Our Story
Castielli is a small house cutting Mediterranean summer clothing: linen shirts, coastal trousers, suede loafers and resort sandals, shipped free anywhere in the world.
It started with one shirt, bought on holiday for the price of two coffees, that refused to wear out. Everything below is what happened after we went looking for how it was made.
Positano, August
A twelve euro shirt
It came off a rail in a shop the size of a garage, three streets above the beach. No label anyone would recognise. Two summers later it had been through salt water, a washing machine in a rented flat and a hundred and something wears, and the collar still sat exactly where it should. Every expensive shirt bought that same year had already lost its shape.
The materials
Linen that breathes, suede that takes your shape
Our linen is woven in a heavier weight than most summer shirting, which is why it holds its line at two in the afternoon instead of clinging. It softens with every wash and never needs an iron.
The loafers are genuine suede over stitched soles. Worn sockless for a week they stop being new shoes and start being yours.
The price
The same cloth, minus the logo
Finding that shirt again in Europe meant choosing between a designer label at 280 euros and fast fashion that pills by September. We went to look at where both were actually made. The linen came off the same looms in Italy and Portugal. The suede came out of the same tanneries. What changed between the two price tags was the name stitched inside the collar.
So we cut our own, sell direct, and price it at what the cloth and the work are worth.
Where the money goes
The same shirt, priced three ways. Figures are what we paid for comparable pieces in Milan and on the high street this year.
| Feature | Castielli | Italian boutique | High street |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pure linen, woven in Italy and Portugal | |||
| Genuine suede, stitched soles | |||
| Price of a linen shirt | 79,90 | 240 to 320 | 25 to 40 |
| Still in shape after two summers | |||
| Direct from the mill, no reseller markup | |||
| Same colors restocked season after season |
Styled by the Community
