Recently a new laical tailoring house has come to light in the crowded industry of the Neapolitan bespoke. In the elegant Piazza Dei Martiri the team is made up of a creative director who works along with a young tailor and two apprentices. It’s an unusual bond for Napoli, a city that is not accustomed to this kind of British divisions. The encountering with the art of bespoke tailoring has been completely random for Enzo Carfora, the 27-year-old craftsman, who met Maestro Pirozzi in Napoli just because a customer was his friend. The guy felt a passion for the industry, albeit collected rejections every time he asked for an internship, even if it was for free. One day the stubbornness was rewarded: “The very first day I was asked to stitch a lapel, yet I didn’t even know what a lapel was” – now he admits, while grinning. After one year and a half he left, “Since I was talented, I was considered a danger by the workshop” – he adds with a pinch of understandable pride. After that, many changes happen yet the skills are sharpened, the guys is like a sponge grasping secrets and techniques from the older tailors which he worked with. Alone he built his cutting table, in Bologna he learnt to make jackets without longer darts on the front, unstitched Venetian jackets to understand the construction of ‘no dart’ on the front. In other words, he silently honed his art, while learning from the others.
Carfora’s style is epitomized by very light jackets with not so wide shoulders. The structure is completely absent, since there is no canvas, except for a light layer of cotton. His concave natural shoulder is the result of a laborious and careful work with an heavy iron. The collar is very close fitting, yet the shoulder width is reasonable also in case of rollino; moreover the back of the jacket is mounted above the front, without open stitchings. Enzo proudly tells me his creations are completely hand-made, also those parts deemed useless by many: from the inner parts of the jacket to the darts, from the centre-back to the shoulder stitching with the so-called dietropunto, the same stitching of the centre-back of bespoke trousers. The side vents are cut 1 cm higher than the pockets, which are stitched at 4,5 cm distance from the bottom. Enzo doesn’t do any dart underneath the lapel for customers with wide chest, preferring the harder work of the iron.
Carisma srl is the name of the company behind the tailoring house, co-founded by Enzo and Mr Stefano Antonio Masci, entrepreneur from Lazio, bespoke enthusiast and connoisseur of male elegance. Carisma not only is a word game (a mix of the founders’ names) since it also refers to the Italian word ‘carisma’, meaning a fundamental gift of the elegant man. “At the beginning I had some jackets made by Enzo” – says Mr Masci – “and it didn’t take me too long to realize that I had to bet on that guy”. Allegedly the mix of talent and good taste of the 27-year-old artisan persuaded him. Mr Masci, 53, wears very tight shirt cuffs, the ‘Onassis’ tie knot and gets inspiration form his father, dressing-wise. “He was a man of pure elegance and sprezzatura”, he says. On his desk I spot publications about men’s style, like “The philosophy of the suit” or “The last dandy” and not by chance he emphasizes the ontological importance of the suit, meant as a ruthless mirror of the wearer’s personality: “a truly elegant man wears the appearance of his being” he adds. His motto is the Latin ‘festina lente’, meaning ‘slowly hurry up’; and this well-pondered hurry is the same that brought him to this venture with a young talent.
Below some shots taken during the interview and the second fitting.
Bespoke hugs,
Fabio
