Men Designer Shirts

Kiton Napoli Shirts- Sartorial Tradition. Hand stitched collar, buttons, armhole, shoulders and cuffs! Probably one of the best shirts in the world.

Kiton Shirt, hand made in Italy. Napoleaten Tradition.

Sebastiano Borrelli, Kiton's shirt manager mentiones:

Kiton men shirts, made from the finest thread-count cottons, requires six hours of labor and more than 100 sewing operations, including 17 distinctive hand-sewing applications.

“Notice how there is no lining in the shirt placket, only folded fabric,” explains Kiton’s shirt manager Sebastiano Borrelli, a cousin of Fabio Borrelli, whose family has, until recently, been making shirts in Naples for nearly a century under its own name.

Borrelli’s paternal grandmother, Anna Borrelli, is considered the inventor of the three-sided crow’s foot stitch that every Neapolitan shirtmaker, including Kiton, has since adopted as its own. The distinctive stitch is one of many defining details that characterize a shirt as handmade, since no machine can crisscross a button.

Other hand-sewn details on a typical Kiton shirt, which is made in the company’s own factory adjacent to its suit-making operation, are embroidered buttonholes and handkerchief-rolled and stitched edges. The collar on the shirt is also particularly noteworthy for its inside panel of oxford cotton to prevent neck irritation and shrinkage.

One more stylistic flourish: Kiton always leaves one centimeter of thread behind the button so when it begins to disappear, hopefully after years of wear, the shirt’s owner can tell when his button is about to fall off.

Some quotes from an interview with Kiton CEO Antonio De Matteis

How do new customers get to know Kiton?
Almost every week, our boutiques and associated shops around the world have made-to-measure events in store. This week I’m going to San Francisco with four craftsmen: a tailor, a shirt-maker, a tie-maker and a shoemaker. We will be demonstrating how everything is made so that customers can see our quality. When it comes to introducing your products to new customers, you have to educate.

Can you tell us more about CIPA, Kiton’s capsule collection?
The CIPA 1960 is a collection that goes back to Kiton’s roots. My uncle and I researched Kiton's history and revisited the 1960s collections. We not only studied archive models, we also re-discovered all the fabrics and materials used back then. We turned to factories in the UK, in Scotland, in order to have these materials produced again. This capsule collection will continue to draw lots of inspiration from our archive.

How would you describe the Kiton gentleman?
He’s someone who is passionate about clothes, and likes to shop for himself. Most of the time, he prefers to go unnoticed. He wants an understated kind of luxury. The average age of our customers ranges from 35 to 55, and they are people who travel a lot.