RAKE BESPOKE FEATURE
Vitale Barberis Canonico: In The Hands of the Tailor
A respect for tradition, a willingness to innovate, and an insistence on using only the finest yarns available: these are, says aleksandar cvetkovic, the indisputable hallmarks of Vitale Barberis Canonico. And it is why the most talented of designers and cutters, whether in London, Paris or Milan, are eager to work with fabrics from the Vitale Barberis Canonico mill.
‘As I slept, I had the most beautiful and pleasing dream, but there was nothing in the dream that has not come true, exactly as the dream told it. Now I should like to recount that dream, the better to delight your hearts, for affection begs and commands me to do so.’ GUILLAUME DE LORRIS, ROMAN DE LA ROSE
I Francesco Barberis Canonico, the 13th generation owner and Creative Director of Vitale Barberis Canonico with but a small selection of his mill’s archive.
t is almost impossible to express just how closely connected a man can be with the clothes he wears, with the way that those clothes make him feel, the way they enable him to create a finer vision of himself or channel a sense of identity that might otherwise escape him. Readers of this magazine will doubtless know these feelings well. To the passionate dresser, clothes can become a whole world and a philosophy by which one lives one’s life. Time and again, the next acquisition takes shape in one’s mind as an all-consuming aspiration, and of course among those most passionate are the great designers and craftsmen who bring these stirring creations to life for the rest of us, exactly as our dreams foretell. Even so, there is another, often overlooked, side to this story, for the clothes of any tailor or designer will only ever be as good as the raw materials he is compelled to work with. The dream of any new sartorial investment must by necessity begin
with a connection to a particular cloth — that magical moment when one finds just the weight, weave, colour, pattern or handle that he has in his mind, the precious fabric the tailor will go on to mould and shape. As Joe Morgan, the master cutter of Chittleborough & Morgan, puts it, any tailored design can only be equal to the sum of its parts. “It’s so important to us [bespoke tailors] to work with fabrics that we can trust,” he says. “Italian fabrics are often more delicate than English cloths, made with a two-in-one weave with two yarns in the warp and one in the weft. These have a wonderful feel to them and drape beautifully, but can be rather delicate and tricky to tailor.” English fabrics, by contrast, are often more durable, but can lack the sophistication and glamour of Italian creations. Fortunately, for those in search of a fabric with a more robust character, there is a third way, as Morgan goes on to explain: “The fabrics of Vitale Barberis Canonico are different; the mill 173
RAKE BESPOKE FEATURE
Clockwise from left: Alessandro Sartori, Creative Director of Berluti; Berluti’s Grande Mesure tailoring service uses Vitale Barberis Canonico fabrics; a fabric starts to take shape on one of Vitale Barberis Canonico’s state-of-the-art looms.
focuses on the beauty of the yarns they use, the practicality of their weaves, and on creating cloth that bespoke tailors can work with. That’s why we come back to their fabrics again and again.” Vitale Barberis Canonico, then, is the answer to one’s sartorial dreams: a marvellous woollen mill that produces fabric that combines practicality with a frankly unparalleled contemporary design flair. As Francesco Barberis Canonico, the Creative Director and 13th generation owner of the mill that bears his name, says: “The difference between our work and that of some of our competitors is that every fabric we produce is made from the finest raw material we can source — the very best Merino wool. Every cloth is constructed with the tailor in mind, and we create cloths that designers and tailors can work with comfortably.” This attitude resonates with all those craftsmen who work with Vitale Barberis Canonico fabrics. For example, Christopher Modoo, the senior creative at ready-to-wear Savile Row tailors Chester Barrie, says: “Vitale Barberis Canonico has at its heart a unique understanding and love of cloth. Francesco has a rare appreciation of tailoring, and the mill does not see finished cloth as a final product but rather as an ingredient for infinite creative possibilities.” A good job, too, because when you slip a tailored jacket 174
A selection of Gieves & Hawkes suits made from exclusive Vitale Barberis Canonico cloths.
