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470 entries across tailoring, shoemaking, cloth and craft Reference publication: we sell nothing and rank nobody for payment Every figure carries its source and the date it was checked

City · Italy

Naples

Napoli

Naples is today's most influential tailoring city, known for soft, light jackets with little padding, high armholes and gathered sleeves, made for hot weather.

Naples is the most influential tailoring city in the world right now. Its workshops make a soft, light jacket with little or no padding, a high armhole and a sleeve gathered at the shoulder, built for a hot climate and copied everywhere. Most of the houses are small, family-run, and within walking distance of one another in the centre of the city.

Via Chiaia, Naples, seen through an iron grille
Napoli, Via Chiaia.
Bespoke tailors8
Shoemakers1
Shirtmakers3
Visiting houses0 travel here for fittings

Why Naples

For most of the twentieth century Naples was a provincial tailoring city with a strong local trade and no international profile. That changed within about twenty-five years, and the reason is climate plus timing: as business dress relaxed everywhere, the world discovered it wanted the jacket Naples had already been making for sixty years: light, soft, wearable without a tie, and forgiving of a body in motion.

The technical origin is usually traced to the London House of Gennaro Rubinacci, founded in 1932, and to Vincenzo Attolini, the cutter who worked there and is generally credited with stripping the English coat of its canvas and padding. Whether one man did it is arguable (the trade was moving that way), but the Rubinacci workshop is where the modern Neapolitan jacket is first clearly documented.

What the jacket actually does

The Neapolitan coat solves a specific problem: how to make a jacket that holds its shape without stiffness. The answers are a very light chest canvas or none at all, an unpadded shoulder, and a high, small armhole, which sounds restrictive and is the opposite, because a small armhole lets the arm move without dragging the body of the coat with it.

The visible signatures follow from that. The spalla camicia, shirt shoulder, is a sleeve set into the body with a little extra cloth gathered at the head, producing the small ripples you see across a Neapolitan shoulder. The barchetta breast pocket curves like a small boat. The patch pockets are set on rather than cut in. Quarters are open, the lapel often has a slight belly, and the whole coat is shorter than an English equivalent.

Where the workshops are

There is no Savile Row in Naples, no single street, but there is a rough geography. The Chiaia district, around Via Filangieri, Via dei Mille and Via Calabritto, holds the best-known shops including Rubinacci and several of the shirtmakers. Others work from apartments and first-floor workrooms scattered through the centre and out towards Vomero, often with no sign at all. This matters practically. A great deal of Neapolitan tailoring is invisible from the street, several of the most respected workshops take clients only by appointment, and the shop with the grandest window is not reliably the one with the best cutter.

Commissioning here

A first commission normally means a measure, a basted fitting and one or two forward fittings, typically over eight to sixteen weeks depending on the house and how much of the work is done in-house. Naples prices sit below London and Paris for comparable handwork, one of the reasons the city's international clientele grew as quickly as it did.

Two practical cautions. First, many Neapolitan houses subcontract to outworkers who make in their own homes; this is traditional and not a defect, but it means the quality of a garment depends on which maker it went to, and consistency varies. Second, August is not a working month. Much of the trade closes.

Worth seeing

  • The Chiaia streets themselves, which hold shirtmakers, glovemakers and tie makers alongside the tailors.
  • Museo di Capodimonte, for the portraiture that documents how Neapolitan men dressed before the trade existed.
  • The glove trade: Naples has made gloves for centuries and a handful of workshops still cut and sew by hand.

Images

The courtyard of Palazzo Filangieri d'Arianello, Naples
Il palzzo si trova a Napoli in via Atri.
A palazzo on the Riviera di Chiaia, Naples
Palazzo alla Riviera di Chiaia (Napoli)
The Riviera di Chiaia, Naples, in a painting by Anton Sminck Pitloo
Napoli: la Riviera di Chiaia
The glass roof of the Galleria Umberto I, Naples, from above
Neapel 2012
A street in Naples, the city where the soft tailored jacket was developed
Napoli; Via Chiaia
A street in Naples, the city where the soft tailored jacket was developed
"Napoli - Via Chiaia". Cartolina. Autore sconosciuto.
A street in Naples, the city where the soft tailored jacket was developed
Napoli, via Chiaia. Sullo sfondo l'ingresso al Palazzo Cellammare. Autore sconosciuto.
The Riviera di Chiaia, Naples, in an early photograph
Napoli - Riviera di Chiaia e Villa Comunale. Cartolina colorata. Autore sconosciuto.
Piazza Torretta and the Riviera di Chiaia, Naples, on an early postcard
"Napoli - Piazza Torretta e Riviera di Chiaia" a Mergellina. Cartolina. Catalogo n° 406. Autore sconosciuto.
The Riviera di Chiaia, Naples, on an early postcard
"Napoli - Riviera di Chiaia". Cartolina. Autore sconosciuto.
The Riviera di Chiaia and Castel Sant'Elmo, Naples, on an early postcard
"Napoli - Riviera di Chiaia e Castel Sant'Elmo". Cartolina. Autore sconosciuto.

