The story of the Neapolitan brand Kiton is a story of talent, passion and dedication to one’s work certainly leading to success. The Kiton factory was founded in 1968 near Naples by Ciro Paone. Five generations of his family were involved with the textile trade, and Ciro knew many tailors who were his clients. He was able to persuade 40 people to come to work at his factory. At the same time, he did not want to break the usual way of work, so the production of Kiton was organized in a rather unusual manner, and to this day this principle has remained unchanged, even though today the factory employs 350 tailors. In traditional ateliers, the tailor does all the work himself, except for an embroiderer overstitching the buttonholes. Kiton only employs full-fledged tailors who can sew an entire suit. However, labor division is observed: everyone is responsible for their own operation. Tailors (mostly men) are grouped according to the nature of the operations performed. They sit at communal tables or workstations. Scissors, a needle, some thread – that's the whole arsenal. The use of machines is minimized, the absolute majority of operations are performed by hand. Even the old 8-kilogram irons at the factory have not been changed to the modern steam ironing systems.
Some of the most experienced employees stand at the long cutting tables. Kiton often uses plaid or striped fabrics, so they are cut for each jacket separately with scissors.
At its core, Kiton remains almost a sartorial production, but with an industrial cycle. The factory sews about a hundred suits a day, each requires 27 work hours, 1800 operations and the labor of 25 people. The Kiton suit is a Neapolitan classic: a soft shoulder, minimal padding, a boat pocket and a lot of hand-crafted details, including the lining of the buttonholes.
Kiton is proud of the unique collections of fabrics created by order of the company from the best manufacturers in Italy and the UK, as well as in its own factories, including the famous Carlo Barbera factory in Biella. The Kiton warehouse stores 30 thousand meters of fabric with a total value of 10 million euros. Among them is the thinnest Carlo Barbera wool ever woven, the fiber thickness in it is only 12.8 micrometers. Another fine example is the reflective Solaro fabric made of ultrathin wool (fiber width 13.2 microns). Kiton also produces shirts, ties, and shoes. The Sartale store offers a wide selection of Kiton products: from canonical suits to shirts, polo shirts, jeans, shoes and outerwear.
