The Ethnics of Antonio Ciongoli

Terra cotta basket weave cardigan - $595 Pine/white with navy deco gingham spread collar shirt - $225 Pine/terra cotta medallion printed open weave silk tie - $150

Inspiration for our Duomo scarves and ties

Brick "Duomo" wool challis scarf - $175

Terra cotta/pine/stone gun check sportcoat - $995

Various ties in the pine/terra cotta stone story, including prints inspired by Medici family shield and Ghiberti's bronze panels for bapistry doors - all $150

Pine donegal "Medici" rolleck sweater inspired by the diamond windowgrates of Michelangelo's Capella Medici in San Lozenzo - $595

Terra cotta casentino wool maremanna jacket - $995

Terra cotta Italian chamois work shirt popover - $250

White/terra cotta/pine bold tattersall twill spread collar shirt - $225

Navy/white/lavender japanese flannel spread collar shirt - $225 & Gray knit toggle vest with suede trim - $595

White/charcoal stripe Japanese cotton tab collar shirt - $225 Fatigue green knit toggle vest with suede trim - $595 & Fatigue green/charcoal shepherd's check belted peacoat - $995

Cashmere blend crewneck with wool "guild shield" embroidery - $650  - The shields  represent the Florentine tailors and shoe makers guild as well as the Medici family coat of arms

Shearling asymmetrical peacoat - $2995 & Brick "Duomo" wool challis scarf - $175

"...he might hear a young grandson being greeted

at the Cosenza train station by packs of jubilant relatives

who would make the boy feel like a McArthur returned, or 

a kind of Latin Lindbergh in a ticker tape parade -

except instead of confetti, the boy would be showered

with wet kisses from endless uncles, aunts, and cousins who

could not understand a word of English.

With an 8mm movie camera, the boy would begin to 

click off scenes of these relatives…Perhaps these films

would later be shown in a kitchen back in Brooklyn

where a bedsheet, serving as a projection screen,

would be tacked up to the flowered wallpaper.

And when the lights would go on in this 

Brooklyn kitchen, tears would be seen in the eyes 

of some older folks." 

The Ethnics of Frank Costello by Gay Talese

Esquire Magazine, Sep. 1961

A few years ago Antonio Ciongoli introduced me to Gay Talese.  A meeting was set up at Gay's home and we talked for a couple hours.  I brought up the excerpt from the Costello cover story in Esquire and while  Talese remembered the story he couldn't remember his unusual but beautiful meandering off subject and loaded with remembrance and nostalgia.  I told Talese how much it moved me and he smiled, his eyes narrowing into slits, and said with some surprise that he should probably revisit the story if only to see it if it was worth republishing.

New York Fashion Week is a cold slog through mostly forgettable designers who are all trying too hard.  Throw in the pushing and shoving by remarkably nasty attendees and it's a scene light years from what I envisioned when I attended my first show in what would be Bryant Park's last.

I've cut back on shows and a lot of shows have cut back on me.  Probably as it should be since I'm not a fashion guy.  But like Talese, I love storia and especially the kind that connects to something completely foreign and unknown.  Only in this way is it possible to continue to misspell people's names.

Antonio Ciongoli of Isaia's Eidos showed me his new line for Fall / Winter 2014.  The show room is still in the understated quiet of Elizabeth Taylor's townhouse on West 56th.  If you're quiet,  you can almost hear the walls talk as Anthony Perkins gets drunk and Richard Burton orgasms.  Antonio has had a lot to do with educating me in Italian apparel.  But I still think, as a whole, the Italians are too studied.

If American sportswear is about being relaxed and casual, then the Italians have taken that and extruded it through endless and needless details: scarves in July, wrist dental floss, double monks and now triple.  Pitti is all you need consider to get my point.  I like the billowing sail of an oxford button down over a man's alligator belt -- Antonio prefers a more fitted silhouette…over an alligator belt.   Seems there's always something to agree on.

I'm not writing for anyone but me so what you see here is what I like.  I love green and don't think anyone uses it enough.  It's everywhere in this collection along with my appreciation for the even rarer color I call, 'dried blood' or what Antonio calls, 'terra cotta." If you cut yourself shaving a lot then this is a no brainer for you.  Even the chamois pop over comes from another place but the roots are so American.  What you do with Eidos is your business…tang it up all you like --  Or, just leave it alone and let it speak for itself.

Update: Following are retailers for Eidos Napoli.  

For spring, it will be available online via Carson street clothiers, CHCM, The Armoury, Haberdash (Chicago) and Lawrence Covell (Denver). All of these stores will also carry in store as well as Charles Speigel (Pittsburgh), Boyd's(Philadelphia), Pockets (Dallas), Sy Devore (LA area), Carriere (LA Area), Steven Giles (Oklahoma city) Scoop (East Hampton and Brentwood), Syd Jerome (Chicago), Mr. Sid (Boston area), J3 (Cleveland area), AK Rikks (Grand Rapids), Butch Blum (Seattle), Shaia's (Homewood, AL), Oak Hall (Memphis) and Got Style (Toronto).

The Art of a Tie: Passagio Cravatte

I've always wanted the best.  Problem is, there's so damned little of it.  Gianni Cerrutti and I started a conversation back in early August.

