Giuseppe Caristo in his charming sartoria.

Giuseppe Caristo is not on Instagram

The web has transformed bespoke tailoring. Craftsmen, whom only local people would know before, can now be found in seconds. Instagram have accelerated the process. My guess would be that 70-80 percentage of bespoke tailors in Europe now have an Instagram account.

All the more intriguing it becomes to find a stellar tailor, who has no strategic web presence whatsoever. Giuseppe Caristo is such a tailor. He is well into his eighties, and he has all the clients he needs, so he lives in an analog world.

Like Michele Mescia, who is only 100 meters away, Giuseppe Caristo has won the Forbici d’Oro, the Golden Scissor, awarded by The Italian Tailoring Academy in Rome. He was very young, when it happened, only 26 years old.

I met with Mr Caristo, when I visited Turin in June. His nephew, Fabrizio, student of physics at Turin University, helped me with translation.

Not surprisingly Giuseppe Caristo came to Turin from Southern Italy. He worked with a local master tailor, “the best”, he says. Then he struck out on his own in his twenties creating Sartoria Caristo.

Classic bespoke tailoring

In terms of make Giuseppe Caristo is the pure art of tailoring, of course. Meticulously, he and his two tailors craft a suit by hand.

The style belongs to the north of Italy. Everything is slightly larger than a typical jacket from Southern Italy. The canvas also seems slightly more sturdy. Yet, I got the impression that Giuseppe Caristo prefers a bit more fitted jacket than, say, Michele Mescia and A. Caraceni.

I was quoted a price of 4.500 euros for a two-piece suit.

Mr Caristo has his sartoria at Via S. Tommaso, 22, second floor.

Photography: Torsten Grunwald

A real bespoke suit below 1000 euro is rare in Europe. They make it on Sicily, and I believe you can locate it in a few tailor shops in Eastern Europe.

I would never have thought you can stumple upon it in Turin, the wealthy city in Northern Italy. Yet, you can.

In a shop of no more than 10 sqm at Via Rossini 19, I met P. Costa. He makes classic bespoke suits from scratch, besides doing alterations.  He machine sews the collar canvas, and he probably applies less handwork than the Rubinaccis and Caracenis, but front canvas will be stiched by hand, and he will make the suit himself in the minuscule sartoria based on your personal paper pattern and trials. And, he will charge you 800 euro for that, if you choose one of the fabrics in his shop.

I imagine his style and fit will be different from more famous tailors in Italy, and interlining, buttons and threads might not be of same high quality. Nevertheless, P. Costa is an experienced tailor, and I got the impression that he is a capable of making a fine suit.

Source: The Journal of Style

Maugeri

Church music poured out, when a lady, which turned out to be the daughter of the maestro, opened the door. The music created a devout atmosphere. It also made an impact seeing a calm Pasquale Maugeri seated in a wheel chair in a beautiful apartment, which constitutes the workshop.

Mr Maugeri embodies the old story of a boy from a humble background starting out in tailoring at an early age. He was born in 1939 in Gioia Tauro, a small town near Reggio Calabria in the deep South of Italy. Eight years old he began working for a tailor, and he has, in reality, been working with needle and thread ever since.

In 1957, when he was 18 years old , he moved to Turin, where he took up jobs at the best tailors in town . In 1965, he created his own firm, Sartoria Maugeri, in one of Turin’s most prestigious streets.

Having spent most of his life in Nothern Italy, Mr Maugeri cuts a relatively clean and defined shoulder. That said there seems to be traces of southern style in his tailoring. Shoulders on Maugeri’s jackets and coats hanging in the sartoria were completely unpadded, and jacket fronts open and lapels rounded in a way that reminded me of jackets of the South.

Pasquale Maugeri has a staff of four-five people. Two gentlemen were moulding jacket parts and interlining, when I was there. They must have carried out the job for ages. Still, they were focused. They were present in the work.

Turin tailor Pasquale Maugeri is true tailoring indeed. You will have a hard time finding it more authentic, if you that is what you like.

After coming home, Francesco, Pasquale Maugeri’s son, has forwarded this older photo of his father.

Source: The Journal of Style