32 JULY 2019 Juhn Maing dabbled in law, academia and IT, but nothing ever fit quite right—until he began to revive the dying craft of Sicilian tailoring. By Deni Ellis Béchard Photography by Illustrations by Timothy Archibald Lauren Mortimer STANFORD 33 the taxi from the airport, the that Italiano fly from Sicily and driver asks Juhn Maing and Maing from Orlando. Italiano Claudio Italiano if they are helps the client put on a jacket famous. Both men are impec- that is basted together with loose cably dressed in Sicilian suits, white stitching. Using chalk, he an unusual sight in San Fran- marks adjustments on the cloth cisco, whose uniform is the while discussing the fit with “I didn’t want to go with hoodie. But their clothes are Maing, who snaps photos that something overly serious,” their business: Italiano is a they can later study. he says. second-generation Sicilian tailor Maing has a quiet, alert Despite his commitment to and Maing an authority on men’s manner and comes across as Sicilian couture, when Maing tells bespoke suits who has spent soberly fashionable, without the how he came to it, he describes nearly a decade building global faintest whiff of dandyism. His decades of exploring, consid- awareness of Sicilian tailoring— posture is relaxed, conveying an air ering his options while moving a craft that, until his interven- of ease not usually associated with from one career to the next. tion, was nearly dying. a man in a suit. It’s hard to know And yet people with eclectic The taxi drops them off in the whether his bearing is influenced tendencies more often than not financial district, and they climb by the jacket’s cut or how he feels call to mind hobbyists and five floors to the office suite that in it, or is simply the way he dilettantes rather than true Maing, ’93, has rented for two carries himself in general. One connoisseurs, which raises the hours. Their client, 29-year-old might call it casually dignified. question: How did a Korean- Ethan Klivans, joins them for a His business, Sicilian Reserve, American generalist become the second fitting, which, like the intends to change perceptions of maven of Sicilian suits? first one months earlier, required how suits should look and feel. He describes offering an “experi- ence,” one that for him long preceded any notions he had of The Quest for globetrotting with Sicilian tailors. a Good Fit He started off as an enthusiast Maing was born in 1971 in and began a blog in 2005—among Madison, Wis., where his father the very first for menswear—that completed a PhD in food science. IN STITCHES: he called Sleevehead, a name that His parents had immigrated from Italiano (opposite, has become his online persona. South Korea three years earlier, center) and But though sleevehead refers to and the family moved often—to Maing conduct a second fitting where the sleeve attaches to the Chicago, Germany, the suburbs for Klivans in shoulder, it represents far more. of New York City, northern San Francisco. “That part of the jacket is Virginia and finally Honolulu for Italiano will take distinctive,” he explains. “It’s an a job with General Foods. While the suit back to unmistakable icon for an entire Maing’s mother stayed home to Sicily to finish the garment. tradition of tailoring. If you raise him and his older sister, his know your sleeveheads, you can father researched Jell-O. instantly tell what kind of suit it is.” In 1989, Maing enrolled at But Maing admits that he Stanford. He sampled classes in wasn’t averse to the word’s literature, history, politics, playful, faintly punkish ring. philosophy and computer science. Gearhead. Deadhead. “I was the classic generalist,” he Metalhead. Pothead. Sleevehead. recalls. “That actually probably MAING ON MENSWEAR An expert breaks down the three categories of clothing. READY-TO-WEAR Off-the-rack clothes, sold in department stores or online, generally catering to the usual sizes and sometimes to men’s big and tall. MADE-TO-MEASURE What is typically called custom clothing, or, in Maing’s words, “Well, sort of customizable.” A client is fitted with the suit on hand that is closest to his size. The salesperson records the adjustments required to make it fit and sends them to the factory, along with the client’s choice of fabric, buttons, lining, color and lapels. BESPOKE “Fully, truly custom.” Creation and production are unified in the work of the tailor, not separated as in post-Industrial helped me in the end. It didn’t New York. He worked in a variety clothes cut for the majority of Revolution manufac- comfort my parents much, but of IT development roles until American men didn’t hang well turing. The tailor designs they were supportive.” 