Santillo 1970’s Radici Project
When it comes to menswear — crafted in a painstaking traditional style — Santillo 1970 stands at the very top. A typical Santillo suit, for example, consists of 50,000 stitches.
Their target customer is a man who is a “lover of elegance, a man of the world, enterprising, charismatic, audacious, curious, and ever on the look-out for new ways to enrich himself culturally.”
Sort of a James Bond type, you might say.
A typical Santillo suit consists of 50,000 stitches
The history of Santillo Tailors began in the wake of the Second World War in Naples, the seat of fine tailoring for men. It began in a basement on Via Bologna where the owners’ maternal grandmother personally sewed her custom-tailored shirts and suits for men.
Nowadays the family-run business in operated by Gennaro, Annaluce, and Saverio Santillo. “Our mission is to create garments with a soul,” they say.
We had the great pleasure of speaking to Gennaro and his Saverio awhile back, where they very passionately spoke about their love for shirtmaking.
Now they’re launching something new yet timeless, the Radici Project (literally “Project Roots” in Italian).
Project Roots
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Radici Project is looking to delve even deeper into the history of Santillo’s beloved Calabria, a land conquered by the Byzantines and Greeks, rich in history and culture: and home to many known and unknown crafting techniques.
Calabria is home to many unknown crafting techniques
One of the new collection’s objectives is to revive the antique processing of the Scotch broom or ginestra plant (gorse). The Calabrian ginestra plant will be blended into to the linen and cotton to lend even more softness to the finished effect. These new textiles will even be crafted on ancient, restored weaving machines.
The new textiles will be crafted on ancient weaving machines
These new textile will be of the highest quality raw materials. The choice of ginestra plant came about naturally, as the presence of the plant throughout Santillo’s home territory has very antique and profound roots. It grows mostly near the Mediterranean due to its mild winter climate.
The new project will raise the bar for a tailoring brand where the bar is already quite high.
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With love,
FWO
