Fashion is created to constantly compete with itself, but the Style is eternal.
And Style signature is and will always be recognizable.
Sartoria Carfora is the brainchild of Enzo Carfora, who established his own tailoring house in 2010 in the village of Frattamaggiore, 15 kilometers north of Napoli.
But the dark-haired, immaculately coiffed Neapolitan wasn’t destined for a life in tailoring until a chance visit to a friend’s atelier.
So enamored was he by the sartorial wizardry on display at Sartoria Pirozzi, in Napoli’s chic Chiaia neighborhood, that he knew immediately that this was the career for him.
It’s a story of dogged determination to carve out a career.
His stubbornness paid off and a new career path was about to begin.
“I remember the first day I started at Pirozzi, I was asked to stitch a lapel – I didn’t even know what a lapel was” he says with a wry grin.
But Pirozzi was just the first in line of a succession of tailors to whom Carfora would learn the art.
It’s impossible not to mention the impact Pino Alleva from Bologna had on Carfora (Alleva was a personal tailor to the great Gianfranco Ferrè). He would enrich him with a style of training different to the traditional Neapolitan one – teaching him how to combine traditional and more classic styles with the Neapolitan principles – something that has been absolutely fundamental in shaping the current style of Sartoria Carfora, and the reason why Enzo’s tagline refers to his atelier as ‘an unusual tailor’.
Shoulders on a Carfora jacket are typically Neapolitan – not big and unstructured, resulting in a shoulder that is altogether softer, more rounded with no padding – that it still remains flattering to the wearer takes almost a magician-like mastery to perfect.
A Carfora jacket is usually double-breasted – mainly because Enzo doesn’t like to show the shirt beneath, and if not, then it’s a three-piece with the shirt still hidden by a waistcoat when the jacket is unbuttoned.
The armhole is high in order to make the arm independent from the rest of the jacket – “it’s very important that when the wearer lifts or moves his arm, the jacket stays where it is” says Carfora.
Trousers are usually cuffed, double-pleated at the waist and always intended to be worn with braces with no side adjusters.
The length of the Carfora overcoat is marginally shorter and more boxy with less volume creating a very understated silhouette.
Carfora’s vest is remarkably refined and shaped according to the shape of the client’s chest- in Enzo’s case a maniacal attention to detail that requires enormous amounts of patience.
