This Neapolitan tweed jacket – made recently for me by Elia Caliendo – is perhaps the perfect update of an English classic. 

Tweed is a wonderful material – tough, soft and highly wind- and water-resistant. It makes a great jacket for the modern man to wear with grey flannels at work or jeans at the weekend. But traditional versions are often too structured, or in patterns associated with a previous generation. 

 

The Neapolitan version – with a light canvas, soft shoulder and curved patch pockets – takes all the stuffiness out of a tweed jacket. This vintage material, meanwhile, eschews big checks in favour of subtle but beautiful intermingling of colours. It appears brown at any distance, but bursts with orange, yellow and bright blue on closer inspection. The fact that the blue doesn’t come out in these images shows how changeable it is with the light.

Above you can see Elia’s lovely patch, outbreast pocket. The curved shape is, for me, more casual than English equivalents and the swelled edge serves to highlight it more than on a lighter material
 

 

The buttons are dark-brown horn, with polished edges but matte centres. The Italians usually use polished horn or corozo buttons and, while I normally favour matte horn (as used by English tailors), this seems like a nice way to have a bit of both.

The jacket is self-lined at the front, which makes the most of the lovely tweed, and has a panel of tan lining (the same colour as the piping here) across the top of the back. The only disadvantage of having such a hairy cloth unlined is that it can be uncomfortable with the thinnest of shirts.

 

As mentioned on the Vergallo top coat post, the jacket was cut to fasten across the lapels. This makes it much more functional, and great when being used as the sole outer layer. The three main buttons were also placed a touch higher, in order to minimise the button-less area across the chest.

It is worn with a Permanent Style Dartmoor sweater and Drake’s pocket handkerchief. In retrospect the sleeves of the Dartmoor should have been rolled a little longer to allow a little ‘cuff’ at the end of the sleeve. The ability to do so is one advantage of Smedley’s Dartmoor and Dorset designs.

The jacket cost €2800 from Elia. He visits London every 6-8 weeks and you can see more of his work here

 

Photographs: Jack Lawson

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Sigurd

Very nice indeed. Who made the cloth?

Anand

Hi simon I’m looking for a cloth just like this. In another post on holland and sherry cloth you said this was a holland and sherry tweed with stock code. Here you said it’s s vintage one! Am I Getting mixed up? Help!

anand

Oh thanks Simon! Makes sense. Are you becoming so influential these days that cloth merchants are recreating fabrics you used to wear Simon LOL Agnelli step aside! I like the cloth, would you suggest anything else in perhaps a slightly darker brown, a chocolatey colour, I have a mid brown skin tone so Im a bit careful around mid browns otherwise there isnt a lot of contrast.

Anonymous

Have you ever thought of venturing into the realm of a Nehru jacket, the last photo is reminiscent of one. they are notoriously tricky to get right, so don’t worry if you are hesitant to take the leap!

Lorenzo Villa

Very nice jacket ! I love neapolitan style. One question : what is the place in photo ?

facebook_edward.rising

I’ve had a few suits from PA Crowe. I won’t say anything for now (wouldn’t want to lead the witness!) but I very much look forward to your review.

Rich

Like the colour and the texture…

What was the reasoning for the single button on the sleeves? Solito did a couple of jackets for me recently with one sleeve button and I couldn’t decide whether I like it or prefer four…

Fidelio

Simon, congratulations on the blog. Always informative. I have commissioned a jacket from my tailor and would like to replicate the one button sleeve of your Neapolitan tailoring. Is that button supposed to be larger than normal sleeve buttons? Have been looking at several pictures in the blog and can’t really tell if this is the case.

On a separate note just received my everyday denim shirt and loved it immediately. Great product.

isidoro

is very nice, but honestly I find it very expensive, € 2,800 for a jacket is too much, there are plenty of tailors in Naples, lesser known, and no less talented, they can do the exact same process with one-fifth of that from you paid.

vittorio

Simon,

this is actually the 1th time I take the time to write you instead of just reading carefully what you write 🙂

I’d like to thank you for being part of my change of heart in clothes choices , I’m now one of those few 28 yo guys who wears very rarely jeans and sneakers and wear way more often shirts with jackets and boots\oxfords etc.

As you can imagine being 28 year old means also I’m constantly broke and while I luckly know a few place in my town (Torino) where I can find stuffs like Caruso\Cantarelli jackets for 150 euro in sales , I use a lot ebay ( I recently bought some C&J black oxford for 70 euro and a beautifull pair of EG oxford brown for 150 both looking new) and vintage shops I still want to give myself as a present a taylor made jacket made in Napoli.

