Jaffa

Chapter I of IV · Live

Jaffa.

— The Clock Tower —

Where the Mediterranean meets the Levant. Where four thousand years of stone meet salt air and morning light.

Why Jaffa

The oldest port in the world,
and the city we call home.

Jaffa is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on earth. For four thousand years, sailors and traders, pilgrims and conquerors have passed through its ancient harbour — Phoenicians, Egyptians, Crusaders, Ottomans. The stones of Jaffa have absorbed more history than most nations.

We chose Jaffa as our first chapter because it's where we're from. This is our home coast — the place where the Mediterranean meets the Levant, where ancient alleys open onto rooftop views of the sea. Jaffa isn't polished or pristine. It's real. Layered. Alive with contradictions.

The Ottoman clock tower — built in 1903 to mark Sultan Abdul Hamid II's silver jubilee — stands at the entrance to the old city like a sentinel between eras. Around it, domed mosques and church steeples, stone archways and wooden doors with hand-forged iron hinges, create a skyline that belongs to no single century.

"Jaffa is where Casa Valenti's heart beats — the city that taught us beauty lives in layers, not surfaces."

Our Jaffa drop captures the clock tower rising above the ancient port, surrounded by the swirling Mediterranean waves that have shaped this coastline for millennia. Below it, a fleet of small fishing boats. At the hem, the Greek key border — a quiet thread that will run through every chapter of the Grand Tour.

The Artwork

A panorama, drawn by hand.

The full Jaffa print.

The Jaffa print artwork — clock tower, old city panorama, Mediterranean waves, and Greek key border

Clock Tower · Old City Skyline · Mediterranean Waves · Greek Key Border

The Campaign

Cream linen, Mediterranean light.

Photographed in the slow afternoon hour, where everything looks newly built and a thousand years old at once.

The Jaffa shirt on Mediterranean stone stairs

The Craft

Three details worth turning over.

I — The Cloth

Pre-washed Mediterranean linen

140–160 GSM. OEKO-TEX certified. Washed before cutting so it falls open the first time you wear it, then keeps falling open for years. The weave is loose enough to breathe through, dense enough to hold the print.

II — The Buttons

Coconut shell, cut by hand

Plastic outlasts the planet. Coconut shell outlasts plastic, costs more, looks better, and ages like wood. Each button is cut from the husk, polished by hand, and stitched on with thread the colour of the linen itself.

III — The Trim

Terracotta on cream — the signature

The contrast band on the collar and cuffs is the only place where Pantone 7526C terracotta meets the cream. It reads as a quiet line at a distance and as deliberate craft up close — the kind of detail you only notice on the second look.

The Pieces