For a womenswear presentation, this Kiton offering looked at first alarmingly empty. In a room surrounded by cutting patterns rested a half-finished gray jacket: gorgeous, mind you, but nonetheless a little sparse.
Then Maria Giovanna Paone, vice president, creative director, and scion of the Kiton Neapolitan tailoring dynasty, bopped over to explain. “This,” she said mid-wave at said jacket, “is the product and the real identity of Kiton. This is our life. All its quality lies in the hand of our tailors. We have access to the best fabrics in the world and the best quality. The loneliness of this jacket is here to give emphasis to what we do.”
It was a bold but justified move. Because, although there were some lovely long dresses—Kiton only does one or two a season—plus shirts and pajama pants in tie-fabric foulard, the star here will always be tailoring. According to Paone, their female clients—who only represent approximately 10 percent of the house’s business—come to Kiton because they require quality that doesn’t scream for attention. “Our women don’t want labels, apart maybe from the handbags—and then only Chanel and Hermès,” said Paone
If you are a self-made female power broker who wants her clothes to express a form of perfection—and not to mark you as a walking billboard—then Kiton should loom large on your shopping list.