Bespoke tailors in Naples

All bespoke tailors →
An illustration of the house's recorded cut: natural shoulder, light canvas chest, soft, short, open quarters. Not a photograph of the house's own work. 01

Rubinacci

Rubinacci is the oldest and best-known tailoring house in Naples, founded in 1932, where the soft Neapolitan jacket without heavy padding was first created.

 An illustration of the house's recorded cut: shirt shoulder, light canvas chest, soft neapolitan, high armhole. Not a photograph of the house's own work. 02

Cesare Attolini

Cesare Attolini is a Neapolitan clothing house run by descendants of the creator of the soft Neapolitan jacket, and it produces in volume while keeping much of the work done by…

 An illustration of the house's recorded cut: natural shoulder, light canvas chest, soft neapolitan, restrained. Not a photograph of the house's own work. 03

Sartoria Dalcuore

Sartoria Dalcuore is a small Naples tailor known for soft, well-proportioned jackets and fine handwork, and other tailors rate it more highly than its modest fame suggests.

 An illustration of the house's recorded cut: shirt shoulder, light canvas chest, soft neapolitan. Not a photograph of the house's own work. 04

Orazio Luciano

Orazio Luciano is a Neapolitan family workshop making soft, hand-finished jackets and suits, and most people discover it through shops in Japan and the United States.

 An illustration of the house's recorded cut: natural shoulder, light canvas chest, traditional neapolitan. Not a photograph of the house's own work. 05

Sartoria Solito

Sartoria Solito is a small family tailor in Naples making very traditional jackets by appointment, and it is admired by fellow tailors and experienced customers.

 An illustration of the house's recorded cut: natural shoulder, light canvas chest, classical neapolitan. Not a photograph of the house's own work. 06

Sartoria Panico

Sartoria Panico is a small Naples tailoring workshop run by Antonio Panico, who trained at Rubinacci and cuts a classic jacket that many local tailors treat as the benchmark.
  1. An illustration of the house's recorded cut: natural shoulder, light canvas chest, soft neapolitan. Not a photograph of the house's own work. Sartoria Formosa Naples

    Sartoria Formosa is a Naples tailor whose soft, lightly built ready-to-wear jackets became familiar to many American shoppers, and it also makes clothes to order.
  2. An illustration of the house's recorded cut: shirt shoulder, light canvas chest, soft neapolitan. Not a photograph of the house's own work. Sartoria Ciardi Naples

    Sartoria Ciardi is a second-generation family tailor in Naples making soft jackets, and it takes many of its orders at traveling fittings held abroad.

Shoemakers in Naples

All shoemakers →
  1. An illustration of a welted shoe of the kind the house makes. Not a photograph of the house's own work. Paolo Scafora Naples

    Paolo Scafora is a family shoemaker near Naples, known for hand-applied colour, lighter shoes suited to the Neapolitan climate, and distinctly Italian proportions.

Shirtmakers in Naples

All shirtmakers →
An illustration of a shirt of the kind the house makes. Not a photograph of the house's own work. 01

Anna Matuozzo

Anna Matuozzo is a Naples shirtmaker, now run by the founder's daughters, whose custom shirts have unusually much hand sewing, including collars, sleeves and buttonholes.

 An illustration of a shirt of the kind the house makes. Not a photograph of the house's own work. 02

D'Avino

D'Avino is a shirtmaker near Naples making small numbers of custom shirts, known above all for how many steps are sewn by hand.

 An illustration of a shirt of the kind the house makes. Not a photograph of the house's own work. 03

Luca Avitabile

Luca Avitabile is a Naples shirtmaker who cuts each customer their own pattern and sews nearly everything by hand, mostly meeting clients in London and New York.

Cloth makers and merchants in Naples

All cloth makers & merchants →
  1. Caccioppoli Naples

    Caccioppoli is a Naples cloth merchant whose light, soft fabrics are standard in Neapolitan tailoring workshops and have spread abroad along with that style.

Brands based here in Naples

All brands →
  1. Kiton's shop in Toronto Kiton Naples · 1968

    Ciro Paone's answer to the question of whether Neapolitan handwork could be industrialised without being ruined.
  2. Isaia Naples · 1957

    Isaia is a Naples tailoring brand making soft, light jackets in bolder cloths and stronger colours than its neighbours, with a red coral lapel pin as its signature.