All things consider, which you think is the best taylor for a broke guy and what you think is the cheapest I can get for a , say , standard flannel without getting something that looks cheap and ugly? I’ve been suggested Enzo Cafora right outside the city but I don’t have any idea of his price range, any suggestion?

PS this tweed is beyond amazing!!! If it wouldnt’ cost more than my watch I’d love to get one 🙂

best regards,

Vittorio

vittorio

maybe you can help me out on the price range though?
It’s incredibly hard to find such informations on internet.
Vittorio

vittorio

will do, thanks a lot for your work !

V.

andrew borda

Isidoro, which are the Neapolitan tailors you refer to at a fifth of the price?

Lorenzo Villa

In fact, € 2,800 for a jacket in Naples are many. Sure, Rubinacci well costs more but it is one of the few. Naples, as compared to other Italian cities that are poor tailors, still has many tailors in town and several with more than affordable prices.

Good evening Mr. Crompton. It ‘s the first time I write in his blog. I’ll congratulate you for your work.

Peter

Very clearly and well written, with helpful photographs! Simon is obviously an artistic and sensitive person, and would be a candidate for Eurythmy!

Jeremy

I’ve been following your blog for a long time Simon. Extremely informative. One observation I have is that over the last few years jacket’s have become progressively shorter as styles have changed and yet you haven’t necessarily embraced it? What’s your view point regarding this change? Have you tried it but felt it didn’t work for you?
Thanks

BespokeNYC

Simon, do you know of any Neapolitan shirt makers who visit the US? The only Neapolitan tailor I know who visits regularly is Napoli Su Misura. She does offer shirts but I don’t get the impression she actually makes them and I’d ideally have some interaction with cutter.

Jonathan

Afraid this one really doesn’t do it for me. The combination of the wide lapels and high middle button has the effect of unnaturally elongating your torso and narrowing your shoulders, while to me the patch out breast pocket just screams out “school blazer”…

I’m also unconvinced by the combination of neapolitan tailoring and tweed. Neapolitan tailoring is all about lightness and creating pieces that are wearable in the heat of a mediterranean summer – not materials crafted to survive a Scottish winter.

Dean

Simon,
Beautiful jacket! I also had a Neopolitan jacket made in a heavier weight herringbone about a year ago and was generally pleased with the results although I have a slight concern on how my tailor finished the back vent area. (It puckers at the seams where the top of the vent meets the back of the jacket and I was told it was due to the thickness of the fabric?) Do you have a similar problem and /or could you post some photos of the back of your jacket vent area?
This has caused me second thoughts on if I made a mistake in using a heavier cloth opposed to the more common light eight fabrics on a Neopolitan style jacket.

Anonymous

I disagree with everything bar the patch breast pocket, its a little much… but do you need to have it with patch pockets?

Max Alexander

But you wouldn’t wear that jacket in summer in the UK either. In Naples, nighttime winter temperatures regularly hit freezing, and it occasionally snows.

In fact here in Rome I prefer going out on winter evenings in a tailored tweed jacket (maybe over a roll neck sweater) rather than wearing an overcoat and then having to deal with coat checks.

Scott

fantastic looking jacket that would look fabulous with jeans.

Sam E

Simon,

I am unaware of your age but I will assume you are older than, say, 25. Can I ask, what were your feelings and tastes like back in your early and mid twenties?

I love the clothes and style you write about. It is classic, subtle and tasteful. I actually become intimidated thinking about the journey I have ahead.

…And a touch of frustration when there is so much I already want *now* !

JW

Never was a fan of tweed, mostly because of patterns that are from modern and the cut of your average tweed garment. But your Caliendo is brilliant, especially when paired with flannels.

What’s next for your tailoring docket? I imagine your closet is chock full – are you running out of ideas?

Regards

Hristo

Great jacket, Simon!
Do you have experience with bespoke polo-shirts?
When wearing a polo-shirt with a jacket I often have the feeling that the collar is smaller than the collar of a regular shirt and as a result very small part in any of the polo-shirt collar is visible under the jacket collar. So it makes sense to opt for a custom made polo-shirt with a higher collar. What do you think?

