Meet Our Makers: E. Marinella
When E. Marinella opened its doors in 1914, Naples was an important stop for English gentlemen taking the Grand Tour. It was a time when neckwear was crucial to the well-dressed man. Indeed, Oscar Wilde maintained that "A well tied tie is the first serious step in life".
The shop sold ties made from patterned silk fabrics that were especially woven and printed in England then handmade in Naples and so provided a "little corner of England" for those travelers. Word spread, E.Marinella became famous and the ties sought-after. Over a century later, the fourth generation of the same family still has a shop in the same spot, and still makes ties by hand in the same silk fabrics woven and printed for them in England that they have always used.
The Grand Tour may no longer be de rigueur for the properly educated young man, but the world still comes to Naples and to E.Marinella as well.