Niccolo Giotto

The boutique at 2928 M Street NW has been at this address since 1993, which means Nicky Sedooteh has been selling Italian clothing in Georgetown for more than three decades. The current format, which consolidated the separate Lorenzo and Giotto storefronts into a single two-floor boutique in 2011, places the men’s and women’s collections in the same address under a combined name. The ground floor, which the Niccolo side of the name refers to, carries the menswear. The upper floor, which the Giotto name designates, presents the womenswear.

Sedooteh’s approach to the menswear inventory is personal in a way that distinguishes the boutique from larger Italian menswear retailers. He travels to Italy to select the inventory himself, which means the suits, jackets, and trousers that arrive on the ground floor represent his own assessment of what the Italian market is producing rather than a commercial buying formula applied remotely. The brands he carries include Belvest, Castangia, Belisario, Cortigiani, and Luciano Barbera, which are the names in Italian men’s clothing that dress well in the price and quality tier between the affordable Italian imports and the full Kiton and Brioni tier. These are brands that a customer who knows Italian menswear will recognize and that the educated buyer arrives looking for specifically.

The made-to-measure service is available for clients who want a suit built for their specific proportions rather than selected from the floor stock and altered. The Italian fabric selection that Sedooteh maintains for the made-to-measure program draws from the mills of Biella and Loro Piana, and the construction choices the client makes at the fitting determine what kind of suit the finished piece will be. Image consulting is offered for clients who want guidance beyond the garment selection itself.

The womenswear on the upper floor carries Moschino and a selection of Italian and European women’s fashion brands that have the sophisticated and fashion-aware character that the boutique’s Italian sourcing philosophy maintains. The Giotto side of the business addresses the Georgetown professional woman who wants European women’s fashion at the level of editorial selection rather than the mainstream American mid-market.

Georgetown’s professional class, particularly the lawyers, lobbyists, and government officials who wear suits regularly, provides the customer base for the menswear business. Sedooteh’s personal buying approach means that the M Street boutique carries things that the larger Italian menswear importers do not stock. Hours run from 10am Monday through Saturday. The boutique is closed Sunday. The Italian fabric selection that Sedooteh stocks for the made-to-measure program includes wools from the Biella region, which produces some of the finest suiting fabrics in the world, in a range of weights appropriate to Washington’s climate from the tropical weight summer woolens to the heavier tweeds for fall and winter. Clients interested in the made-to-measure service can visit the boutique for a consultation that begins with the fabric selection and proceeds through the measurement and fitting process that the finished suit requires. The M Street address at 2928 is open Monday through Saturday from 10am to 6pm.