Made to Measure with Stile Latino: What Actually Happens

Stile Latino’s heritage and impact on styling

Stile Latino is the Neapolitan house founded in 2005 by Vincenzo Attolini Junior, grandson of the Vincenzo Attolini who, in the 1930s, invented the modern unstructured jacket. That jacket is what the world now calls the ‘Neapolitan jacket’: shoulder padding stripped out, canvas reduced, lining minimised, the silhouette cut closer to the body so it moves without structure holding it in place. It is the foundation of an entire school of Italian tailoring, and the man behind Stile Latino is the third generation to carry that invention forward.

Vincenzo Junior trained inside the family business, first at his father Cesare's workshop, then for years at Cesare Attolini, before founding Stile Latino with the argument that the Neapolitan jacket had, in some hands, gone too far. Strip out all structure, and you do not get a soft jacket. You get a shapeless one.

His position: the original innovation was the intelligent reduction of structure. A linen chest canvas where it’s needed to flatter the silhouette. A whisper of shoulder shape on a more formal jacket. The fundamentals left in. The excess taken out.

What made-to-measure means here

Stile Latino is, at its foundation, a ready-to-wear house. The jackets, suits, and overcoats produced in their Naples atelier are made by the same hands, to the same standards, that built the family's reputation across three generations. What the made-to-measure service offers is the chance to commission those same garments to specific measurements, in fabrics chosen from the full Stile Latino library, with details adjusted to the customer's taste.

What separates Stile Latino's service from most made-to-measure is the make. Their RTW already involves a substantial amount of handwork. The made-to-measure version is constructed in the same Naples atelier, by the same tailors, with the same canvas, the same hand-finished details, and the same Neapolitan tradition the family has spent ninety years preserving.

"This is not the same conversation he has when he buys a ready-to-wear jacket. This is a different relationship with his clothes."

The fitting itself

A first appointment at our store on Curzon Street takes around an hour. The team walks the customer through the fabric library, Stile Latino's in-house cloths, inspired by major Italian and English mills, and the cuts available. The closest base sample to the customer's size is tried. Measurements are taken: chest, shoulder, sleeve length, jacket length, neck, waist, hip, trouser inseam and outseam. Posture is noted. Asymmetries are noted, most men have one shoulder slightly lower than the other; most jackets pretend they do not.

Then come the choices. Number of buttons. Lapel width. Pocket configuration, patch, jetted, flap, ticket pocket. Vent style. Lining, full, half, or none for summer pieces. Buttonhole detail. Trouser style if the customer is commissioning a suit. The conversation is unhurried, because most men have not been asked these questions before, and the answers tell the team as much about the customer as the measurements do.

What happens in Naples

The order goes to the Stile Latino atelier in Naples, where the pattern is adjusted to the measurements and the garment is cut. From there, it follows the same construction sequence as a Stile Latino RTW jacket: chest canvas hand-tacked, ‘spalla camicia’ shoulder shirred by hand (the sleeve is cut about ten centimetres larger than the armhole, and the excess is taken in by hand to create the characteristic soft join), ‘barchetta’ breast pocket attached, side pockets applied, lapels rolled and pressed, lining sewn in if requested.

When the garment arrives at our store, the customer returns for a final fitting. Most pieces arrive needing nothing. If small alterations are required, a sleeve length tweak, a waist take-in, they happen in-house. The garment leaves with the customer.

When made-to-measure is the right answer

Made-to-measure is worth understanding for three kinds of customer.

The first is the man who has never quite fitted ready-to-wear off the rail. Long arms, a broad chest, an unusual drop between chest and waist, the kind of build for which RTW is always a compromise. Made-to-measure removes the compromise without the time, cost or formality of bespoke.

The second is the man building toward a particular wardrobe, a wedding jacket, a navy suit he plans to wear for a decade, a country tweed cut precisely to his shoulders. The garment becomes the thing it is meant to be from the start, rather than a near-miss adjusted in alteration.

The third is the man who has reached the point in a wardrobe where the small differences begin to matter more than the obvious ones. The lapel that sits exactly where his collar wants to break. The trouser that falls cleanly without bunching at the laces. The jacket length that sits at his correct waist rather than the industry average. These are not vanities. They are the small marks of a wardrobe that has been properly considered.

How to book

Made-to-measure appointments at 48 Curzon Street are by arrangement.

Book an appointment online or visit us at 48 Curzon Street.