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Sartoria Solito bespoke sport coat

Sartoria Solito bespoke sport coat

In todays post I would like to introduce you to a new tailor and show you the first fitting for my new bespoke jacket by Sartoria Solito.

Disclaimer: This post is in collaboration with Sartoria Solito who kindly offered to make the jacket free of charge. I provided the cloth. All views are my own. (for more info about my thoughts on sponsorships please see this post). 

I have known Luigi Solito for a while now. We first met during their Trunk Show in London. Since then we have been seeing each other every few weeks (together with Luca Avitabile, pictured below) for some dinner or drinks. Luca and Luigi always come together so it is always a pleasure to see them whenever they come here. They are both really lovely.

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Luigi Solito (left) with Luca Avitabile (right) pictured on Savile Row during one of their Trunk Shows in London

Sartoria Solito is a big name amongst Neapolitan bespoke houses. Founded just after the WWII by Luigi Solito it is still owned by the Solito family, currently run by Gennaro (probably most well know of all Solitos) and his sun Luigi Jr. Luigi (named after his grandfather) does all the bespoke trunk shows which are a big part of Sartoria Solito’s business. He sometimes takes his father with him although Gennaro loves Italy and his wife’s food so much that he does not want to be away from home for too long!

The atelier is now located at Via Toledo 256, in the close proximity to famous Galeria Umberto I the old Quartieri Spagnoli.

Their jacket style can be characterised by very soft canvass (one layer), no shoulder padding whatsoever, barchetta breast pocket, relatively high gorge, wide lapels and classic one button on the sleeve (for sport coats). The jacket is also slightly shorter in the back and the collar traditionally sits quite high. Armhole is cut high, while the sleeves are wide and leave a lot of room for movement. What’s also interesting is that the 3-roll-2 jackets provide significant roll (as can be seen on Luigi’s jacket above) with the lapels going quite vertically just above the middle button and then rolling out to the side. Side patch pockets are a natural choice for sport coat.

For the fabric I went for vintage gun club check cloth from Wain Shiel mill, which I have had for a while now. I purchased it from my friend Olof, who most of you surely know. It is a really nice cloth, quite light for English one, in a green background gun club check with additional vertical lines in blue and horizontal dark red ones too. Very interesting and unusual fabric. Should be great for 3 seasons here in London and will work very well both with denim and grey flannel trousers. sartoria solito

I actually can’t believe how green has recently dominated my purchases! Not sure if you noticed but the previous Zaremba bespoke sport coat is in green wool/cashmere Ariston cloth, there are the olive suede Puma trainers and most recently the mint green suede MTM field jacket by Stoffa (soon on the blog too). It is in my opinion a very underestimated colour in men classic wardrobe. You dont see green on the streets very often, definitely not as much as navy, grey or even brown.

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First fitting with Sartoria Solito

The jacket for the first fitting is made with the sleeves but every piece of cloth is only lightly put together. Sleeves are cut wide for the ease of later adjustments as is the front of the jacket. There has to be some fabric left for the tailor to work with. Length was spot on. There is good balance in the front with buttoning point sitting perfectly. While the first fitting is usually more important for the tailor than the customer you can get the first idea of how the jacket looks in the fabric of your choice. There is also the first feeling for the structure – believe me, true Neapolitan soft tailoring can already be felt.

Luigi is very quick. Part of it is because often there is not much to adjust and also because his trunk shows are usually very busy. Everyone who visits him in London can confirm.

On top of slimming the sleeves Luigi will shorten the back a bit (my usual adjustment), and give the chest a bit more shape by taking it in under the armholes.

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Adjustment to the front of the jacket

I am very excited about this project and can’t wait for the second fitting. One of the biggest advantages of Sartoria Solito coming to London is the frequency of their trips. They are in London every 6 weeks and this is a huge factor in their favour. The wait for a bespoke garment can be a real pain. While MTM offer can deliver the finished product in 6 weeks too, if a tailor will do that in 18 weeks he is very much worth a try. I don’t mean to rush bespoke orders but understand that people do not like to wait to wear the suit/jacket a year after commissioning it.

Sartoria Solito prices start at 2200euro for bespoke jackets.

Thanks for reading and definitely check out the rest of the photos below.

Due to many questions I receive about the denim shirt. It is Luxire order #20105. You can reference it in your order.

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