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. Twenty-one was lower, as is often the case, the facilitate lifting weapons—and years later, as the tailor translated this asymmetry by the notorious dandy George story goes, New York into the jacket so that it didn’t Bryan “Beau” Brummell, whose millionaire James Potter droop on one side. fashion sense made disciples of visited the prince, was The more Maing learned, Lord Byron and the prince told that he could have the more his respect and interest regent (later King George IV). a similar jacket made at grew. Meanwhile, he’d landed Styling his casual dress after that Henry Poole & Co, and on a solution to his clothing of his former regimen, the Light returned home to show conundrum. Dragoons, Brummell moved it off in Tuxedo Park, an “It wasn’t inexpensive,” he men’s fashion away from knee upstate vacation spot recalls, “but it was worth it.” breeches and stockings, instead for Manhattan’s elite. As Maing traveled for work, championing meticulously fitted Thus began the rise of he began visiting tailors along his suits with dark coats, full-length the penguin suit whose path, in the United States, trousers, linen shirts and white descendants we see Europe and Asia. But though he knotted cravats. He also year after year at the finally had jackets for his frame, popularized daily male hygiene Academy Awards. he wasn’t fulfilled. and bathing, a social revolution “With the modern suit and that should have resulted in

jacket,” he explains, “it all started women today wearing T-shirts (WATERCOLOR) DIGHTON ROBERT

36 JULY 2019 of the internal structure.” on those forums.” Visually, Neapolitan jackets Maing’s curiosity was piqued. stand out because of their He had some vacation time, but Know Your Sleeveheads unstructured shoulders, but he knew as much about Sicily as their mark of mastery is the the average American who has stitching of the sleeveheads. seen The Godfather. Without the stiff fabric and He walked to an Italian café a padding of Savile Row, the soft few blocks from his apartment in shoulders must be perfectly Gramercy Park and put up an ad placed, lest they deform the suit for an Italian translator. The front. This was the jacket’s next day, Elisabetta D’Avenia success. It was light enough for responded. She was Sicilian and English Military lounging in the heat and yet kept lived on the same street as he its form. It wasn’t designed for did. She called ahead to Sicily, Sicilian financiers or businessmen but for found addresses and prices, and nobles whose mark of status was arranged meetings with tailors leisure, and it perfectly captured as well as local translators. the spirit of la dolce vita. The weeklong trip took him Although the Neapolitan through the three largest cities: jacket was initially considered Palermo, Catania and Messina. alternative in the United States “Worst-case scenario,” he recalls Neapolitan and Europe, it came into vogue telling himself, “I would enjoy in the 1990s. It could easily be the food.” folded, required less material, The Sicilian jacket may lack explosion of curvature. The and was light and casual— the copious archives of Savile Savile Row tailor pays more appropriate for the times. Row and even the modest attention to the line. The Maing had not yet begun his An American accounts of Neapolitan suit Neapolitan tailor focuses on the own blog, but he remembers in Sicily making, but Maing has become curve. Sicilian tailoring is both the blossoming of enthusiasm Maing’s first impressions of its chronicler. He sees it in the the curve and the line. The tailor for the Neapolitan suit in the Sicily recalled Southern context of Sicilian history—“a is looking for balance.” pre-Instagram world of online California—the yellow and green mélange of cultures, a fusion In the course of his travels forums. “It was so easy to wear,” scrubland and rolling hills. In going back at least 3,000 years.” through Sicily, Maing learned Maing recalls people writing. Palermo, he went to Giuseppe According to Thucydides, the that in the mid-1900s, its cities “Today,” he says, “if you go to a Zacco’s shop and, seeing the suits island’s earliest inhabitants were housed hundreds of tailors. window display and see a men’s on display, noticed that the the Sicani. Their cave art dates Siracusa, which was then home jacket, more likely than not it sleeveheads were less structured to 8,000 BCE—millennia before to fewer than 100,000 people, had is Neapolitan.” than in English tailoring but not the arrival of the Elymians and 200 tailors. Today, Manhattan, Though Maing owned both fully unstructured. He held the the Sicels, for whom Sicily is with its 1.66 million inhabitants, Savile Row and Neapolitan suits, jackets, manipulating the fabric named. In the 11th century BCE, doesn’t have that many. he was still waiting for his as he examined the canvas—the the Phoenicians established “Postwar Italy was very poor,” Goldilocks moment. “I didn’t feel lining that provides structure settlements, followed by Greeks, Maing says, “with very few entirely at home with Neapolitan but is absent in Neapolitan suits, Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, options for families to make a tailoring or Savile Row, and I replaced by piping on the seams. Ostrogoths, Byzantines, Arabs living. Many went into tailoring tried many tailors.” Though the originality and and Normans. In 1130 CE, the since it was one of the few things Call it the intuition of the skill of the tailoring were clear, he Kingdom of Sicily became they could count on. Back then, explorer or the creative dissatis- didn’t yet know whether they were self-governing; it didn’t join Italy everyone wore bespoke clothing, faction of the perfectionist, but he representative of Sicily. “By the until 1861. including underwear.” kept looking until 2011, when he end of the week, it sank in that I “So many influences created But as ready-to-wear prices saw mentions of a third option. had found something new, though a culture that is resistant to dropped, tailors who spent “A friend of a friend of a at that point I was still thinking in extremes,” Maing says. “The 40 hours on a jacket couldn’t friend had his clothes made in terms of my personal wardrobe.” Neapolitan jacket is an extreme compete. Formality also Sicily. If I heard this from a He put in his first order and in terms of being unstructured. decreased, with many people random person, I wouldn’t have then a second and third with I don’t think that Sicilians are turning to jeans or athleisure. gone. But in online forums, subsequent tailors. He returned that extreme. Look at Sicilian And for those who still wanted people knew what they were to Sicily four times that year and architecture. It’s a fusion of suits, the division in global talking about. There was no has since made more than a different styles. Norman, very fashion between Savile Row other reason you would be dozen visits. linear. Sicilian baroque, an and Naples—Maing calls it