Anonymous

What do you wear under the dartmoor or polo necks?

vittorio

Al Bazaar’s polo shirts were once made by Guy Rover correct? If you go for RTW I can suggest Borrelli , Barba ,Piombo (not as nice but cheaper ) and expecially Finamore, all bit pricier but you can find them easilly on internet (Yoox ,ebay ,etc) for around 70\80\90 euro .

vittorio

I wouldn’t say so ; they all have many different lines and collars here in italy got 1 inch longer in the last years (both cause of cutaways and botton down Montezemolo Style) , you probably noticed it in Pitti for yourself; issue is that basically all nice men shops in italy in big cities (there is a shop just like Al Bazaar in any town with more than 300k people in italy) have their own shirts made by manufacturers like Guy Rover ; actually lot of shop as Lino does have their own jackets and trousairs made even + every city has it’s own style (in Torino we tend to use more botton downs, in Milano more english collars, in south west bit of everything as long as the collar is soft, south east else etc) so it’s difficoult for me to say yes or no to your question. I’m sure however Finamore has a line of polo shirts with pretty long collars (botton down and surely cut away) , so does Eidos (new Isaia brand for those of you who didn’t have to pleasure of seying their new stuffs ,AMAZING) ,so does surely Barba.. to make a long story short, Italy is a mess 🙂

vittorio

ps,
sorry for my awfull english in the previous post, I’m extremely bad @multitasking ! no more conference calls and writing on blogs at same time!!!

Anonymous

also what are these types of shoes called and what are you thoughts on them? http://www.gazianogirling.com/products/chelsea

Rabster

Beautiful autumnal colour.
With the collar up it certainly had a Nehru jaket style look and a great one at that (even though normally I myself am no fan of the Nehru style) .
I think this article , given the richness of colours , needs reading with other articles on mixing and matching colours.
Particularly given the richness of the colour of the jacket .

Scott

Simon,
I agree completely with your comments concerning shorter jackets having no balance. These short coats that are being pushed by designers today make men look like they’re 12 years old while being unflattering as well. I notice that this jacket is three button which looks terriffic. Would you please comment on the three button vs two button model. Do you have a preference or are there circumstances where one model is more appropriate than the other. Scott

Scott

I like the 3-roll-2 idea and agree that is a more relaxed look. I have a black Kiton suit that has that 3-roll-2 button stance and it looks fabulous! It seems that the two button is all the rage now with the three button a bit out of favor. The newer two button models have a higher button stance which I like,but I still like the three button silouette. In fact, the three button model that you have is very flattering on slender and trim athletic men. I’ve been told that the two button is more appropriate for a serious business suit,but I’m not convinced of the veracity of that belief. What’s your opinion on this matter?

Scott

I agree. Ocassionally I enjoy wearing a suit with a turtleneck or an open collar shirt, such as Tom Ford does. With that kind of look the 3-roll-2 works really well.

Dan

Stunning jacket, one of the few times when I am actually envious.

I appreciate you may not be able to answer due to you limited recent experience of MTM but maybe some of the other regulars can fill in the gap.

I find I am an irregular size, effectively shoulders fit a 44 jacket but stomach requires a 48 so RTW never looks good and I dont think I can go for your normal recommendation of getting a jacket that fits the the shoulders and getting the rest altered as clearly there isnt the fabric there to let it out.

In an ideal world this would push me to bespoke but this is out of my budget. Going round the MTM places near work (London) a few have said that MTM isnt suitable for me either. A couple have said its fine but I didnt trust them as my limited knowledge was more than theirs. One that did convince me was Ebe & Ravenscroft and I got my first ever MTM from them. Its not perfect but a definite improvement on anything in the RTW space.

I would like to try others, if it was sub £1k it would be better, but wondered if you or anyone else knew MTM options that were more flexible in what they can deal with as going round them all by foot takes an age. I did speak to Hackett and on the phone they said no problem but then in person they said their standard blocks werent suitable for me.

Many thanks

Robert

That fabric is amazing. The depth and colors are just beautiful. Love the touch of color with that little purple-y pocket square. I love this jacket

Scott

That is the best looking fall/winter fabric I’ve seen in years.

David

Hello Simon

Apologies if I missed this elsewhere but do you have an e-mail or phone contact for Elia Caliendo please? His website appears to be permanently ‘coming soon’!

Thanks

David

RTWer

Dear Simon,

1. What don’t you like about Cordings tweed jackets?
2. What do you think of Keeper’s Tweed?
3. In your opinion what qualifies as a “lightweight” tweed jacket, for example, in cloth weight?

S

Love this. Would you say that Neopolitan tailors have less flare in the skirt of the jacket than their English counterparts? Is less flare necessary to be in proportion to softer shoulders?

