With the idea of acquiring a trade being re-evaluated, suit and shoe craftsmen have formed a strong base that rivals their heyday. In a world so crowded with talent that it's difficult to even make the starting lineup, Nobuhito Yamaguchi shows the potential to break into that competitive field.

Nobuhito Yamaguchi

Nobuto Yamaguchi ● Born in Tokyo. He enrolled in a fashion design school and aspired to become a tailor. After graduating, he learned the basics of tailoring at Osaka Five One, then went to Milan and spent a year attending language school and working at a tailor shop. After returning to Japan, he joined Mitsukoshi Isetan, and the following year he began taking custom orders exclusively for customers. He was impressed by the clothes of Gennaro Solito, who was visiting Japan for an event at ISETAN MEN'S store, and while working, he made time to go to Naples to study Neapolitan tailoring. In Spring/Summer 2016, he launched his own brand, La Scala.

Nobuhito Yamaguchi has been working on the clothing floor, honing his skills in repairs. His bespoke tailoring service, which he had been offering only to regular customers without much publicity, has been incredibly well-received. This spring, he has decided to officially launch the service at Isetan Shinjuku Store, Men's Building .

"The defining characteristic of my suits is their ability to conceal flaws. This stems from the chest-measurement method I learned in Naples."

There are two main methods for measuring for suits: the short-measure method and the chest-measure method. The former is popular in the UK and Japan, and involves measuring every possible part of the body to create a pattern. The chest-measure method, on the other hand, uses a formula based on the chest circumference, and other measurements are automatically calculated.



"When I first entered the world of tailoring, I thought the chest measurement method was like ready-made clothing. However, no matter how much I studied, I couldn't achieve the ideal proportions with the short measurement method that I had chosen. I felt a sense of frustration and desperation, with no end in sight. It was in that moment that a ray of hope appeared: Naples."

Yamaguchi sighed deeply as he examined a suit at a tailor shop in Naples, a place he was visiting for the first time. Before he knew it, several hours had passed since closing time.

"The chest measurement method has surprisingly few measurement points, and bold adjustments are made during the fitting. If the short-length method faithfully reproduces the wearer's silhouette, the chest measurement method is based on the maker's aesthetic sense, and then the wearer is fitted to that. We Japanese tend to focus on details like the barchetta pocket and manica camicia, but if you peel back the surface, there is a profound philosophy. This is when I was freed from the shackles of numbers. It was the moment I truly felt that suit making was enjoyable."


While working at Isetan, Yamaguchi would spend his entire salary traveling to Naples whenever he had a long vacation. When problems were pointed out, he would bring them back, make corrections, and have them reviewed again. This continued for several years.

"It was a series of things that were unthinkable by the standards of short-distance racing. For example, the inner edge. They would casually extend it by 1.5 centimeters, sometimes even 2 centimeters. In Japan, 1 centimeter was considered the limit. What I remember most is the advice to draw the lines as if a painter were drawing a picture."

Chest-measure suits often don't fit Japanese people, who tend to have distinctive shoulders, such as forward-sloping shoulders. Therefore, Yamaguchi devised innovative methods for attaching the collar and constructing the interlining. A tailor across the ocean told him there was nothing more to teach him.
There's a saying about wearing air as a veil, and that's exactly what La Scala was like. I was filled with admiration and showered him with every compliment I could think of, and for a brief moment, a hint of pride surfaced as he said that it was something he had achieved only after much hard work.

Steps after a long landing

Yamaguchi's journey to this point was, quite literally, full of twists and turns.

Wanting to be independent, Yamaguchi planned to get a job somewhere after graduating from high school, but his parents persuaded him that it was worth trying if there was something he enjoyed even a little. Yamaguchi, who frequented a vintage clothing store, went on to Bunka Fashion College.

However, it was a career path he had never considered before. The course he had chosen somewhat haphazardly was mainly focused on women's clothing, and he couldn't really picture himself in it. That's when he came across a British gentleman's book. "Is there really such a cool world out there?" Yamaguchi was instantly captivated and began exploring ways to get to Savile Row, eventually landing a job at Five One, a prestigious suit factory. A word from a senior colleague who had apprenticed there prompted Yamaguchi to change course once again. The advice was that if he wanted to experience the atmosphere of the good old Savile Row, he should go to Italy now.


After three years at Five One, where he had honed his sewing skills, Yamaguchi made his way to Caraceni, a leading Milanese tailor. He was determined to spend his life as Caraceni's right-hand man, but he was thwarted by the obstacles of a work visa. His savings ran out, and his dream was shattered after just one year. He returned to Japan with his back hunched over. It was then that he encountered the Neapolitan philosophy.

"I used to think that it would be okay to be poor as long as I could do what I loved, but now it's different. I want to create an unwavering tailoring culture, like the London House that has been passed down through generations."

Having emerged from a long plateau, Yamaguchi's next step is brimming with confidence. La Scala means "staircase" in Italian, and it also represents her own growth.

Text: Takegawa Keiji
Photo: Fujii Taku

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Premier Tailoring, 4th Floor, Isetan Shinjuku Store, Men's Building
03-3352-1111 (main representative)