A Milanese sartoria hailing from Napoli. Father and son are tailors. Upon graduation, Gianfrancesco Musella-Dembech, Francesco’s son, who started working in the workshop when he was 11, decides to follow again his father’s footsteps equipped with needle, thread and willing to improve. I am talking about Sartoria Musella-Dembech, Via Celestino IV, near Piazza Vetra, Milan. The location? The same apartment where they live, with a room used as a laboratory and the Italian moka welcoming customers while they choose the fabrics. Master Francesco Musella has worked for years for the renowned Master Donnini, business partner of Agostino Caraceni. “I have sewn lots of suits for l'Avvocato” – he explains while showing me a photo of when he was fifteen. Wearing a jacket and a tie, as usual at those times – “Look at my manica a camicia, I used to wear only Neapolitan suits”.
What surprises most in this sartoria is the remarkable attention to details, so it is hard to say whether their product is more Milanese or Neapolitan. The jacket, as usual in Milan, has a low collar and the front pleat doesn’t reach the bottom – “the long pleat is useful only if the tailor cuts the fabric wrong and the customer is big-bellied; letting the fabric out, the jacket can be closed properly”. They prefer the double-breasted jacket without vents and pockets without flaps. On the patch pocket, the double-stitching is made only on the upper part, the armhole is “open”, there is no shoulder padding on the unlined jacket and side vents are as high as the pockets, but the latters are stitched quite high. As for cotton jackets, the neck is made up of two parts, so it can fit the customer’s neck perfectly, since the cotton is harder to handle (but personally I don’t like the effect): allegedly, this feature was typical of Donnini’s jackets. The trouser maker is external, but works only for them. Musella-Dembech trousers are rigorously unlined, rear pockets are curved, not straight and the center-back is closed first by machine and then stitched by hand. Moreover, they usually sew two small ribbons on the rear waist, like two antennas with buttons at the top, in order to use suspenders in a different way.
Bespoke Hugs,
Fabio