STANFORD 37 “very tribal”—obscured other met in San Francisco, the draw His parents, who have retired options even among Sicilians. of Sicilian Reserve was the to Orlando (he moved there to be Today, at 34, Claudio Italiano is handmade, artisanal aspect of close to them), don’t recall him the island’s youngest tailor, and Sicilian tailoring. having a childhood interest in most in the previous genera- “I had always associated clothing. They were puzzled by tion have closed shop, though formal menswear with boring, his career swerve. Though his with growing interest in Sicilian poorly fitting, uncomfortable mother’s father was a dress- tailoring, new apprentices are ‘For me, suits: the off-the-peg Brooks maker in Korea and had a honing their skills. On one visit to Brothers suits of my father. workshop there, Maing never Siracusa, Maing met the city’s last clothing is Exacerbating that, the media’s saw it. He muses that in a Korean remaining tailor and listened to portrayal of men who look sharp immigrant family, many things his stories—years painstaking- more cultural. in suits, such as James Bond or were implied, among them ly bent over a table sewing and It’s about how David Beckham, seemed very presenting well. “They didn’t cutting or instructing apprentices. remote from who I am. I do not have to say that you have to look In 2011, Maing wrote these things consider myself stylish; I was good or be serious about your Sleevehead’s Guide to Sicilian simply looking for clothes that studies. This was the way things Tailors, with a second edition in came to be would make me feel my best.” were done.” 2017. Called “the definitive guide used, designed Though Klivans considered But the suit, as Maing to the subject” by Bruce Boyer, a tailors closer to home, he didn’t experienced it, wasn’t just about former fashion editor and writer and created. like their house styles, and he looking and feeling good; it was for such magazines as Town & saw little appeal in the online an embodiment of history. Country, GQ and Esquire, the I’m basically an men’s formalwear services run “For me, clothing is more book places Sicilian suits within anthropologist by what he calls “Instagram cultural. It’s about how these their larger, historical context. dandies”—“men with gelled hair things came to be used, designed Then, in the form of a travel in the supply and flamboyant pocket and created. I’m basically an guide, it introduces the island’s squares”—who would send his anthropologist in the supply major cities and tailors, enabling chain of measurements to the Far East. chain of menswear.” aficionados to independently menswear.’ Maing’s approach was a welcome Perhaps the most gratifying follow Maing’s path. contrast. “Juhn’s ability to share aspect of Maing’s work is Alternatively, he can bring and apply his expertise and reintroducing the lost craft of Sicilian tailoring to them. knowledge in a patient manner Sicilian tailoring to members of Through Maing’s website, is invaluable for the sartorial its own culture. His readers Sicilian Reserve, clients can novice,” Klivans says. (“aside from a few seamstresses”) order suits ranging in price from Sicilian Reserve now handles are an international mix of $3,000 to $5,500, or a jacket 20 customers each year, ranging men—a surprising number of alone, $2,500 to $4,500. (Those from descendants of Sicilian- whom are Sicilian. “This was one who prefer to supply their own American immigrants interested of the unexpected pleasures,” he cloth, as some of his vintage- in heritage, to bespoke cogno- says. “Within Sicily there isn’t a loving customers do, can have a scenti looking for something level of appreciation for their suit made for $2,500 or a jacket new, to neophytes in need of own artisans.” for $2,000.) Once an order is guidance. “I have many clients Once, a Sicilian shirt-maker, placed, Maing travels with a who know what they want,” Lillo Scarantino, offered to drive tailor to meet the client. Before Maing says. “I only step in if the Maing around the southwest of the company’s launch, there choice they are making may not the country. When they stopped were no traveling Sicilian tailors, work as they think it will.” at Scarantino’s shop in the small even though Europe has a long As for Maing’s own love for town of Caltanissetta, Maing met history of well-known tailors couture, its origin—beyond his his son, who was wearing a making trips to the United personal needs—is unclear. “I Neapolitan jacket while at work States. This is not simply for the meet people who were interested in the showroom. After speaking client’s convenience, he explains: in watches and ties when they with the son for a while, Maing “It’s also a question of optics.” were 10,” he says. “I went to a pointed to his own Sicilian jacket Spouses are not always magnani- public school without a serious and said, without a hint of sarcasm, mous about being left stateside dress code. I was pretty much a “The tailors here are great.” n while their husbands traipse off normal kid who liked model to Italy for suit fittings. airplanes and toys. But I needed Deni Ellis Béchard is a senior For Ethan Klivans, the to dress professionally, and one writer at Stanford. Email him at customer Maing and Italiano thing led to another.” [email protected].

38 JULY 2019