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All About Isaia Suits...
Press Materials
Before hitting the junket scene, Hollywood's leading men are suiting up in Isaia made-to-measure.
Press Materials
Before hitting the junket scene, Hollywood's leading men are suiting up in Isaia made-to-measure. By Meenal Mistry
Matt Damon works the publicity circuit in Isaia suits; www.isaia.it. (Photo: Jason Merritt/FilmMagic)
As a third-generation suit maker whose family hails from the small southern Italian city of Casalnuovo—a place that 50 years ago had 7,000 tailors in a town of 14,000—Gianluca Isaia, 44, can endlessly discourse on the sartorial minutiae of Neapolitan cuts. But for Isaia, perhaps the most colorful marker of a well-crafted suit is what he dubs the Bus Exam. "If you get onto the bus and there is no place to sit, you have to hold on to the rail," he explains. "The test is that when you raise your arm, your jacket should stay down."
In the past year, Isaia has outfitted Jake Gyllenhaal and Matt Damon in made-to-measure suits, shirts, and ties that look both modern and classic for their Rendition and Bourne Ultimatum press tours. Though the actors likely spent little time straphanging, the hand-finished shoulders surely made elegant work of waving to fans. Isaia also created a custom wardrobe for Chazz Palminteri to wear in the Broadway revival of his one-man show, A Bronx Tale. Non-Hollywood types can get the same treatment through the company's boutiques at Barneys New York, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Neiman Marcus. (Suits start at $3,200.) The process is honed to a five- or six-week science, beginning with measurements and photos. "There are no mistakes," Isaia says, since the slightest anomaly in the dimensions dispatched to Italy is cause for many a transatlantic call. Among the multitude of decisions: Fabric must be selected from nearly 1,000 options, and details chosen from 200 combinations of models, pockets, vents, and lapels. The pattern is created with a specialized computer program developed by an Italian software designer, but after that, it's up to the skilled hands of Isaia's tailors, who apprentice for 10 years before becoming worthy of the title. (Of the factory's 240 employees, only about 40 have earned that designation.) "When I talk about a tailor, I'm not talking about someone who can make a few alterations," Isaia notes. "I'm talking about someone who can make a full suit from start to finish."