“I knocked on so many doors in the US without much luck but now it’s our most important market,” says Gianluca Isaia, the CEO of Neapolitan tailoring company Isaia. Founded as a fabric shop by his grandfather, Enrico, in the 1920s, the business quickly evolved into a bespoke tailoring workshop and was supplying suits across Italy by the 1960s. Gianluca began as a tailor’s apprentice in his grandfather’s enterprise before moving to sales. He took over in the 1990s, redirecting the company towards a largely global clientele.

Under Isaia’s watch, the label has established a network of boutiques across the US, with outposts in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Palm Beach, Florida. Italy now makes up just 10 per cent of the business, which saw €90m in revenues last year. And Isaia is only getting started. More shops in Washington, Zürich and Paris are planned, each designed to offer a taste of the brand’s Neapolitan spirit.

Its flagships usually feature a bar and piano in the same coral hue as the brand’s logo, turning the shop floor into a space where customers can order a bespoke suit (which comes with a personalised label and a hanger featuring the client’s name), socialise and enjoy an aperitivo. “Naples has something that sparks desire – a quality that can’t be copied,” says Isaia, who is dressed in a double-breasted blazer with hand-stitched shoulders, his sandals peeking out beneath matching trousers.

In recent years there has been a renewed appreciation of Neapolitan tailoring, which is known for louche silhouettes and soft shoulders. Parisian heritage houses, such as Balenciaga, have offered interpretations of the wearer-friendly tailoring of the Neapolitan jacket. Isaia has naturally doubled down on its signatures, waving the flag for its home city’s style sensibilities and venturing into new categories to offer a full “Made in Naples” look.

The brand’s recent success includes a highly anticipated womenswear collection. The line debuted during the January edition of Milan Fashion Week with a runway show, which was held inside the historic Circolo Filologico Milanese and received much praise for making Neapolitan wardrobe staples available to a female audience. Relaxed herringbone suits, double-cashmere coats and liquid-silk shirts made their way down the runway, signalling the brand’s ambitions to carve a space for itself in the competitive world of women’s fashion. Isaia’s commitment to “Made in Naples” quality remains as strong as ever. While many labels outsource production, it has invested in a mill in the Piedmontese textile hub of Biella and begun producing more exclusive fabrics. The factory at the company’s headquarters employs more than 300 artisans who oversee the production of every ready-to-wear category. Suits, knits, button-down shirts, denim, ties and leather goods are all manufactured in-house.

On the factory floor, the team wears matching, aubergine-coloured T-shirts embroidered with the brand’s signature coral branch: a symbol of luck in Naples. The whirr of sewing machines is the soundtrack to artisans hand-sewing pockets and cutting out the silk shapes of ties. Around a table, women stitch buttonholes, each requiring 10 minutes of concentration. Isaia employs 60 embroiderers. “You can only find this level of detail in the south of Italy,” says Giuseppe Crispo, Isaia’s production manager, pointing to the soft shoulders and slanted barchetta pockets that distinguish Neapolitan jackets from other varieties. “This world is disappearing.”

This is why the company has set up a new tailoring school and apprenticeship scheme that will help to secure its future, as well as the region’s reputation as a leading player in the fashion industry. “Naples’ tailors exalt the shape of the person wearing their jackets and aren’t afraid of bright colours,” says menswear commentator Fabio Attanasio. “Like a vintage watch or car, the Neapolitan jacket offers a certain unmatched pleasure.”
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