Wayne Cheong takes on Kiton’s made-to-measure service.
I’m caught under a crossfire of Italian.
While what smattering of Italian I know consists of Starbucks sizes and ‘cazzo’, the gulf of my ignorance of the language leaves me vulnerable. That vulnerability is heightened as I remain still as Ciro Palestra sticks pins into the pants I’m wearing, pulls a measuring tape taut and shouts in Italian to Paolo Monaco, who parrots Palestra’s words and scribbles on the order sheet.
Palestra is one of Kiton’s five master tailors. Monaco is the retail director of Asia. Seeing the faint distress on my face, he explains to me, in English, the process I’m undertaking—the made-to-measure service that the Neapolitan clothing company, with outlets all over the world, has offered.
On the day of my fitting, in the Ngee Ann City branch, six of the company’s prominent figures are sequestered with me—the aforementioned Palestra and Monaco; Sebastiano Borrelli, master shirt maker; Anna Paola Frollo, sales manager of Kiton Ladies; Marco Pirone, vice-president; and Antonio de Matteis, CEO of Kiton—all attired immaculately in their own Kiton armour.
It’s intimidating. Like I’m caught in the middle of a sartorial club meeting wearing a slightly too-large shirt that’s not mine; it’s the store’s but there’s a method to the madness.
Kiton was launched in 1968 in Naples, Italy by Ciro Paone and Antonio Carola and since then it has grown into a powerhouse with the business and the craft kept solely in the family (de Matteis and Antonio Paone, president of Kiton USA, are both nephews of Ciro Paone).
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der November 2018-Ausgabe von Esquire Singapore.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der November 2018-Ausgabe von Esquire Singapore.
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