2015, when he started what he on him; they simply hung. a pattern specific to the After graduating in 1993 with calls “the sartorial track.” “I always had an incentive client, builds a garment a degree in political science and Behind his unusual career after college to dress decently,” from scratch, and does German, he bounced between turn were two motivations: one Maing says, “but I wasn’t two or three fittings to jobs—first an international stemming from being ready for interested in becoming a fashion create an organic match. nonprofit, then a law firm. He new experiences and the other person. The need was strictly “In the first,” Maing says, flirted with the idea of becoming from his intention—or rather professional, but I had a heck of “the client might have a lawyer but started a PhD in difficulty—in dressing well for a time trying to find something been measured in the political science instead, only to the office. It is no stretch to say that fit me.” morning. His waistline stop after his master’s. that Sleevehead was the solution If visits to the alteration might be less than after “The road to success,” he to a problem that faced him since counter could be described as lunch, and this discrep- explains, “was to be extremely his first days in the workforce: Sisyphean, his were. He returned ancy is caught in the specialized.” He preferred to He was skinny. over and over, spending too second fitting.” explore—and explore he did, More elegantly put, he was much time and money. living in D.C., Chicago, L.A., and slight of frame—so much so that “I thought, maybe there’s a STANFORD 35 TUXEDO If visits to the alteration table could JUNCTION be described as Sisyphean, his How the bespoke suit were. He returned over and over, begat black tie. spending too much time and money. One of Britain’s earliest suit-makers was James Poole, whose business better solution. I heard about in London, in Savile Row in the emblazoned with his head à la still exists on Savile something called custom, so 19th century.” Those tailors were Che Guevara. Row as Henry Poole & I tried custom clothing in L.A.” the originators of men’s business For much of the past two Co. Whereas in 1806 He had discovered made-to- dress and still make a suit that, in centuries, the Savile Row he set up shop measure—a suit produced in a tailoring, is referred to as tradition dominated—its high, focusing on the factory based on measurements structured. (“Some call it stiff,” squared shoulders and linearity production of military taken in a showroom. “It fit Maing adds.) as familiar in the silhouette of uniforms, by 1846 his somewhat better,” he acknowl- It was on Savile Row that the Dick Tracy as in the press photos son and the company edges, “but was still far from word bespoke gained promi- of Ronald Reagan. But around namesake, Henry, satisfying.” nence. Though originally 1930, Gennaro Rubinacci, the catered to a wealthier He asked around and heard meaning “to speak,” “to accuse” owner of London House in crowd and moved the about a bespoke tailor who and “to complain,” by the 16th Naples, urged his tailor Vincenzo store’s entrance to translated measurements of the century, bespeak came to mean Attolini to reinvent the jacket for Savile Row—home to chest, shoulders and arms into a “to order in advance.” Today, the city’s wealthy, who dressed the military officers two-dimensional paper pattern. bespoke is generally uttered in like British gentlemen despite and politicians who “That got me intrigued,” he says. the context of tailoring. (A the heat and humidity. were soon displaced From Enzo Caruso, an Italian parallel bespoke tradition exists The new jacket was lighter by the artisans who tailor in Santa Monica, Maing for women’s fashion.) and was distinguished by certain clothed them. learned that many years are Maing’s discontent with features, among them a boat- In 1865, Henry Poole required to become a tailor— Savile Row lies in its military shaped chest pocket. “The received an order from seven as an apprentice in some origins. The suit as we know it Neapolitan sartorial revolution,” the teenaged Prince cases. He liked how Caruso sized began to take shape in the early Maing explains, “is removing all of Wales (later King up his client, measuring him and 1800s, influenced by the Edward VII). Poole was observing him but also asking Napoleonic Wars—which to make him a short questions about fit. (“The visual brought favor on a stiff, linear celestial blue smoking and verbal should sync up,” Maing silhouette, with padded shoul- jacket for casual dinner says.) If one of a client’s shoulders ders and high armholes to parties.