\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter if your guests will not buy my gloves, just come and make sure to stay with me at least one hour or don\u2019t come at all\u201d.<\/p>\n
Over nine years time, this would be the only answer that Mauro Squillace,<\/strong> a 4th generation glove maker in Naples, would give me when I was calling to organize a visit for my students or friends to his Omega glove factory. Located in the third no-elevator floor of an ancient building at the entrance of the Sanit\u00e0 district, his \u201cfactory\u201d couldn\u2019t look less than that, being more similar to typical neapolitan apartment when a bunch of employees (family members for Mauro, some of which have been working since Mauro\u2019s father was in charge) would be very busy in the final production steps of the last 100% made in Naples leather gloves<\/strong>, the only ones that, in Mauro\u2019s words, survived the era and the temptations of globalization.<\/p>\n About this Mauro used to say: \u201cI don\u2019t like to send e-mails: even at times of globalization a phone call before or a shake of hands later are always the best contract\u201d<\/strong>.<\/p>\n When I first met Mauro he couldn\u2019t speak any English, while of course he was fluent in French because of his frequent relationships with Paris. And so our visits to Omega would always sound like a cabaret show with me trying to translate whatever came to his mind, from the glorious past of the Bourbon kindgdom, to\u00a0 jokes in dialect, to the smallest technical detail of glove making. In a few years Mauro would not need my translation anymore, he would explain everything in his perfect Neapolitan \u2013 English (even the jokes) and I could relax and enjoy the show with my guests. Students and visitors were so fascinated by his passion and competence that we always ended up to spend there the double of the scheduled time, with a good 30 minutes in buying those wonderful pairs of gloves. Meeting Mauro was for my students the first very original encounter with the best that the heart of Naples could offer, beyond the beauty of the post-card stereotypes. Mauro was a gentle, proud Neapolitan, a skillful, honest, stubborn hard worker, a life lover with a great passion for food, motorbike and Massa Lubrense sea.<\/p>\n Well, Mauro Squillace just left us, in silence<\/strong>, after over one year of struggling with a bad cancer, a situation that noone but the closer members of his family were aware of. Alberto, his right arm and beloved son \u2013 today the new\u00a0Omega\u00a0manager<\/strong> \u2013 gave me the sad news a few days ago, saying it was Mauro\u2019s will to keep this silent and to keep humbly working and enjoying life as always, as if the beast was not there. I took it as charming Mauro last joke, a bad one in this case, and I tried to smile reminding a picture on his desk of him embracing\u00a0his beloved daughter Martina \u2013\u00a0today a young designer in Paris \u2013 and Alberto, and of the good life example he has left to them and to all of us in heritage. Napoli just lost another great ancient soul.<\/strong> So long, my dear friend, and long live Omega.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter if your guests will not buy my gloves, just come and make sure to stay with me at least one hour or don\u2019t come at all\u201d. Over nine years time, this would be the only answer that Mauro Squillace, a 4th generation glove maker in Naples, would give me when I was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63,77,130],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artigianato-en","category-artisan","category-the-last-neapolitan-glove-maker"],"yoast_head":"\n