“When we get to Rome, I'll buy you a jacket in a fantastic place, at Battistoni's,” said Jude Law to Matt Damon in “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” a film that revels in the dolce vita of Americans in Rome in the 1960s.

It's a dolce vita that unspooled not only at the cafè tables of Via Veneto but in the boutiques of Via Condotti. It was on that street, facing a quiet courtyard, where Gugliemo Battistoni in 1946 created not only a temple of Roman tailoring but a retreat for stars, artist and politicians.