Ariston

Neapolitan suiting with colour and nerve

Ariston is a Neapolitan cloth house, and it dresses like one. The Imparato family has sold men's suiting from Naples since 1920, after Ferdinando Imparato decided around the turn of the century to tie his future to fabric. Four generations on, the family still runs it, now from the CIS trade and logistics centre at Nola, outside the city, having moved out of Naples' historic centre. The house marked its centenary in 2020.

Ariston is a merchant rather than a mill, and it is open about that. It sources its cloth only from Italian weavers, with Irish linen the one exception, and sells it only under the Ariston name. Most of its business is abroad, with clothing makers, boutiques and fashion houses. The book is large and restless: more than 500 fabrics across wool, mohair, silk, cashmere, cotton and linen, renewed every six months.

What Ariston is known for is nerve. Where Biella tends toward restraint, Naples likes colour, bold pattern and lighter cloth for a warm climate and soft tailoring. You go to Ariston when navy and grey have been done and the brief calls for something with personality that still belongs in a well-cut suit.

The practical side impresses too. Orders placed by half past two leave Nola the same day, and Ariston will cut a single length with no minimum, which suits made-to-measure work, where every commission is one of one.

Ariston does not publish where its fibre is grown or how its weavers are certified, so we make no claims for it on that front. What we can say is that the cloth is made in Italy and chosen by a family that has done this for a century.

Naples dresses for heat, and so do we. A lighter Ariston cloth moves air in a way a dense northern worsted never will, and the colour range gives a commission somewhere to go. The Rue Meynadier Burgundy Suit in our range is cut from Ariston cloth: a bold red check in Super 130s wool, double-breasted with six buttons, in a style that was spotted at Melbourne Fashion Week. It shows what the house does best, a strong idea made with enough discipline to wear to work. It is made to measure in Sydney. Ask to see the current Ariston book at your fitting.