Last week, Antonio Ciongoli announced he was leaving Eidos (Link to the full announcement on Styleforum). Not surprisingly, about a dozen friends texted, tweeted and messaged me asking for my thoughts, given that I’m a super fan of the brand. My thoughts and feelings were, and still are, somewhat complicated. Well, some of them are. The ones that aren’t are that I wish Antonio well on his next endeavor, that without a doubt he is a very talented designer whose work I will follow for as long as he’s doing it, and that nonetheless I am sad he is leaving Eidos. He stated the brand will continue after his departure, and he is retaining his equity in the company. That’s reassuring. Late last year, he had stated that Isaia was building a new facility to produce sportswear for Eidos. That development alone adds certainty in my mind that Isaia has some kind of long term plan for this brand. We can expect that Eidos will continue on with a new creative director, who at the earliest will be designing a Fall/Winter 2018 collection. It will be interesting to see what their vision is for the brand. Could it be a Black Fleece kind of thing, where they have a renowned designer reinterpret their brand (in this case, Isaia) in a more adventurous or experimental light? Or maybe it will continue to have its own, separate identity as it has so far, just with a new twist from a new person behind the helm.
Eidos existed before Antonio’s involvement, and will continue on after it, but it is 100% his work that I have loved. This is why I have such mixed emotions. My interest in clothing started about when I joined Styleforum in late 2008, but it wasn’t until about 2012 that I started in earnest down the path of identifying my style. From 2012 and for the next two
years is when I started figuring out that I like the Ivy League’s comfortable approachability, but also really loved the silhouette and attitude of Southern Italian tailoring. In the summer of 2014 is when I first started reading about Eidos, which had just released its first collection. It was instantly appealing to me (a major part in those days was Antonio’s personal what are you wearing today pics, such as this one, which he posted on Styleforum). It turns out, he also had a major affinity for a combination of Ivy and Southern Italy. His personal blog from years earlier, 13th & Wolf (later Tredici e Lupo), bore testament to that, and in many ways Eidos was that fusion come to realization.
My wife bought me my first Eidos product, a Camicia polo, as an anniversary gift (which I am wearing right now while writing this post) that September. I drooled over photos of the pieces from the Fall/Winter 2014 collection that No Man Walks Alone carried. Fellow Styleforum guy Justin in San Francisco messaged me back and forth with swatch pics we were dying over. That collection introduced the Lorenzo cut, which was designed as an homage to Florentine tailor Liverano. Of all the tailoring houses in the world whose work I’ve admired
online, Liverano is the one I’ve always loved best. It was as if Antonio had set out to create a brand that made clothes exactly for me, that were a nearly exact expression of my tastes and style.
I obsessively found every article, interview and video about the brand. Starting in 2015 is when I was able to start buying the clothes, and since then I have systematically replaced every
piece of tailored clothing in my wardrobe with an Eidos piece. On me, it fit perfectly (friends jealously commented it was if the brand was made to fit me). There is no brand in the world that has ever created a spring/summer collection I’ve lusted over, except Eidos. My favorite collection may be the SS15 collection, Il Cuore di Pescatore—which is saying a lot, given how incredible the textures and fabrics are from AW14 (Faces of Firenze) and some of his other Fall/Winter collections.
Eidos put my sartorial journey on easy mode. I am extremely picky about clothes, and nearly everything Antonio designed nailed it for me. The inward-curving arc of the lapels that swoop through the quarters (most notably on the Ciro cut, but also evident on the Tenero cut), the open-patch hip pockets, the barchetta chest pocket, the un-padded shoulder showcasing spalla camicia—almost every detail of the cut was almost exactly to my preference. And his eye for fabric is fantastic. It’s unique, textured, and easy to dress up or down. The sales associates I had in my phone at stores who carried Eidos would say things like, “I want to get you into an Isaia jacket,” but they didn’t understand the depth to which Eidos clicked with me.
Even as he began de-emphasizing tailoring in lieu of sportswear in silhouettes I didn’t care as much for, the majority of the clothes Eidos produced were things I liked and could wear. And there were still several retailers where tailoring sold well who continued to knock it out of the park in the tailoring they picked up. My favorite Eidos pieces were all from FW14 (this beauty) or SS15 (this and this)—until I bought this gorgeous piece from the FW16 collection. And I just recently picked up this incredible suit from a recent season as well (in the Ciro cut, descendant of the Lorenzo, replacing the last non-Eidos tailoring I owned). The photos Marcus Malmborg and Greg from NMWA posted from the showroom for SS18 were off the charts. The preorders available at No Man Walks Alone (until July 30, act fast!) look great as usual. Wholesale buyers from another store told me the SS18 collection was the best it
had looked and fit in a long time. I was intrigued to try the new, improved Locust and Vincent fits (updates on the Tenero and Ciro).
I am in mourning over the professional exit of the designer whose vision aligned so closely with mine in his work for this Italian-owned brand. In May after meeting Antonio during an event promoting the SS17 collection, I better understood his desire to explore the rest of the world’s sartorial heritage. He emphasized to me that Neapolitan tailoring is
the best in the world, but he was interested in finding other cultural bests and sharing those through his collections. I wrote then that I was excited about the future of the brand, but looking back I wonder if that was a clear sign of an expiration date on his tenure at Eidos. It is, after all, owned by Isaia, who had asked him to triple his designs for tailoring for a recent collection. Perhaps his growing, multicultural vision for the future exceeded the boundaries his bosses wanted the brand to be focused on.
A friend noted that once Antonio started working from home, his personal style became more casual, and his collections started emphasizing the sportswear and casualwear more, too. As someone who also began working from home in the last 2 years, I can relate. And so I wonder what his next venture will be. Will it include tailoring? He stated in this interview
that being a tailoring brand is tough right now. He made that statement while producing full-canvas tailoring in a unique silhouette with killer fabrics at a $900-1500 price point with one of the greatest RTW Italian brands behind him. The odds are not in my favor that his next solo venture will include much in the way of suits and sportcoats, button-ups and ties.
And for Eidos’ part, will the next creative director keep anything from his or her predecessor around? Antonio speculated that whoever it will be, they will likely hit the reset button starting with their first collection. Being completely honest, the thought of a completely reimagined Eidos that hits reset with a new designer will likely be kind of like Billy Reid to me: “Yeah, I have a pair of their pants that I like.”
Easy mode couldn’t last forever, I suppose.
Thankfully, Antonio is very talented. There is still a ton of non-tailored Eidos clothing that I own, wear, and love. The chambray shirts, collaboration shoes, outerwear and sweaters (oh, the sweaters!) from Eidos I have all get tons of regular wear and are favorites in my wardrobe. So I’m sure whatever his next venture is, he’ll design stuff I will want to buy.
And actually, the uncertainty makes it a bit more exciting. For all I know Eidos’ new creative director might bring a fresh perspective I’ll love, and Antonio will get to design things that wouldn’t have fit within the Eidos brand that will be killer. Things change, and while we can wistfully reminisce about our favorite bygone era, staying there would inevitably only bring boredom.
So here’s to change, fresh perspectives and success to my favorite menswear designer, Antonio Ciongoli.
Below are some of my favorite photos from Eidos’ collections past. Images from Eidosnapoli.com, Antonio’s Instagram, No Man Walks Alone, Mr Porter and Styleforum.