The local idiom

Tailoring style

Neapolitan tailoring

Neapolitan jackets are as light and soft as possible, with little shoulder padding, gathered sleeves and a high armhole, and are the world's most copied style.

Practical notes

Tradition
Neapolitan: soft, light, high armhole
Principal districts
Chiaia (Via Filangieri, Via dei Mille, Via Calabritto); workshops throughout the centre
Typical fittings
2–3 for a first commission
Also known for
Shirtmaking, gloves, ties, coral and cameo work
Trade closure
Most workshops close for much of August

Elsewhere in Italy

City

Milan

Where Italian tailoring puts its jacket back on: cleaner, sharper and considerably more businesslike.

 City

Florence

Florentine tailors make soft, rounded jackets with wide lapels, and the city also hosts Pitti Uomo, the menswear trade's twice-yearly gathering.

 City

Rome

Roman tailors cut lightly built jackets that sit close to the body, landing between soft Neapolitan and more structured Milanese styles.

 City

Biella

Biella is where much of the world's fine suit cloth is spun and woven, by mills like Loro Piana and Vitale Barberis Canonico.
Last reviewed: September 2026 Report an error on this page

Sources

  1. Costume and portrait collections, Naples , Museo di Capodimonte.

Where a figure is disputed or a house has not published it, the page says so rather than choosing a number.

Related

GuideBespoke tailoring in Naples: the houses and how to choose HistoryHow Naples took the weight out of the jacket Tailoring styleNeapolitan tailoring CountryItaly CraftsmanVincenzo Attolini CraftsmanAntonio Panico CraftsmanCiro Paone CraftsmanGennaro Rubinacci AccessoryGloves GuideHow much does a bespoke suit cost? TechniqueSpalla camicia (the shirt shoulder) Glossary termBarchetta pocket
Picture credits 25
  1. Napoli, Via Chiaia: Photograph · Palickap · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
  2. Palazzo Filangieri d'Arianello. 0023: Photograph · Peppe Guida · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
  3. Palazzo alla Riviera di Chiaia (1): Photograph · Baku · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
  4. Napoli: la Riviera di Chiaia: Photograph · Antonie Sminck Pitloo · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
  5. Napoli -Vetrata della Galleria Umberto I - 2012 by-RaBoe 01: Photograph · © Ra Boe / Wikipedia · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 de
  6. 02032-Napoli-1901-Via Chiaia-Brück & Sohn Kunstverlag: Photograph · Brück & Sohn Kunstverlag Meißen · Wikimedia Commons · CC0
  7. Napoli, Via Chiaia 7: Postcard · Unknown author · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
  8. Napoli, Via Chiaia 5: Photograph · Unknown author · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
  9. Napoli, Riviera di Chiaia 3: Postcard · Unknown author Unknown author · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
  10. Napoli, Riviera di Chiaia 4: Postcard · Unknown author Unknown author · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
  11. Napoli, Riviera di Chiaia 5: Postcard · Unknown author Unknown author · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
  12. Napoli, Riviera di Chiaia 7: Postcard · Unknown author Unknown author · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
  13. An illustration of the house's recorded cut: natural shoulder, light canvas chest, soft, short, open quarters. Not a photograph of the house's own work.: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
  14. An illustration of the house's recorded cut: shirt shoulder, light canvas chest, soft neapolitan, high armhole. Not a photograph of the house's own work.: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
  15. An illustration of the house's recorded cut: natural shoulder, light canvas chest, soft neapolitan, restrained. Not a photograph of the house's own work.: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
  16. An illustration of the house's recorded cut: shirt shoulder, light canvas chest, soft neapolitan. Not a photograph of the house's own work.: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
  17. An illustration of the house's recorded cut: natural shoulder, light canvas chest, traditional neapolitan. Not a photograph of the house's own work.: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
  18. An illustration of the house's recorded cut: natural shoulder, light canvas chest, classical neapolitan. Not a photograph of the house's own work.: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
  19. An illustration of the house's recorded cut: natural shoulder, light canvas chest, soft neapolitan. Not a photograph of the house's own work.: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
  20. An illustration of the house's recorded cut: shirt shoulder, light canvas chest, soft neapolitan. Not a photograph of the house's own work.: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
  21. An illustration of a welted shoe of the kind the house makes. Not a photograph of the house's own work.: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
  22. An illustration of a shirt of the kind the house makes. Not a photograph of the house's own work.: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
  23. An illustration of a shirt of the kind the house makes. Not a photograph of the house's own work.: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
  24. An illustration of a shirt of the kind the house makes. Not a photograph of the house's own work.: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
  25. IMG Kiton Toronto: Photograph · Shanmeichen · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0

Image policy