The London Lounge

What do you gentlemen think of the Italian cloths? I have not seen one mentioned.

E.g., Loro Piana, Carlo Barbera, Drapers, Vitale Barberis, and Ariston.

Mark Seitelman wrote:What do you gentlemen think of the Italian cloths? I have not seen one mentioned.

E.g., Loro Piana, Carlo Barbera, Drapers, Vitale Barberis, and Ariston.

i'm interested as well.

i have an 11/12 drapers that has performed nicely (so far) and their colors/patterns are quite nice.

also, as a data point i'd note that the last time i was at charvet i asked to see the tailoring department and drapers was among the fabrics that they offer. Same at cifonelli.

Mark Seitelman wrote:What do you gentlemen think of the Italian cloths? I have not seen one mentioned.

E.g., Loro Piana, Carlo Barbera, Drapers, Vitale Barberis, and Ariston.

What about Zegna?

murtadza

In regards to Italian fabrics, I see a lot of vivid colors and patterns but few substantial pieces. It would be nice if some of the English mills could get inspired by the Italian use of colors and patterns, or the other way round: that the Italians started to weave fabrics with a body. Maybe a task for the LL cloth production to close the gap by integrating some design italiano?

Gruto wrote:In regards to Italian fabrics, I see a lot of vivid colors and patterns but few substantial pieces. It would be nice if some of the English mills could get inspired by the Italian use of colors and patterns, or the other way round: that the Italians started to weave fabrics with a body. Maybe a task for the LL cloth production to close the gap by integrating some design italiano?

If you have the opportunity, please take a look at the drapers five stars bunch. It is in the same weight category as the harrisons fine classics and smith botany bunches.

Also, the drapers I have performs a little better in the wrinkle resistance/recovery department than a similar weight smiths that I have.

Perhaps drapers is already there?

There's a bit of confusion here between mills and merchants

Mills, wherever their geography will weave whatever they are commissioned to weave. English mills do design and weave 'vibrantly' coloured cloths. Look at Huntsman's website for example, those house tweeds are woven on the Isle of Islay which was in the Inner Hebrides the last time I went. They may have moved it since.

English merchants, who are catering to a primarily Anglo-American customer tend to commission sombre cloths because that it what their customers want and that is what they sell. Italian merchants in the main, the opposite. Ricardian if you like.

Harrisons of Edinburgh seem to be the English merchant who best bridge the gap between English tastes and Italian tastes, hence Harrisons' popularity in Italy.

Curiously, I though as the Italian works his way up the style scale his style became more and more Anglo.

Renfield wrote:There's a bit of confusion here between mills and merchants

Well, if you compare English and Italian stock bunches, the English will often appear a little dull, while the Italians will feel flimsy, broadly speaking. Maybe these differences are about to be washed away with Dashing Tweed like merchants and an increasing number of special commissions from English mills. I don't know.

Kuro, I haven't touched Drapers' five stars bunch. I will check it out, thank you.

By "English mills" and "English merchants", I presume we mean "British".

I thought that Drapers was the Lessers of Italy. Top notch. Tops for tailoring.

Drapers is excellent. The Zegna flannels are top-notch, as are the jacketings from Caccioppoli Napoli.

Renfield wrote: Curiously, I though as the Italian works his way up the style scale his style became more and more Anglo.

Preposterous idea.
IMO, if there is such a scale which I doubt, the Italian have no one on top of them in style. What might happen is that they are not afraid of adopting/adapting the wonderful, admirable, and substantial things that the "Anglo" style has to offer.

Drapers has many different mills make their cloth
i have a suit with drapers cloth (about 10 oz) by carlo barbera-truly superb stylistically and nice cloth
i have another drapers lightweight s120s by an english mill-i forget who but one of the big boys nice in the warm weather

as for zegna fabric-i have 2 jackets,one suit, and a pair of pants --two jackets were made custom, one was actually made by Zegna-their regular line, not Z. Theyre all light (one 7.5, one 9, one 10) weight
they all look like dynamite, but they are a little flimsy and less durable with the exception oddly enough of the 100% cashmere which is 10.5 oz i think and is amazing..the rest would be sneered at by many of the experts here-AND i agree--but i like the way they look

I have always been of the opinion that Drapers is the Italian cloth merchant on par with H. Lesser. However, Drapers has a much wider range, including tweeds, cottons, etc. All very, very, good (their Doupioni silk was magnificent, until it was deystroyed by a NY tailor). The main obstacle to Drapers is the pricing. I have no good answer to that.

As previously noted, like H. Lesser (is/was), Drapers is the cloth merchant not the mill.

I find Zegna to be uneven, and some Piana strange, but they have a lot cloths that are very nice. I find a lot of their lightweight jacketings limp.

Limp is always a problem.
I know what you mean.

yes some zegna definitely limp

but i like what i have