around your shoulders, you are to all intents and purposes taking a gamble. The nature of woollen fabric is all too often unpredictable; the way it behaves can meet or mar one’s expectations, disappoint or give joy to the tailor’s art and the designer’s vision — and for the menswear aficionado, this is crucial. I myself have invested a lot of hard-earned money into clothes that have performed disappointingly over the years, as I’m sure has anyone with an interest in clothes. Consequently, the precious opportunity to work with cloths that can be trusted, from a mill that lives and breathes what it does, is of paramount importance to many a talented creative. Jason Basmajian, the Chief Creative Officer at Savile Row powerhouse Gieves & Hawkes, explains: “I always feel that working with Vitale Barberis Canonico is a no-risk choice — they offer uncompromising quality and creativity. They use their generations of experience and innovation to deliver some of the finest cloths in the world, but innovation never gets in the way of that final touch — the emotion they imbue into their fabrics and a sense of passion for what they do.” No wonder that so many extraordinary craftsmen identify with the fabrics of Vitale Barberis Canonico first and foremost. Remarkable Parisian tailors Lorenzo and Massimo Cifonelli, for another example, work very closely with the mill on creating
bespoke selections of fabrics that are unique to them, as well as returning to their core bunches time and again. Lorenzo’s passion for Vitale Barberis Canonico fabrics, in particular, is infectious. “The mill most definitely produces the most versatile range of woollen fabrics,” he says. “You can find some incredible heavy winter windowpanes, classic grey flannels, an amazing very light blue bird’s eye worsted from the ‘Arrival’ bunch, or even marvellous midnight blue barathea for eveningwear. Their fabrics are particularly good to work with; we find that they hold a shape beautifully without compromising on softness of handle. What other material could show-off our signature shoulders better?” Among so many special cloths, does Lorenzo have a favourite? “I think I would go for the royal blue wide herringbone in the ‘Five Star’ selection — in fact, I’ve already made a suit with this fabric, which is one of my favourites. It’s cut with a slim notched lapel, one-button coat and a very open double-breasted waistcoat without lapels. The rich shades of blue in the herringbone beautifully highlight the lines of our signature three-piece look.” Curiously, the Five Star range is also a favourite of master Milanese tailor Massimiliano Andreacchio Caraceni, who makes no bones about its value as staple, trustworthy suiting. “It has all the characteristics we look
for in our fabrics — drape, character, durability and softness,” he says. Clearly, the bunch has earned its name and should be the first port of call for any bespoke customer in search of highperforming, mid-weight worsteds, along with Vitale Barberis Canonico’s iconic ‘Greenhills’ super 160s or ‘Superbio’ 130g bunches, all of which combine strength with lightness and a gorgeous drape. For Modoo, it’s impossible to choose a favourite cloth, but it is clear that Vitale Barberis Canonico’s glamorousyet-durable mid-weight suitings are at the top of his list: “I love their clearcut 12oz worsteds, their mesh jacketing, their exquisite four-ply travel cloths, and the super 150s ‘Revenge’ bunch. Even so, there is something very special about Vitale Barberis Canonico sharkskin: it’s never too uniform in colour, nor too stringy or shadowy. It tailors beautifully and allows our workshop to put expression into a coat’s chest while being only 10oz in weight — perfect for perennial use. If you’re looking to order your first suit in Vitale Barberis Canonico fabric, go for a mid-grey sharkskin.” The perfect sharkskin may be tempting, but it is also practically impossible to resist the allure of Vitale Barberis Canonico flannel — truly sumptuous flannels are another specialism of the mill. Their ‘Original Woollen Flannel’ bunch 175
RAKE BESPOKE FEATURE
From left: Aquascutum separates cut in Vitale Barberis Canonico fabric; Chester Barrie’s four-ply worsted travel suit.
is perhaps one of the most desirable collections of flannel in existence, but it is also rather telling that Vitale Barberis Canonico weave a wealth of different flannels for countless other British and Italian fabric merchants. Their quirkily named ‘Lady Sanfelice’ flannels for Drapers are filled with thoughtprovoking colours and designs, including their signature bold white-on-grey windowpane check (a particular favourite of The Rake’s) and some exquisite two-tone blue checks and houndstooths. Similarly, luxury Italian cloth merchant Caccioppoli has their flannel produced in collaboration with Vitale Barberis Canonico, which features some of the most exquisite textured mélanges you could ever wish to discover. This has not gone unnoticed by the undisputed British king of immaculate flannel suiting, Edward Sexton, as the house’s Creative Director, Dominic Sebag-Montefiore, explains: “Texture is hugely important for us now. Men are paying attention to texture in their clothing again, and Vitale Barberis Canonico creates cloths with a subtle softness in distinctive designs that are made for the job. For winter, their flannels are beautiful — rich and mottled. We’ve been using these as house favourites for years.” Basmajian echoes that view: “Personally, I love Vitale Barberis Canonico flannels. When it comes to flannel, they specialise in producing fresh interpretations of well-loved classics. There are so many weights and finishes, the colours 176
Vitale Barberis Canonico’s legendary Grand Cru, one of the finest woollen fabrics in the world.
