Thoughts on the Official End of Eidos

Eidos, that force of menswear which so masterfully made Neapolitan tailoring exciting for younger men in the middle of the 2010s, appears to have finally been closed for good. I still tag their Instagram on my posts from time to time (always identifying it as “Ciongoli era”), and noticed it wouldn’t come up in search. I went to the official website eidosnapoli.com, and sure enough it’s no longer being hosted.

Chalk it up to coronavirus and COVID19’s massive economic impact on account of the shutdowns, I presume. While those of us who have followed the company since the beginning mourned its demise three years ago, it’s nonetheless a noteworthy end.

If you haven’t followed my musings for very long, Eidos under Antonio Ciongoli played a massive role in my wardrobe. I’ve been interested in menswear since 2008 or so, which is when I first joined Styleforum. Constrained budgets meant I got much of my wardrobe the first 5 years after that secondhand or on deep discount at end of season sales. I leaned fairly heavily into the Ivy look, buying Brooks Brothers, Polo Ralph Lauren and Kamakura, while also supporting some of the Styleforum-associated businesses that started in the last decade or so—Epaulet, Howard Yount, etc.

I was doing OK figuring out what brands worked for me, but in 2013 I started seeing photos of a great-looking guy in unbelievable tailoring. In 2014, images that I didn’t connect as being related started filtering into my feeds, on Tumblr, mostly, and even on Instagram a little bit as well. Then at the end of summer 2014, the Eidos thread on Styleforum got going in full swing and I became obsessed.

If there were ever a menswear brand that embodied my personal style, Eidos (particularly in the first 3 seasons) was it. All the aspects of tailoring that I’d tried up to that point that I found lacking, Eidos made right. Perfect soft construction (lightweight canvassing in only a couple layers giving it just enough body without being heavy), perfect natural shoulder (the canvas extending up through the shoulder, but adding no additional padding in the hollow of the upper chest or on the shoulder line itself), spalla camicia and grinze (shirt sleeve construction with pleating for a waterfall effect), but the most important detail that nobody else had done off-the-rack and which is still unusual was the perfect “arc lapel,” as Ciongoli called it. The “negative belly”, as some might describe it, which gives the lapel a slight inward curve from the buttoning point up to the notch, creating a smooth arch that visually extends all the way down through the bottom hem of the jacket. Bellissimo. It was sort of a simulacrum of the Neapolitan way of cutting lapels straight, but rolling the lapel starting slightly above the buttoning point, which visually makes the lapel look like it curves inward.

Of course, looking back on it, the rose colored glasses come out and the nostalgia kicks in. But the company was plagued with production problems at all times, every season, and there was much disappointment even in its heyday. Casual pants cut different every season; shirts made in the most beautiful washed denim ever—but by a factory with no experience in garment washing, so they came out 3 inches too short; tailoring moving from factory to factory so the same patterns came out so different as to fit a full size different; quality issues even within the same season being cut by the same factory; late deliveries to retailers so they’d just refuse delivery and there’d be nothing to buy; the early promise of MTM being cut short because the company had just two employees (Ciongoli and the extremely nice and also handsome Quentin). When it was good, it was really good. But boy, when it disappointed it was a heartbreak.

I lived in Cincinnati at the time, and discovered the brand fairly late into the first season, when most of the goods were on discount in August. At that time, in 2014, almost none of the retailers who sold it did so online—not Bloomingdale’s, even, their biggest benefactor; and almost none of the small, independent retailers across the country who sold it. There wasn’t a list of retailers you could find it; guys were texting some dude in San Francisco at the Bloomingdale’s to get cell phone pics. No Man Walks Alone carried it starting with the Fall-Winter collection in 2014, but they were an exception in doing great e-commerce (they still are in many ways, frankly).

Finally, I was able to visit a shop in April 2015 (Haymaker’s, here in Nashville), that carried it to be able to try it on in person. That was their third season—which Ciongoli later said was the last season they emphasized tailoring in response to sales and market conditions. In other words, just when I’d found something good and was able to buy into it, what attracted me to it changed and became much harder to get. Don’t get me wrong, I still found a way to buy a lot—sales guys at shops around the country I would text; every e-commerce site that existed bookmarked; an encyclopedic knowledge of every cut, how it fit, and how it changed season to season. NMWA carried only their tailoring (and outerwear), so that was a consistent source (and usually the best) that resulted in some of my favorite pieces (emerald green herringbone blazer, you rule). But as the collections shifted focus to casual wear, the soul of it changed and it embodied my style less and less.

By the time Ciongoli left in 2017, I was still a huge fan of the brand, but all the problems from consistency issues to the emphasis on design traditions further afield than I’m into meant I was essentially ready to move on anyway. Most who loved the brand were, too; those who loved it more once the tailoring was de-emphasized have enjoyed his work at 18 East.

Simon Spurr, the designer who took over Eidos in an effort to make it more into what the parent company Isaia wanted (get lots of hype and make lots of money, is probably how I’d phrase it) made it a generic luxury brand—tight suits with luxe-feeling details like shiny gold buttons or wild prints. While there were some things he designed that appealed to me, it was only a handful of items. He lasted only a year or so before leaving; his second-hand man, Michael Handis, took over and his first collection was to be fall-winter 2020. Antonio had said he was excited to see Handis’ take, both at the time and just this week again. But alas, it is not to be. Perhaps we will see some samples for sale by SartoriadiLusso on eBay (a reseller who has some business relationship with Isaia and sells many samples and other overstock goods of theirs).

Since this is the final, official goodbye to Eidos, I’ve posted my favorite images from their history below. I still go back to these for inspiration and to enjoy. I hope you enjoy them, too. Also check out the Glen Allsop Tumblr they used way back when to host the lookbook images. So much good stuff. Images below taken from the old Eidos website, Tumblr, Styleforum or Instagram.