Italy is a country where men have style, a casual chic. Mario de Luca learned his trade with his uncle who was a tailor in Atina, a village in the Lazio region. He went to Rome to work with some of the city’s top tailors before completing his training in prestigious companies in Milan. His appetite for adventure led him to set up a shop in Paris. In 1948, he opened his first workshop in Place Voltaire, before moving to Rue St-Honoré and Avenue Franklin Roosevelt. Mario de Luca is was an exceptional tailor with an innate sense of silhouette harmony. He had the “eye” for which great Italian tailors are known.

In the 1960s, he joined the Group of Five, which consisted of well-known tailors who presented their collections together twice a year in Paris. It was through this group that he met Joseph Camps, famous for his technique, his talent for innovation and his teaching skills. Today, a large number of tailors still consider themselves heirs to his “school”. From the moment they met, Mario de Luca and Joseph Camps understood how their styles were complementary. In 1969 they founded the Camps de Luca workshop in the centre of Paris, which has become a landmark for those in the know. Thanks to this great partnership and friendship, they soon led a team of 40 people and produced more than 1,000 costumes a year.

In 1970, Marc de Luca began his apprenticeship. He was 16 years old and loved the atmosphere of the workshop, where patience and precision prevailed. He spent 12 years learning the trade: assembly techniques, making patterns and later components, key moments in the creation of a costume. Every Sunday morning was a cutting class with Joseph Camps. Every day he made and remade suits under the eye of the other tailors and his father. In 1982 Marc de Luca became a Master Tailor and took on his first client. Coincidentally, it was also the year his second son Charles was born, who . would become his apprentice 20 years later.

A few years after Charles, it is Julien who joined the bespoke family business. All these years, Marc de Luca searched, doubted, rebelled and finally found his style, which led him back to the basics of tailoring, the line taught to him by Joseph Camps and Mario de Luca. Most important to him was the expertise he had gained with the Master Tailors, skills he would continue to promote around the world. Today it is Charles and Julien who are at Marc’s side to spread Parisian elegance. The tailors trained by Mario de Luca are always there to pass on their knowledge as well as the values that are unique to this company, dedicated to men’s elegance.