are rich and the cloth tailors beautifully.” The secret to this success is the way in which Vitale Barberis Canonico approach the design of their flannels: rather than creating the autumnal uniform of the businessman, like many other mills do, Vitale Barberis Canonico make a concerted effort to conceive their flannels as something altogether more indulgent. Vitale Barberis Canonico’s Head of Communications, Simone Ubertino Rosso, says: “If worsted twill is the aesthetic language of business and twisted yarn the language of actions, flannel is the expression of serenity and equilibrium. It’s the ultimate luxury for the cooler months because the fluidity of a flannel’s drape is second to none.” This sumptuousness is achieved through an idiosyncratic process whereby Vitale Barberis Canonico’s flannel yarns are carded and combed repeatedly before spinning, creating yarn with an exceptional finesse from the outset. The result is flannel that is particularly full bodied, luxuriant, and anything but outdated. Indeed, it exudes a timeless glamour, and the rich variety of bold stripes and graphic checks available ensures that it retains a contemporariness ideal for modern, cosmopolitan tailoring. This progressive focus on design at Vitale Barberis Canonico is all-consuming, and the mill’s design work not only focuses on keeping permanent bunches fresh but also on responding to precisely what those passionate about fine cloth require
from their tailoring. In Joe Morgan’s words: “Vitale Barberis Canonico have an incredible design team in-house that works on new fabrics, new textures, new looks and new colours that we embrace frequently. But they also take on our feedback constantly to produce exactly what we need.” In recent years, a large part of this responsiveness has taken the form of the creation of ever more impressive highperformance, innovatory fabrics for designers in need of materials that can cope with the pace of modern, international living. Florentine tailoring maestro Antonio Liverano loves the versatility of Vitale Barberis Canonico’s unique four-ply worsted for just this reason. Best thought of as Vitale Barberis Canonico’s answer to high-performing fresco, this crisp cloth wears beautifully thanks to its impressive four-ply construction. Its advanced structure results in a mid-weight cloth that is hard wearing and supremely breathable, but with the hallmarks of a luxury fabric. It has, for instance, a distinctly superior drape even when pitted against fabrics that are considerably softer in character. It’s also yet another cloth in the Vitale Barberis Canonico arsenal that tailors well, as Liverano puts it: “We need to use cloths that perform well when worked with very traditional techniques, particularly with a dry iron, because of the way we make our jackets. Vitale Barberis Canonico’s four-ply responds to pressing beautifully, so we can use it to perfectly sculpt the
customer’s body shape in our jackets.” Such is Vitale Barberis Canonico’s magic touch that the four-ply not only appeals to Italian tailors creating unstructured suiting, but to the stalwarts of Savile Row, too. For Autumn/Winter ’15, Chester Barrie has cut a particularly beguiling mid-grey four-ply travel suit from Vitale Barberis Canonico’s four-ply and the house’s heavily expressed chests and firm roped shoulders show off the cloth’s smooth drape perfectly. In Modoo’s words, “Francesco’s cloth has a knack for making up something greater than the sum of its parts. The four-ply in particular expresses our structured silhouette wonderfully, and although it is an Italian cloth, it has a distinctly English sensibility to it.” There is something instinctively well balanced about Vitale Barberis Canonico’s fabric philosophy, because tailors independently confirm this blend of English and Italian characteristics in Vitale Barberis Canonico’s creations wherever one goes in Europe. For example, Massimiliano Caraceni in Milan says: “We love Vitale Barberis Canonico because they have found the right mix between English tradition and Italian style and taste.” In London, Sebag-Montefiore of Edward Sexton agrees: “There’s a subtle softness and, dare I say, sprezzatura to Vitale Barberis Canonico fabric, but they also have a sense of Britishness about it. They employ subtle, refined use of colour and pattern without being over the top 177
Clockwise from left: an Edward Sexton suit in Vitale Barberis Canonico flannel; Edward Sexton wearing Vitale Barberis Canonico chalkstripe flannel; a Liverano & Liverano dinner suit cut in Vitale Barberis Canonico barathea.
