Cloth maker · Merchant
Caccioppoli
Caccioppoli is a Naples cloth merchant whose light, soft fabrics are standard in Neapolitan tailoring workshops and have spread abroad along with that style.
Caccioppoli is a Naples-based cloth merchant, closely associated with the Neapolitan tailoring trade and with the light, soft cloths that suit it. Its bunches are a fixture in Naples workshops and have spread internationally with the style.
Local supply chain
Every tailoring centre has merchants that grew alongside it, and Caccioppoli is Naples's. The range leans towards what Neapolitan tailors want (lighter weights, softer finishes, summer blends of wool, silk and linen), which is a different set of choices from an English merchant's book. Its international spread over the last two decades has followed the spread of Neapolitan tailoring itself.
Reach
As Neapolitan tailoring spread internationally over the last two decades, so did its supply chain: Caccioppoli bunches now turn up in workshops in Seoul, Tokyo and New York.
The house is a merchant rather than a mill (it selects and brands cloth rather than weaving it) and the distinction is worth keeping in mind when a bunch is described as 'Neapolitan cloth'.
What Neapolitan tailors want from a bunch
Lighter weights than an English book carries, softer finishes, and a much larger proportion of summer cloth: wool-silk-linen blends, open weaves, and cottons. A Neapolitan jacket is a warm-weather garment and the local merchant's range reflects that.
The colour palette differs too: browns, greens and blues in combinations that an English merchant would consider adventurous and a Neapolitan tailor considers ordinary.
The books the Neapolitans actually use
Caccioppoli is a Neapolitan merchant, and the significance is that it is the house whose books sit in Neapolitan tailors' workrooms rather than the ones marketed internationally. Its selections are cut for the way that city tailors: light, soft, and chosen to work with minimal canvas.
Cloth and construction are not independent choices. A cloth selected for an English coat can fail in a Neapolitan one, and the merchant a house uses is a real clue to what it makes.
At a glance
Who works with it
Houses and mills on this site with a documented connection to Caccioppoli.
Picture credits 1
- 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