{"id":2585,"date":"2025-11-29T17:32:54","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T17:32:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/?p=2585"},"modified":"2025-11-29T17:32:54","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T17:32:54","slug":"why-right-now-brioni-is-as-good-as-it-gets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/?p=2585","title":{"rendered":"Why Right Now Brioni is as Good as it Gets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fashion critic and editor Godfrey Deeny reflects on 80 years of Rome’s most innovative tailor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"brioni<\/div>\n

This past decade, many great Italian houses have made material innovation a vital leitmotif: Zegna with its 100 percent traceable Vellus Aureaum fine wool; or Tod\u2019s with \u2018pashmy\u2019, combining the sturdiness of glove-like leather with the delicacy of pashmina. Dolce & Gabbana keeps breaking new ground with its remarkable tapestry-style men\u2019s couture, while Loro Piana\u2019s innovative silk tweed blends Italian panache with UK poise.<\/p>\n

I would argue that the most advanced ideas are currently to be found at Brioni, the Italian tailor which suited Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig in their portrayals of James Bond and attired Marcello Mastroianni in Fellini\u2019s classic La Dolce Vita<\/em>. A source of impeccable tailoring since it opened in Rome in 1945, Brioni celebrated its 80th anniversary in late November in the Eternal City, with a Lucullan dinner of risotto cacio e pepe, washed down with Selva della Tesa, my favorite Italian Chardonnay.<\/p>\n

Under its Austrian-born creative director Norbert Stumpfl, Brioni now creates clothes in the most rarefied fabrics in menswear. Using 18th-century looms that one expect to find depicted in the background of a Caravaggio canvas it has developed stunning jacquards, it coats threads with gold, literally dust shirts in real silver dust, and infuses silk-linen with enzymes to create a fuzzy finish. Above all, it creates the unique.<\/p>\n

\"brioni
Brioni celebrated its 80th anniversary in late November in Rome \u00a9Brioni<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Examples of such craft were visible at Brioni\u2019s recent Tailoring Legends exhibition inside Il Chiostro Del Bramante, an architectural jewel in the Centro Storico of Rome. One example: \u00a0the crafted silk jacquard shawl-collar white tuxedo that Reg\u00e9-Jean Page wore to this year\u2019s Academy Museum Gala. It was composed in fabric that replicates original tapestries from the Royal Palace at Caserta, the Versailles of Italy.<\/p>\n

Another remarkable piece was the herringbone 24-karat tuxedo and matching shirt made from gold, extracted from ingots melted and applied to the threads. A perfect example of how Brioni under Stumpfl has revolutionized menswear fabrics.<\/p>\n

Though what sets the house apart today is the couture-like quality to its raw materials, often sourced from suppliers using techniques invented in the Renaissance \u2014 from Veronese brocade jackets, which require 42 days of weaving to create, supplied by the Fondazione Arte della Seta in Florence, Tuscany\u2019s greatest fabric repository, to the pure silk textured velvet Doge Tuxedo, handwoven on 19th-century jacquard hand looms balanced by wrought-iron weights in Genoa.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very complicated loom that very few craftsmen know how to use anymore. A meticulous process that means you only produce a six or seven centimeters per day. That\u2019s why it\u2019s so expensive,\u201d explains Stumpfl, standing beside a tuxedo priced at around \u20ac100,000 (approx. $115,800). The designer has a mania for such materials; his iPhone has a map of Italy, dotted with images of dozens of mills.<\/p>\n

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Brioni’s clothes are a showcase of the finest heritage techniques \u00a9Brioni<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Other ideas emerge from experiments in Brioni\u2019s studio, like a remarkable iridescent tuxe made of hundreds of horizontal ribbons granting a unique ripple effect. \u201cWe had been playing around with ribbons late one night, and the effect was so special I said, \u2018let\u2019s make a whole jacket.\u2019 It reminds me of a quiet lake at midnight after someone threw in a stone,\u201d smiles Stumpfl.<\/p>\n

