Ciardi Napoli

Sartoria Ciardi was opened in Naples in 1954 by Renato Ciardi. His own father had been a well-known barber in the city, but as a left-handed man Renato was steered away from that trade in 1930s Naples and instead apprenticed for eight years under Luigi Blasi, a prominent Neapolitan tailor of the period, before setting up on his own. Renato's sons, Enzo and Roberto, joined the workshop in their late teens and have run the atelier together since. Sartoria Ciardi's suits follow the broad conventions of Neapolitan tailoring but are noted by specialist menswear writers for a distinctive technique of cutting the chest canvas on the bias - giving it more stretch and comfort than the straight-grain cut many other Neapolitan houses use. The house is well documented in bespoke-tailoring press, including a full commissioned-suit review by menswear writer Simon Crompton's Permanent Style.