Life Skills

Style Breakdown – Permanent Style

Jan 16, 2024
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This ulster-style overcoat was made for me by Sartoria Ciardi, the Neapolitan tailor, in 2020. Although I’ve had a few pieces of tailoring from Ciardi in the past five years, this is my only coat from them.

It has proved to be one of my favourites, as much for the material as the style. The material is a heavy wool, the British Warm from Holland & Sherry (9819306), although it’s really the colour that has proved so successful – a taupe that manages to be both classic and interesting, smart and casual.

The ulster style is a common one in Naples (at least going on the number of tailors who offer it by default) and less so among English tailors, who tend towards peak-lapelled DBs. We’ve written in the past here about the different types of coat, if you want a refresher.

The differences are important, because the point of ‘style breakdown’ articles is to compare different tailors’ styles, but the styles of coat in this new series will also vary. As mentioned in the article introducing the series, this will reduce the number of points of direct comparison, but it will also open up the scope of inquiry, and so hopefully make it more interesting in general.

We will start with three ulsters though, from Ciardi, Liverano and Cifonelli, so there direct comparisons will be possible.

House: Sartoria Ciardi

Address: Via Giuseppe Fiorelli 12, Naples

Site: www.sartoriaciardi.com

Cutter: Enzo Ciardi

Price (at time of writing): €5100 (incl VAT)

Suit starting price: €4000 (incl VAT)

The aspect of coat design that most defines an ulster is its gorge line – where the collar and lapel meet.

On a normal double-breasted coat, this would slope upwards and the peaked lapel would be much wider than the collar. On an ulster, the gorge line is horizontal or even slopes downwards, and the lapel and collar are almost the same width.

This makes it easier to wear the collar up, as the points of the lapel are less likely to poke the wearer under the chin. It is possible to make a peak-lapelled coat that works in this manner, but the ulster is easier and is more casual thanks to its patch or postbox pockets. It was originally more of a simple coverall, and still retains some of that feel.

Ulsters vary in how this gorge line is cut. With the Ciardi coat, the gorge slopes very slightly down, is quite closed, and starts quite high on the chest.

We’ll see this more clearly when we have the context of other ulsters in this series, but those three things combine to create a very particular look. The more closed gorge on the Ciardi, for instance, makes it look a little smarter to my eye.

I also know some people prefer the gorge line to be more horizontal, believing it to be more flattering. Personally I see less of a difference there, but I do think that if it slopes downwards, it helps if it starts higher up, as the Ciardi does.

Overall, a good rule of thumb is that anything that points at – and so emphasises – the shoulder is a good thing. Very sloped lines like that of a great coat, do not do this.

As with many of the coats we’ll cover, however, the most interesting area is the back.

A lot of bespoke coats build extra room and fullness into the back, to make it easier to get on and off and to aid movement when worn. This has the knock-on effect of being rather flattering, with all that excess gathered under the belt at the waist, then flaring out in the skirt. It makes your back big and your waist small.

Tailors vary quite a bit in how they deal with this fullness, however. The back can have various different combinations of darts and box pleats (closed at both ends) and also some excess that is simply left to be gathered by the belt.

Given the reputation of Neapolitan tailoring for softness and casualness, you might expect the Ciardi to be quite simple. But it’s actually fairly complicated.

Like a Florentine coat, the Ciardi has one long pleat that runs all the way down the length of the back. But it then has two additional box pleats in the middle, one on either side. Those pleats end in 5cm darts, rather than simply being tacked closed. And the central pleat does not end under the belt, as is more usual, but in line with those lower darts, around the level of the hips.

I should say that in my experience, the various ways of finishing the back don’t make much difference to comfort. The most important thing is how much fullness there is to begin with, and then how long and deep that central pleat is. What’s done either side makes little difference. So we’re largely talking about aesthetic points.

One way in which the Ciardi is quite simple – but still unusual – is the construction of the collar.

The collar is simply one piece of material folded over, where most have some form of insert on the back to give it shape. And there is no dart or cut underneath either.

As with the rest of the style breakdown series, I worked with a tailor to analyse these kinds of technical details, and they highlighted this point. Without either the insert or a cut under the collar, a lot of ironwork is required to shape it.

And that ironwork has to be very precise, as you have to create a curve that perfectly meets the line of the lapel on either side. You need to work it in stages, letting the material dry out between each one to see where it settles.

Elsewhere, the things that give the coat personality are its curved breast pocket, very natural sleevehead, and two lines of stitching around the edges. Like the rest of the finishing, this stitching is good by Neapolitan standards but certainly not as neat as English or North Italian tailors.

There’s also the turnback cuff, which opts to have its seam on the inside rather than the outside of the sleeve. You need to pick one, and most tailors go for the outside, as we shall find in subsequent pieces. The Ciardi way does have the advantage of making the cuff look cleaner, however.

The next coat in this series will be my Liverano Ulster, in a week’s time. For more on the background to this series, including how the measurements below are taken, see the introduction here. The whole Style Breakdown series can be seen here.

Other photos of this coat (including with collar up) here.