Beside tailoring, Stumpfl has dreamed up his own take on the menswear garment of the moment \u2014 the shirt-jacket. Brioni\u2019s version is in the lightest of spongy cashmere, knitted by a team of local women outside Florence \u2014 another secret resource.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are incredible pieces, the best thing I have seen in months. So airy and soft, you just have to buy one. Then you go home and want to buy two more,\u201d enthuses Bruce Pask, the senior director of men\u2019s fashion of Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus, and thus the most influential menswear buyer on the planet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d say that when it comes to creating that sweet spot of great tailoring with truly special fabrics, Norbert is unrivaled,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Norbet\u2019s other great innovation is levity, a key trend in menswear, driven by the demand for post-Covid ease and by global warming. A superb double-breasted blazer worn by actor Oscar Isaac in a recent campaign practically floats in the air \u2014 modern day matin\u00e9e idol mode. That said, when things get chilly, Brioni also has gray great coats made of American crocodile, though again artfully shaved to take away the traditional shine.<\/p>\n

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Brioni creates clothes in the most rarefied fabrics \u00a9Brioni<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Historically, Brioni is credited with staging the first menswear show in history in Florence in 1952; of inventing the trunk show; and dressing John Wayne, Carey Grant, and Clark Gable.\u00a0 Like the Gotha of the Golden Age of Hollywood, our soir\u00e9e ended with multiple negronis. Faintly blasphemously in the cloister\u2019s sacristy.<\/p>\n

The founders opened a plant and tailoring school in the 1950s in Penne, in the mountainous Abruzzi region, that still operates today. Luxury group Kering acquired Brioni in 2011, and since then it hasn\u2019t staged a show. Stumpfl prefers to hold elegant presentations in palazzos, with life models or stockmen placed beside Renaissance statuary.<\/p>\n

Stumpfl is not your typical tailor. Born in rural Austria, he studied in fashion\u2019s most famous college, St Martin\u2019s in London, where he met his wife, a freelance designer\u2014 both went on to work for Alexander McQueen on several of his most notable shows. A stint working in Paris for Alber Elbaz, the Lanvin designer who died during Covid, added a layer of Paris couture sophistication to his armory.<\/p>\n

McQueen\u2019s sense of iconoclasm is apparent in a diamond-pattern Barathea evening jacket finished with martellato<\/em>, or tiny hammered plates, culled from Opus Romanus, an Ancient Roman technique. While nearby a Luce jacket shimmers thanks to being embroidered with tiny micro baguettes. \u201cThe needles they use to sew these are as thin as hair,\u201d Stumpfl marvels inside the beautiful Chiostro del Bramante.<\/p>\n

Bramante, one recalls, was the out-of-town architect who brought the High Renaissance style to Rome. Which in a sense is what Norbert Stumpfl has achieved as well \u2014 overseen the renaissance of cool and cultivated menswear at the Eternal City\u2019s most innovative tailor.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fashion critic and editor Godfrey Deeny reflects on 80 years of Rome’s most innovative tailor.\u00a0 This past decade, many great Italian houses have made material innovation a vital leitmotif: Zegna with its 100 percent traceable Vellus Aureaum fine wool; or Tod\u2019s with \u2018pashmy\u2019, combining the sturdiness of glove-like leather with the delicacy of pashmina. Dolce […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","beyondwords_generate_audio":"","beyondwords_project_id":"","beyondwords_content_id":"","beyondwords_preview_token":"","beyondwords_player_content":"","beyondwords_player_style":"","beyondwords_language_id":"","beyondwords_title_voice_id":"","beyondwords_body_voice_id":"","beyondwords_summary_voice_id":"","beyondwords_error_message":"","beyondwords_disabled":"","beyondwords_delete_content":"","beyondwords_podcast_id":"","beyondwords_hash":"","publish_post_to_speechkit":"","speechkit_hash":"","speechkit_generate_audio":"","speechkit_project_id":"","speechkit_podcast_id":"","speechkit_error_message":"","speechkit_disabled":"","speechkit_access_key":"","speechkit_error":"","speechkit_info":"","speechkit_response":"","speechkit_retries":"","speechkit_status":"","speechkit_updated_at":"","_speechkit_link":"","_speechkit_text":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}