Having almost singlehandedly invented the ‘power suit’ Brioni is perhaps the most widely recognised men’s tailored clothing brand in the world today. But it’s also fast becoming known for its sportswear and womenswear too. Bespoke takes a closer look.
Radiating quiet, steely masculinity and elegance, James Bond may have been in the business of dry martinis and even drier quips for nearly a half-century now, but he remains the bellwether for sharply-dressed gentlemen worldwide, Bond’s outfitting always attracting almost as much attention as the secret agent’s regular complement of girls, guns and gadgets.
But it wasn’t until 1997s ‘Goldeneye’ that the world’s greatest superspy got himself rigged out in the global playboys’ tailor of choice - Brioni. In a marriage of the best of England and Italy, cinema and fashion came together to bring the Bond franchise to new heights of sophistication. As the slinky Vesper Lynd purred to Bond in ‘Casino Royale’, “There are dinner jackets and dinner jackets,” pointing out the sleek Brioni number, “This is the latter.”
The Bond connection (which prompted a special ‘James Bond’ Brioni suit, priced at 6,000 USD) brought the venerable institution back into the international spotlight, 65 years after tailor Nazareno Fonticoli and businessman Gaetano Savini opened the first Brioni shop in Rome’s Via Barberini. Whilst Brioni has never quite reached the globe-straddling megastardom of Ralph Lauren, Zegna or even Hugo Boss, it’s stubborn adherence to its founding principles – the best-quality materials, tailoring and design – has seen Brioni retain its core philosophy of bespoke brilliance through highs, lows and the ever-fickle tides of fashion. Today, the firm has over sixty boutiques worldwide, from New York to Tokyo, selling suits, the recently launched womenswear line, accessories and luxury garments. Resisting calls from critics to venture into profitable diffusion lines, or sell out to a LVMH-type holding conglomerate, Brioni remains independent, proud and dedicated to the finest tailoring. In 2007 in the United States, Brioni was named the most prestigious luxury men’s clothing brand according to an independent survey by the Luxury Institute in New York.
Whilst Brioni has consistently upheld the virtues of painstaking, laborious hand-craft – Brioni trains its own tailors for four years before they are allowed to work on clients’ suits – the firm’s heritage is rooted in a very Italian dedication to style and elegance. When it launched, in post-war Italy, the fashion landscape was almost unrecognisable from today. The country was in the post-war doldrums and despite Italy’s tradition for fine tailoring (even Italian tramps have a certain sartorial grace), men’s outfitting was in a parlous state. Suits tended towards the bulky, functional and poorly cut. The use of silk was considered ludicrous. And the notion that suits should serve to complement, flatter and define the body was equally unknown.
Yet, Brioni changed all that. Founder Nazareno Fonticoli was a master of the Abruzzo school of tailoring, which drew on traditional suit design from London’s bastion of gents tailoring, Savile Row with softer, Mediterranean-style lines. The pair immediately sought to reflect their dedication to quality and luxury by naming the brand after the island of Brijuni, an aristocratic resort much in vogue during the 1920s, recalling a lost era of carefree, elegant decadence.
In a new post-war world, the brand quickly defined and developed a new market, stimulating demand from customers willing to pay and wait for a custom-made suit that caught the mood of the times, contemporary yet classic. In 1952, Brioni staged their first fashion show in Florence and two years later, in New York. Movie stars working out of Rome’s Cinecitta studios began sporting Brioni – Clark Gable and Cary Grant being the best known, their smouldering screen presence electrified by their immaculate evening wear. It’s this hearkening back to a bygone age of class and grace that characterises Brioni’s appeal to its select clientele, to this day.
“The Brioni Man doesn’t ask for just a suit,” says Brioni ceo Francesco Pesci, when I ask him how he defines a typical client. “Our customer doesn’t care about the trends of the current year. The Brioni Man is knowledgeable and conscious, he travels a lot, he’s in touch with different cultures. Our target is the man who understands the power of elegance and recognises our garments’ ability to convey personal attributes of power. He is not a fashion victim and is inclined to appreciate garments which represent the best in classical tradition, and are able to present their own sense of sophistication.”
Drape a chap in Brioni and the difference is almost supernaturally apparent. With the distinctive roll of the collar, buttonhole shape, and signature topstitching, Brioni suits see waistlines retreating demurely, shoulders rearing up and squaring out elegantly. Legs are lengthened and made proportionate to the body. It’s down to the intrinsic design of the suit’s structure, which is at the heart of the company’s ethos. And to ensure this know-how and technical brilliance is maintained, a school for tailors was launched in 1978, running the exacting, four-year training course. Recently, the school began running an exchange programme with London’s Royal College of Art. One of the students attending last year, Hanna Ter Meulen, currently a designer at Aquascutum, described her amazement at the dedication and skill of the firm’s tailors.
“I had already heard of Brioni’s great tailoring tradition and incredible craftmanship. But when I went and saw what the tailors bring to the garments, it was awe-inspiring. With hundreds of tiny hand-stitches they shape the canvas [the body of the jacket], hand-stitch unimaginably straight pockets and generally will the cloth into the shape of a jacket. Brioni shouldn’t be available to buy online, I feel. It’s about being measured by tailors who will travel all over the world. It’s about the feeling of the cloth.”
Brioni suits are available in a huge variety of colours, materials and can be purchased ‘off the rack’ at an average cost of 2000 USD, but it’s the tailored, bespoke items that keep Brioni at the pinnacle of luxury menswear. And now, with the worst of the economic slowdown behind them, a new ceo and reinvigorated sense of purpose, the brand is looking optimistically ahead.
“Over the next 3 years,” says Pesci, “We will be improving our direct retail, improving our range of products, improving our brand awareness in the new markets. But we are still focused on excellence. ‘Su Misura’ [bespoke tailoring] allows our customers to display their individual sense of style - to be one of a kind.”