My name is Gianni, Italian, and I am the founder of Passaggio Cravatte. This  I will write because I have a very important dream. And you can make it come true.

His English isn't the best and my Italian doesn't exist but like buying cheese in Paris -- some pointing to this or that, a key word  like Epoisses, and you're good to go.  I was offered a tie and asked to pick a few from a library of vintage silk, cotton and cashmere.  From a handful of my choices, Gianni would pick one but it would be a surprise until it showed on my door step.

We are unique in Europe and not only to have only true vintage fabrics. In fact, our fabrics have all aged between 40 and 60 years of life on his shoulders. They are still hand-printed and they are all limited edition. This is because after 2 ties the fabric ends.Beyond that evoke British regimental archives of 1930.

I can't imagine a better life than being a custom tie maker in Italy.  Hands down, it soars above George Costanza's choice of architect. Roaming around Lake Commo for bits and pieces here and there. A softly lit workroom with sunlight peering in through 200 year old glass windows over looking a cobble stone street. The quiet cutting of silk and the silence of seven folds and noiseless sewing...As the little boy admiring a library book of Gaugain's Tahiti says in "Goodbye Columbus, "Ain't that the fucking life."

We are the only ones making the old 7 folds in a single piece of silk. This is when all ties to the world are the union of 3 pieces of fabric. This is the Rolls of all ties to the world. Our 7 folds old is not to be confused with the modern one. In fact, ours is the original model that was born in the early 1900s. We do it like then. All without any internal and hemmed by hand. In addition we are always the only ones making the ties - always very exclusive - in just 2 pieces of fabric.

I wish I sold  good feelings but I sell insurance.  No sadness without joy - No joy without sadness.  Selling insurance is lot like selling tires  --  It's more a solution to a problem and people want to pay as little as they have to.  It's hard to show off your insurance company -- Unless you have Chubb -- But I digress...

Our tailors are in Naples and only work for us still in their homes. As more than a century ago. Us we finish, and we stretch the check because they must not have defects. The ironing is very important for us, in fact I do it directly. Even the label are strict with ourselves. Then, having many foreign customers we are also able to provide tailor-made vintage ties without disturbing the customer from their office or from home.

Gianna's tie arrives and it's this powerful combination of green, blue, and an orange red that matches a freshly painted guest bedroom.  The tie is a self tipped feather. So much so, that when I make the first loop, I almost expect it to fly away.  Instead of fat heavy silk stuffed with a lining -- this is a silk air mail envelope. Everywhere are hands: Rolled edges, tipping, the keeper...all of it a kind of imperfect perfection.  

Gianni sends another tie along as a surprise.  A simple four fold rep but in cashmere that has softened with time.  I've had a few cashmere ties but nothing this...It's so utterly soft that I decide I must line a closet in cedar just to protect it from the moths.

I'm probably going overboard but I almost always do when I find something that I know is in rare supply. These ties are little pieces of art and as art goes -- They're fairly reasonable at 80 to 120 Euros. Ever since my first non clip-on tie that was issued in the Army, I must have purchased well over 500.  I mean that.  And it's embarrassing to admit, but it has been 36 years.  Frankly, unless you're really clothes mad, you might be a little let down by Gianni's ties.

They are of an aesthetic that you must really appreciate.  You could buy a bunch of J. Crew ties for just one of Gianni's seven folds but everyday I listen to opera I don't understand,  I look at paintings I know nothing about, I drink wine and have no idea what it is -- But I'm  moved by it all and that makes me want to know more. When you get there...you'll know it.

Hello Dear,

Now I can tip the balance.

I think your tie is ready Mondays.

To what address shall I send?

Let me know and thank you for everything,

I can not wait to send it.

Gianni

Gianni Cerutti
Passagio Cravatte 

Bel-Canto

Bel-Canto


Use of a light tone in the higher registers

Agile technique capable of dispatching ornate embellishments

Ability to execute fast & accurate divisions

A pleasing, well-focused timbre

A clean attack

Graceful phrasing rooted in a complete mastery of control

Ciao, Tony!

Back in high school, the last of four, DB and I bonded over James Bond, Kodachrome, mail order camera stores and Italian movies.  Our friendship has survived cultural differences and distances not to mention a fit of jealousy on the occasion he photographed my girlfriend topless in his parent's pool. 30 years later I'll admit my jealousy was more about his talent --He took better pictures of my girlfriend than I ever could.

Instead of 'awesome,' DB and I used, "Ciao, Tony!" to express anything we thought was cool. This was from a long forgotten Italian heist movie where, for the duration of the film, beautiful Italian women shout, "Ciao, Tony" to the hero. I still use it but mostly keep it to myself nowadays -- It's too hard to explain.

DB's good about sending me clips from obscure foreign films.  I posted about Mina and Trad Italian way back in 2008 - Before some of you were born.  She's not singing in DB's clip but I love everything about it. The car, the hotel, the clothing...I've always thought God was Italian.  I don't think he's at the Vatican.  I believe he's hanging out in a hotel somewhere on the Amalfi Coast in a white linen suit and drinking a chilled Umbrian white while nibbling at a bruschetta. I believe if that sportscar in the clip pulled up, God might say, "Ciao, Tony!"

Inspirational Conformity

Il Conformista Trailer