Thanks,
S

Andreas

Naturally there are a lot of items in your blog that I would love to wear myself but if there is one item that I particularly want it is this jacket. The photo from Scotland is just amazing. What a lovely jacket. All the best Andreas

Allen Fletcher

Can you tell me where the tweed cloth comes from and is it available?

Mac

Hi Simon

I’m about to email Elia the cloth I’d like for a winter Jacket. I really wanted to use the H&S tweed of the above jacket but Elia has warned me that it is extremely heavy. I’d like cloth around 320-380gm that would be great with jeans as well as trousers. Do you think a similarly coloured dark brown donegal would be as good or rather a brown herringbone harris tweed? Do you think check or glen plaid tweed is less versatile?

Mac

Hi Simon

Thank you for your last comment. Do you think a mustard coloured donegal is more versatile or a dark brown one, especially for jumping between trousers and jeans?

mac

Hi Simon

If it wasn’t too bright would a light brown/mustard colour be better?
Also I was thinking of having a brown glen check jacket made like the ones in the Drakes AW16 look book, how versatile do you think that type of pattern can be?
Thank you

John

Simon,

I’ll be in Naples for 3 weeks. I was looking at commissioning something from both Caliendo and Solito. The wife has since said no – I have to pick either or.

I understand both styles would be similar but Caliendo’s finish superior?

John

John

I managed to get the 2 commissions in the end.

Caliendo, after the first fitting was very good and was very near perfect after the second one.

Solito – after the 3rd fitting is still not quite there yet. 4th fitting tomorrow before I leave the country.

I will have to wait for the final product to comment on the finish but your advise on the fit has generally been spot on.

I suppose it helps Caliendo that he has 1/3 the volume of Solito’s but then again there are 2 Solitos running the show.

Regards,

John

Bertie Wooster

Simon can you address when black/grey and brown can mix. And also address the colour of shoes and bags that go together e.g. If you wear this brown jacket with grey flannel, do you have to wear brown shoes or will black shoes be okay given they will match the grey trousers. Similarly, if you are wearing a grey suit and black shoes, can you carry a dark brown briefcase with it. The “rules” say black and brown don’t mix but surely I have seen it work in some combos

Anonymous

Do you always stick to the matching belt and shoes rule?

Dan Ippolito

Beautiful jacket and material, but I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss the “patterns associated with a previous generation. ” Some of those patterns can be very beautiful, but one has to wear them with panache. As for structured vs. unstructured, I bought an English-made hacking jacket on eBay that probably dates back to the 1960’s in a beautiful tan and rust windowpane. It feels a little like a suit of armor (it probably wouldn’t have lasted this long otherwise), but I must say the combination of structured shoulders, nipped waist, hacking pockets and deep vent gives me an imposing, almost Connery-esque silhouette. To each his own, I guess…

Tom

Hi Simon. I’ve recently acquired about 2m of a lovely rose-coloured donegal tweed. How would one approach a tailor in order to produce a jacket. Do you think that amount of material is sufficient. I appreciate it is a little off the wall; thus thank you for your time!
Tom

Anonymous

Hi Simon

I’m having a couple of tweed jackets made up. They’re both 14oz, one is reasonably soft whereas the other is quite rough. I’m unsure at to whether I should line the front using the fabric or more traditional cupro lining. I favour the former as I like the look but I’m concerned doubling up the fabric on the front may make it bulky. Any thoughts? Btw the back will only have lining on the shoulders.

As always, thanks in advance.

Anonymous

Many thanks for the speedy response. To avoid risking bulk, I’ll go with your suggestion.

GONZAGUE

You normally tend to have less tapered sleeves don’t you? I like it, together with the overall cut, giving this tweed a welcome contemporary look

S

Simon,

Would you still go for a patch breast pocket if you went back?

Thanks,
S

Clifford Hall

Simon, will be venturing into my first tweed bespoke jacket, some advice please. If you had to make this jacket again is there anything you would change? Seem to remember you mentioning tweed can be a little prickly. Also on page 57 of your tailoring book “obsessions” could you tell me know the color of the tie please, looks like its the same Elia tweed jacket. Unfortunately won’t be able to make it to Naples, so this adventure will be in NYC.

Thank you.

Anonymous

Many thanks, much appreciated.

Cliff

Mac

Hi Simon

I’ve heard that you can get smaller pocket squares for patch pockets on neaopolitan blazers.
If so where can I find one?
Great picture of you and Ben on Instagram by the way.
Best wishes

Christos

Hi Simon,

i can not recognize through the pictures if this jacket is padded?

