo: Often, one thinks about bespoke as something that is adapted to a person, and that person's characteristics. So a dropped shoulder, for instance. It's really about understanding the client, and if he wants to disguise that – imagine a client who hunches over with the arms forward and has prominent shoulder blades. The first thing I try to understand is if the client wants me to follow the outline of their body, or instead make that feature less evident. It's just a matter of whether the client wants the jacket to adapt to them, or whether they should be “adapted” to the jacket, in order to hide “defects”.
SF: Is it always possible to hide such “defects”?
MA: Not 100% of the time. For instance, you could also have someone with shoulders very pulled back. So you cut the jacket like that. But they're not going to be standing like that all day. Sometimes they'll be seated and might get more comfortable and slouch a little bit, and then the fit will look “off”. But it's only because the fit has been adapted to when the person is standing, and the jacket can't be simultaneously perfect for their standing, very erect posture, and their seated, more slouched posture. It's still a jacket, not skin.
The same is true of sleeve pitch – some people carry their arms a little bit behind them, so that RTW jackets will always sleeves that are off for them. But then they sit down and put their arms in front of them, of course the sleeves are not going to look clean anymore. But I make a jacket to fit the best the largest percentage of the time.
SF: What are the first things you see when you look at a jacket during a fitting?
MA: It depends on the client and on the jacket. The “classic” problems are the things you notice first, for instance a dropped shoulder on a new client, a sleeve that needs to be rotated, a shoulder that should be shorter or longer. Then I put the length and the buttoning point where I like it. Then I ask what the client likes. If I did the jacket I like, all the jackets would be the same. For instance, I don't like a very long jacket, but neither do I like one that shows your rear end either. For me it's enough to cover the seat. And then it will be a little bit longer in front, which is the classic Neapolitan style, and which I like. But there are some clients that prefer the front and back even, so we do them even also.
SF: How would you suggest that someone prepare for a first meeting with you?
MA: Relax!
Dino Romano: And to tell us what you have in mind, what you want to do and why. We try to get to a relaxed conversation, and understand what needs a client has.
MA: Sometimes a client will start to worry about whether it's possible for us to do this or that, but it's best just to start with: what do you want? What are you looking for? And then we can figure out if the style of Napolisumisura, which is always going to be fundamentally a Neapolitan jacket, will be a good choice. We adapt our style to what the client wants, listen to what they want, and go beyond just doing one style of jacket, perhaps more so than other tailors in Naples, but it will always be a Neapolitan jacket.
Also because I don't want to do things that I don't know how to do well. So say a client comes looking for really English details – for instance fishtail back trousers – first, I don't like copying something like that, second, I don't have the time to do it, because it involves learning a whole new technique. I prefer to do what we know how to do, and I wouldn't want to risk the client ending up unsatisfied. It's not that I don't like English tailoring, it's that it's not something that belongs to me like Neapolitan tailoring does.
DR: Our style is that of the Neapolitan sartoria. Certainly there's a wide range within the Neapolitan sartoria, with many variants inside that range. Maybe there's an idea of Neapolitan style of trousers as short and skin tight, but that's not true. It's an exaggeration produced by brands that want to get attention.
MA: Bespoke is different from RTW. Making a flat front, straight leg, short trouser is simpler, for RTW. Already when you start adding pleats or a wider leg, it's more difficult to produce RTW. But in bespoke, there's no problem. As long as the Neapolitan methods of production remain, the cut, the type of stitching, etc.., then many stylistic details can be changed.
SF: What do you hope that clients feel when they visit the new location?
DR: My thought is that, for those that have known us, they will come here and see that we are growing while maintaining the same style and aesthetic.
MA: Above all, I hope that they feel at home. Our place is not the classic “high fashion boutique” or stuffy sartoria, even though what we make is of very high quality. But I want to move away from an environment where the clients are afraid to ask something, which I don't like. Because I don't like to enter a place and feel like somebody is peering down at me – I'd rather feel comfortable.
I always say that I think of Napolisumisura a little bit as my child. My father always said, and it's true, that parents grow with their children. In the sense that you grow up with the baby, its first emotions and experiences, and all the things you need to do to take care of it. For us, there are two parts of Napolisumisura: we who produce the clothes and the clients who order them. It's a constant education for me, meeting new clients and hearing their ideas, and suggesting things I hadn't considered. For instance the pocket that we added inside our jackets this year started out as a request from a client.
Napolisumisura is a collaboration between all of us, Dino and I, the tailors, the clients, even including, perhaps too poetically, but indulge me, the city of Naples itself. It brings me great happiness to be able to export a new idea of what Naples can be, that's different from the caricatures in films. For me, that's even better than selling even a thousand jackets.
Books of cloth ready for inspection.
The main room of the new location. In this area will likely be ties, scarves, and other accessories for sale. The lit room in the back is where the tailors will be. Some of the tailors will be located here, while the rest will continue to work in the workshop outside of Naples.
The door leading out to the balcony.
SF: Is the Neapolitan-style jacket better for some than others? For instance, maybe someone who wants to hide their own shape rather than reveal it would prefer a more structured jacket?
