A grand tour through Italy to discover the essence of ITALIAN TAILORING

As a woman of a certain age, I have been observing men all my life.  Or I should say, I have paid attention to how men dress for decades.  And it’s often those in a distinguished well-cut suit, and a well put-together style that catch my eye.  It is not necessary for them to embrace trends, but he who recognises quality while looking sharp and polished gets high marks in my book.

Book cover of Italian Tailoring.
Photo by Lucia Carpio.

While we are on the subject, a book due to be out this month highlights the key essence of ITALIAN TAILORING – the title published by SKIRA.  Highlighting the very fabric of Italian sartorial excellence, the book by Yoshimi Hasegawa gives a “glimpse into the World of Sartorial Masters”.

As fashion today is pivoted on casualness and sportswear (thus the continued dominance of jeans and sneakers or trainers), the book is a reminder that tailored and bespoke clothing are works of art that the Italians have mastered for generations, although it was the English who gave us bespoke tailoring originating some 400 years ago hailed essentially from their expertise in providing military uniforms.

Fabric swatches stored in the
Vitale Barberis Canonico samples room.
Photo by Luke Carby

In the early 1900s, the Italians brought the art of bespoke tailoring back home and developed their own unique cut and immediately recognisable style.  Italy’s coterie of grand tailors have long been a source of national pride.

As every good suit starts with quality fabrics, ITALIAN TAILORING opens with a chapter on Vitale Barberis Canonico an Italian fabric mill which started in September 1908 in Pratrivero, in the northern Biella region, 50 miles north of Turin.

Situated near the Swiss and French border, the region is blessed with an abundance of pure Alpine water from the Elvo, Cervo and Strona Rivers, with a rich cultural heritage of woollen textile production dating back to the Roman Empire, explains the author in her profile of Vitale Barberis Canonico.

The Master tailor Giovanni Barberis Organista shows off
an old fashion illustration from his private collection.
Photo by Luke Carby

Gennaro Formosa, owner of the
Neapolitan tailor house  Sartoria Formosa
while he showing off a detail of the typical “spalla a camicia”.
Photo by Luke Carby

Then author Yoshimi Hasegawa, who as a connoisseur of European men’s clothing, takes the reader on a grand tour of Italy.  From the north – covering Milan, Biella, Turin, Varese, Vicenza and Venice – to Central Italy – encompassing Florence and Rome, and continuing to South Italy, taking in Naples, Bari and Palermo of Sicily, the author offers remarkable characteristics of each region and city.

Over three years, Hasegawa visited and interviewed 27 historic tailor houses (from the most renowned to emerging talents, including Donnadio, Musella, Liverano & Liverano to Sartoria Napoletana; Rubinacci and Attolini to Caraceni, Ciardi and Pirozzi), providing an intimate profile into each celebrated name that gives the Made in Italy its reputable pride of place in today’s men’s tailoring industry.

The Master tailor Antonio Panico at work in his atelier in Naples, Ita;u
using tailor's white chalk to draw directly onto the fabric. 

Detailing family histories and traditions, revealed as if exposing the inside making of a tailored bespoke garment, the formidable traditions of their crafts and creativity, their ethos and philosophy, care and commitment passed from generation to generation and integrated into today’s modern world.    Often the master tailors give way to inner thoughts of the past but also heart-felt reflections on the future of the Italian industry.

The young Master Massimo Pasinato in his atelier in
Vicenza, Italy, sewing a suit with his mother.

Luke Carby’s excellent photography partners well with Hasegawa’s proficient words, resulting in a suitable tribute to the artisanal excellence of Italian high fashion tailoring.  As the title suggests,  ITALIAN TAILORING is a good promotion for Italian sartorial masters and a book for admirers of Italian craftsmanship.