Are your Caliendo jackets in general padded or not?

Clifford Hall

Simon, believe this jacket was made from a Holland & Sherry cloth 892020 have been trying to find it in the NYC, looks like H&S recently discounted the fabric unfortunately, do you have any advice please for similar fabrics in terms of color and tweed type or do you know any tailors who I might be able to purchase the 892020 cloth from.

Much appreciated.

Cliff

Clifford Hall

Simon, apologies in my earlier post meant to say discontinued not discounted.

Sorry for the confusion.

Cliff

Clifford Hall

Simon, went down quiet a rabbit hole regarding my previous post and the H&S fabric question. It seems, that this fabric is not actually manufactured by Holland & Sherry themselves. Holland & Sherry is of course a maker of fabrics in England as you have discussed. But, true Harris Tweed is only made by a couple of different weavers, only on the Outer Isles of Hebrides in Scotland, also as you have discussed What we discovered is that Holland & Sherry simply is acting as a distributor of this cloth. Through another supplier who deals with a lot of UK mills, we were able to track down the exact fabric.

Thought this might be a helpful follow up.

Cliff

Johannes

@Cliff: Would it be possible for you to share which supplier this is? Since I’m really interested in tracking down this cloth as well.

Clifford Hall

Simon, thought you would like to know my 6 months journey to find the tweed, have the jacket made in NYC has come to a successful end. The final fitting was last Saturday, its been a fun journey, the process has been great learning, having patience is key.

Thank you for the inspiration, advice and council along the way.

Cliff

Anonymous

Why don’t you remake this exact fabric Simon? I’m sure many readers would like it.

Anonymous

Oh yes you should! What was this weight?

Anonymous

Maybe if remade it can be heavier like 14-15 oz?

Anonymous

Good point, you’ve changed my opinion. 11 or 13 oz would be good, which also avoids appearing too warm/stuffy.

NR

I’d buy that for sure.

Simon, I’ve bought many items from the PS shop over the years and very much enjoy them. However, the one thing that would massively help with my annual budgeting would be knowing which items you’re working on and planning to offer during the year. Along with the budgeting, it would also save me a lot of time and regretful purchases elsewhere.

For example, if i knew this cloth was being remade I could save up towards it and the associated tailoring costs etc. When you release new items, at relatively short notice, anything on the higher cost side eg the Donegal coat, luxury cardigan, jacketing cloth can’t be afforded and, if there was a need for it, then I may already have settled for something not as good from somewhere else.

Of course, I’m sure there are negatives/practicalities to consider with this approach from your wider perspective….
Stay well.

RT

I’d second NR’s point, having had similar experience.
I’m surprised to read that there isn’t certainty about something going ahead until production actually begins. Having worked in manufacturing for more than one company, including time spent in production planning, my uniform experience was that companies have production schedules planned in advance and whilst there is a degree of uncertainty of the precise timing of production for an order (due to the possibility of raw materials delivery being delayed, unplanned machine breakdown etc.), perhaps up to a month as you suggest, companies will certainly know what orders are on the books and will have at least a notional schedule for production. Contracts are signed, orders placed, raw materials ordered and so on. It should be possible, then, to have a reasonably clear idea of what’s in the pipeline for the year ahead. Surely it’s a matter of knowing precisely when something is going ahead rather than if it is. Of course, global pandemic pretty much throws it all out the window!

Anonymous

Hi Simon,

Are there any updates with H&S with re-making this exact tweed? Thanks

Daniel

I like many on here loved the look of Simon’s jacket, and was looking for a similar tweed. I found one that is similar (perhaps a shade darker with more blue in the weave) in Abraham Moon’s “Shetland Tweed” cloth. I wanted something a bit lighter than the Holland and Sherry cloth, and this one is around 370g. It made up beautifully, and is a bit softer than Harris Tweed as well.

Brendan

I’m interested in commissioning a jacket like this…is there a tailor in London that would be appropriate (keeping in mind your point about letting the tailor cut his/her style)? Or do you think I would be better served waiting until one of the Neopolitan tailors resumes visits here (lockdowns permitting).

Brendan

Thanks Simon

Chancellor

With this jacket, how have you found the ability to button it up to the top in the cold? Has it worked well? And do you do it enough to justify the compromise in design that it required?

LJ

Hi Simon, how versatile have you found this jacket? I am looking at something similar but I’m not sure how the orangey colour will pair with other things.