or showy — chalkstripe flannels in a sophisticated beige as opposed to grey, for example, or earthy cashmere Donegal and the wonderful rustic wool-silk basketweave jacketings they weave for Drapers.” Perhaps it is this international character that contributes to Vitale Barberis Canonico’s popularity among the most forward-thinking designers in the world of couture menswear. Alessandro Sartori, the inspirational Creative Director at Berluti, calls upon Vitale Barberis Canonico fabrics frequently in his collections, but has also broken new ground while collaborating with the mill, utilising some particularly precious fabrics. Vitale Barberis Canonico’s ‘Grand Cru’, for example, is nothing short of a technical masterpiece. Woven to celebrate the mill’s 350th anniversary in 2013, Grand Cru remains one of the finest and most luxurious woollen cloths available in the world today, with a yarn count of 201,000 — a figure that is only achievable thanks to Vitale Barberis Canonico’s exacting approach to sourcing the best raw wool fibres. The wool used in the Grand Cru comes exclusively from the finest rare-breed Saxon Merino sheep, care of a small number of specialist producers in Australia, tracked down by the mill at great cost. Indeed, the fabric is so fine that 1kg of it reaches over 200km in length. Touching a piece of Grand Cru is a uniquely difficult 178
Master tailors Massimo and Lorenzo Cifonelli working with Vitale Barberis Canonico cloths.
sensation to communicate: one imagines it’s the closest an earthy being can reach to enrobing himself in the divine feathers of an angel. It drapes like silk, floats across the figure, and yet somehow tailors immaculately. A truly exquisite creation, the Grand Cru sang to Sartori like a chorister. “I have always admired what Vitale Barberis Canonico do; they represent the quintessence of craft and timeless elegance,” Sartori says. “The way they mix quality with innovation is unique, and their cloths always have an intelligent twist. The second I heard that Francesco had created a new technology that would allow him to produce a worsted fabric with the finest yarn count ever, I knew that we were destined to work together.” As a result, Sartori has partnered with Vitale Barberis Canonico to produce the Grand Cru in a number of exclusive shades, and those in search of its lustrous embrace can find these remarkable fabrics solely through working with Berluti’s Grande Mesure bespoke tailoring service. This is worsted fabric at its most elevated and exclusive. Innovations in luxurious and travel-friendly fabrics aside, Vitale Barberis Canonico are also making waves when it comes to technical fabrics. Last September, the mill released its ‘Earth, Wind & Fire’ bunch, a range of remarkable high-performance fabrics intended to combine function with comfort and the natural
softness of Merino. Producing a range of hi-tech fabrics without compromising the natural softness of woollen fibre is no mean feat, and the achievement is made even more impressive by Vitale Barberis Canonico’s insistence on producing all their fabrics with eco-friendly materials, techniques and a minimal environmental impact. Nevertheless, whether it be a water-repellent or naturalstretch travel cloth, Vitale Barberis Canonico have mastered it for those who require particularly hardcore performance tailoring. These futuristic fabrics caught the eye of Sciamat’s Nicola Ricci: “I saw such a beautiful Vitale Barberis Canonico overcoating just a little while ago now, it was a lovely wool combined with a polyurethane membrane which makes it impervious to wind and waterproof — an amazing innovation. The needs of luxury consumers have clearly changed in modern menswear, and it takes a brave producer like Vitale Barberis Canonico to develop materials that can meet these needs without dismantling the integrity of traditional fabrics.” It is The Rake’s belief that the need for increasingly highperforming fabrics is destined to become the prevailing theme in luxury menswear over the next few years, as dress codes become more flexible and the modern, international man’s requirements from his tailoring become more demanding. With their constant willingness to innovate, Vitale Barberis
Canonico are spearheading the charge towards this new, more dynamic era for tailored menswear and more than deserve their reputation as the most forward-thinking woollen mill in the world. As Thomas Harvey, Creative Director of the equally forward-thinking menswear brand Aquascutum, says: “Vitale Barberis Canonico is always looking ahead and surprises us time and again with new ways to move forward. Their collections have phenomenal depth to them, which allows for us to build a full lifestyle offer for our customers, from outerwear through to high-twist travel suiting and jacketing. It’s such a pleasure to work with a mill that is constantly thinking outside of the traditional box.” This ability to think outside the box, while remaining aware of it, is perhaps the essence of what Vitale Barberis Canonico has achieved — a phenomenal reputation both for rich tradition and extraordinary innovation, combining an unparalleled reliability and inventiveness in their fabrics all at once. If the testimonies of countless talented tailors and designers are anything to go by, Vitale Barberis Canonico is unique and Francesco Barberis Canonico is nothing less than a fine-fabric magician, a visionary and pioneer in the world of luxury menswear. A pioneer that all who take pleasure in the art of dress should consider lucky to have working behind them. 179