Mina Adamo: Often, one thinks about bespoke as something that is adapted to a person, and that person's characteristics. So a dropped shoulder, for instance. It's really about understanding the client, and if he wants to disguise that – imagine a client who hunches over with the arms forward and has prominent shoulder blades. The first thing I try to understand is if the client wants me to follow the outline of their body, or instead make that feature less evident. It's just a matter of whether the client wants the jacket to adapt to them, or whether they should be “adapted” to the jacket, in order to hide “defects”.
SF: Is it always possible to hide such “defects”?
MA: Not 100% of the time. For instance, you could also have someone with shoulders very pulled back. So you cut the jacket like that. But they're not going to be standing like that all day. Sometimes they'll be seated and might get more comfortable and slouch a little bit, and then the fit will look “off”. But it's only because the fit has been adapted to when the person is standing, and the jacket can't be simultaneously perfect for their standing, very erect posture, and their seated, more slouched posture. It's still a jacket, not skin.
The same is true of sleeve pitch – some people carry their arms a little bit behind them, so that RTW jackets will always sleeves that are off for them. But then they sit down and put their arms in front of them, of course the sleeves are not going to look clean anymore. But I make a jacket to fit the best the largest percentage of the time.
SF: What are the first things you see when you look at a jacket during a fitting?
MA: It depends on the client and on the jacket. The “classic” problems are the things you notice first, for instance a dropped shoulder on a new client, a sleeve that needs to be rotated, a shoulder that should be shorter or longer. Then I put the length and the buttoning point where I like it. Then I ask what the client likes. If I did the jacket I like, all the jackets would be the same. For instance, I don't like a very long jacket, but neither do I like one that shows your rear end either. For me it's enough to cover the seat. And then it will be a little bit longer in front, which is the classic Neapolitan style, and which I like. But there are some clients that prefer the front and back even, so we do them even also.
SF: How would you suggest that someone prepare for a first meeting with you?
MA: Relax!
Dino Romano: And to tell us what you have in mind, what you want to do and why. We try to get to a relaxed conversation, and understand what needs a client has.
MA: Sometimes a client will start to worry about whether it's possible for us to do this or that, but it's best just to start with: what do you want? What are you looking for? And then we can figure out if the style of Napolisumisura, which is always going to be fundamentally a Neapolitan jacket, will be a good choice. We adapt our style to what the client wants, listen to what they want, and go beyond just doing one style of jacket, perhaps more so than other tailors in Naples, but it will always be a Neapolitan jacket.
Also because I don't want to do things that I don't know how to do well. So say a client comes looking for really English details – for instance fishtail back trousers – first, I don't like copying something like that, second, I don't have the time to do it, because it involves learning a whole new technique. I prefer to do what we know how to do, and I wouldn't want to risk the client ending up unsatisfied. It's not that I don't like English tailoring, it's that it's not something that belongs to me like Neapolitan tailoring does.
DR: Our style is that of the Neapolitan sartoria. Certainly there's a wide range within the Neapolitan sartoria, with many variants inside that range. Maybe there's an idea of Neapolitan style of trousers as short and skin tight, but that's not true. It's an exaggeration produced by brands that want to get attention.
MA: Bespoke is different from RTW. Making a flat front, straight leg, short trouser is simpler, for RTW. Already when you start adding pleats or a wider leg, it's more difficult to produce RTW. But in bespoke, there's no problem. As long as the Neapolitan methods of production remain, the cut, the type of stitching, etc.., then many stylistic details can be changed.
SF: What do you hope that clients feel when they visit the new location?
DR: My thought is that, for those that have known us, they will come here and see that we are growing while maintaining the same style and aesthetic.
MA: Above all, I hope that they feel at home. Our place is not the classic “high fashion boutique” or stuffy sartoria, even though what we make is of very high quality. But I want to move away from an environment where the clients are afraid to ask something, which I don't like. Because I don't like to enter a place and feel like somebody is peering down at me – I'd rather feel comfortable.
I always say that I think of Napolisumisura a little bit as my child. My father always said, and it's true, that parents grow with their children. In the sense that you grow up with the baby, its first emotions and experiences, and all the things you need to do to take care of it. For us, there are two parts of Napolisumisura: we who produce the clothes and the clients who order them. It's a constant education for me, meeting new clients and hearing their ideas, and suggesting things I hadn't considered. For instance the pocket that we added inside our jackets this year started out as a request from a client.
Napolisumisura is a collaboration between all of us, Dino and I, the tailors, the clients, even including, perhaps too poetically, but indulge me, the city of Naples itself. It brings me great happiness to be able to export a new idea of what Naples can be, that's different from the caricatures in films. For me, that's even better than selling even a thousand jackets.
Books of cloth ready for inspection.
The main room of the new location. In this area will likely be ties, scarves, and other accessories for sale. The lit room in the back is where the tailors will be. Some of the tailors will be located here, while the rest will continue to work in the workshop outside of Naples.
The door leading out to the balcony.
