Meet Salvatore Ambrosi, the third-generation Neapolitan trouser-maker whose bespoke offerings are now available in Singapore at menswear boutique Leong T.

To say that Salvatore Ambrosi is a busy man is an understatement. The self-taught tailor and scion of the burgeoning Ambrosi Napoli empire spends half the year at his workshop in Naples, Italy, overseeing production, and the other half jetting across the globe to meet his customers, do fittings and deliver the finished goods.

“I travel every two days. I prefer taking night flights so I don’t waste time. It’s a tough life, but I can do it. I’m still young,” says the 35-year-old. “That’s life. You need to be busy, otherwise you can’t have good business.”

Good business he certainly has. Ambrosi Napoli has a team of 20 tailors who produce 1,500 pairs of trousers a year. On average, they cost €1,000 ($1,516) a pair, and can go up to €1,200. In Singapore, where we met at his inaugural trunk show at gentlemen’s outfitters Leong T in November, they cost upwards of $1,320. It may sound pricey, but not if you take things into perspective.

“Trousers [make up] 40% of the price of a suit. So, if you pay €5,000 for a suit, it means you’re paying €2,000 for the pants. It can’t be €4,000 for the jacket and €1,000 for the pants,” Ambrosi reasons.

Each pair of the brand’s trousers is hand-cut, hand-sewn and hand-stitched, a process that requires about eight hours, mostly because of the amount of sewing involved. Ambrosi and his team do not rely on any set patterns to construct a garment; each one is built from scratch following customers’ individual measurements. The beauty of this method of construction is that the trousers are sculpted to fit the body, giving the wearer a high level of comfort.

Signature Ambrosi characteristics are a high waist, thick waistband, large tab fastening with trademark “Pancierina” closure, reinforced stitched pleats, doublestitched seams, narrow leg openings and generous cuffs.

Such details have been refined over the decades and are hallmarks of the classic Neapolitan style, thanks to the fact that over the years, Ambrosi has made trousers for Naples’ most venerated tailor ing houses — Attolini, Formosa, Panico, Rubinacci and Solito, to name a few. But the Ambrosi name did not quite attain the level of fame that those houses enjoy. Until now, that is. Ambrosi relates how Japanese menswear addicts would go to Naples to seek out labels such as Attolini and Rubinacci, but not Ambrosi because they had never heard of it. “Now, it’s the opposite — they don’t come because they think I’m too expensive!”

The company has its roots in post-war Italy. With the economy in a shambles then, families had to eke out a living as best they could. Ambrosi’s grandfather and father started a small, home-based tailoring business in Naples’ working-class neighbourhood of Quartieri Spagnoli (Spanish Quarter). The district had a less-than-stellar reputation, with a high incidence of petty crime — some have compared it to New York’s Bronx — and Ambrosi’s mother, fearing for his safety, encouraged him to stay at home.

“I was eight years old when I started working with my grandfather. But it wasn’t real work, just bringing him coffee and picking things off the floor. The real work started when I was 12 years old, when I began sewing. Then I started to cut and finish. I didn’t like it at first; it was a job. But I loved my grandfather and I grew to love this business.”

Ambrosi never went to school. Everything he knows today he learnt on the street, he says. Up until his twenties, he didn’t even speak English, but that did not stop him from going to the US. “I had an American dream and went [to New York] for a holiday once. There, I saw big [department stores] such as Barney’s and Bergdorf Goodman, and I was super attracted. There were [Neapolitan] brands like Kiton and I thought to myself, ‘Why [isn’t Ambrosi] here?’”

It was a light-bulb-moment. Realising the immense business potential of his brand, he began contacting menswear retailers in New York, and later San Francisco and London, to organise trunk shows. In Asia, his first point of contact was Seoul, followed by Tokyo, Hong Kong, Manila, Shanghai, Beijing and, as at 2015, Singapore.

Despite being represented by an international network of retailers and having a loyal, global following, Ambrosi insists he still has a traditional, mom-and-pop tailor’s mindset. “When you do business, you [tend to be very calculative]. I don’t do that. I don’t care if my trousers take five or 10 hours to make. If I changed [the business model], I could maybe make more money. But I don’t care about making more money.” Hong Kong is currently his biggest market, accounting for one-third of annual orders, or about 500 pairs of trousers. “Most customers buy one or two pairs, but in Hong Kong, they buy five or six. People there have money like candy!” he quips.

Ambrosi’s customers do not fit a particular demographic; they come from all walks of life and span all ages. “I have young guys, old guys, businessmen, fashion guys, everyone! I’m a good age to be — younger guys come to me because I’m older, and older guys come to me because they want to feel young!”

Neapolitan tailors tend to pass their skills down to their sons, but Ambrosi, who has two daughters aged four and six, is not fazed by not having a male heir just yet. “I’m 35; I have another 35 years to go [before retiring]. It’s too early to worry. I’m the next generation. Let me worry about the present.”

For information on Ambrosi’s next trunk show in Singapore, call +65 8353 6999 or email jc@leongt.com

 Besides chronicling developments in the luxury watch industry, Aaron De Silva also runs The Time Traveller SG on Instagram (@thetimetravellersg) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/thetimetravellersg)

This article appeared in the Options of Issue 719 (March 14) of The Edge Singapore.