Rome, Via Barberini, 1945 – Nazareno Fonticoli, the tailor from Penne and Gaetano Savini, a businessman from Umbria had no idea Brioni tailoring would achieve the level of excellence that it has today. Today Brioni stands at the peak of style, an ambassador of male elegance.
Created during the post war boom in the international capital of Rome, Brioni drew high profile clients and increasing interest from the Americans, bringing an immediate stimulus to the fashion house. Drawing upon the best craftsmanship in Abruzzo, Brioni developed into a benchmark of style and elegance for the entertainment, institutional and business world in Italy and abroad through history.
Specialising in hand-made suits, the house guarantees an excellent standard of quality and uniqueness of design and that’s not all. The services offered by the tailors surpass a level of highly personalised client relationship and service.
A Work of Art
Sartorial know-how, the quintessence of technical and style, encapsulates all aspects of Brioni professionalism. The Roman fashion house has evolved the fabrication of a Brioni suit almost to an art form – it takes at least 22 hours to make one suit, 220 steps, equating to 440 hands working on one article. Each worker is dedicated to a single phase, with 80 workers for pressing alone. Stitches sewn by hand for each jacket vary between 5000 and 12000 depending on model type and the type of construction required.
The intricacy of the workmanship behind the stitches has reached a level that surpasses sartorial standards and the evolution of an art form. A testament to this is the pressing phase of the process whereby every sewing phase is followed by ironing and precise resting phases that vary according to the type of fabric and the garment’s geographic and climatic destination. Each year, Brioni’s tailors create 200 models in various styles and sizes. One fourth of the production consists of custom-made suits using select materials and fabrics from 5,000 exquisite choices to form a suit made from one of 2,000 patterns. Therefore, Brioni’s suits are truly “one of a kind”.
Handmade in Italy
Today a total of 400 master tailors and 1500 overall employees working in eight facilities manufacture the Formalwear, Womenswear and Leisurewear that carry the “Made in Brioni” brand. Only this meticulous attention to all production phases can guarantee the unrivalled quality which has always been a source of pride for those who create and wear Brioni. Undeniably, Brioni is the Rolls-Royce of luxury suits.
However, it is not merely the cost of the suit that makes it exclusive. All Brioni suits are made using Italian textiles and buttons, albeit with global raw material that is often made to the house’s specifications. The customisation of the textile can reach to the extent of ordering the breeding of a particular sheep for a specific length of wool hair! Escorial, woven from the wool of these specially bred sheep which are raised in Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania, is very soft and naturally elastic. Its special quality is that it is capable of stretching and does not wrinkle. Brioni has exclusive rights to half the materials used in the manufacturing process, and ninety percent of Brioni’s materials are so expensive that no other fashion houses can afford to utilise them.
And exactly who wears a Brioni? In 1995, Brioni rose above the competition, beating established brands such as Hugo Boss, Ermenegildo Zegna and Giorgio Armani in the bid to dress Pierce Brosnan in the James Bond film, Goldeneye. Following the exposure given to the Brioni-draped Bond, many influential figures such as Kofi Annan, Vladmir Putin, Count Alvaro de Marichalar and Luciano Pavarotti have been seen donning a Brioni.
Who wears a Brioni?
Today, Brioni boasts a staggering 25,000 clients to date, including the five year old son of a famous Turkish billionaire and is also a favourite of the influential Donald Trump. Celebrity figures are not excluded as well. Succeeding Brosnan, Daniel Craig was dressed in a Brioni in Casino Royale and members of the cast such as Tom Hanks and Stellan Skarsgard, as well as directors of Dan Brown’s movie, “Angels and Demons” have taken a liking to the famous fashion house.
In 1999, Brioni introduced its first female line of haute couture, creating yet another evolutionary stage in their development. Elite women were now presented with the opportunity to wear the exclusive brand in style. In 2002, Brioni opened their first women’s apparel stores in New York and Milan, cementing the extent of their success.
Perhaps the best way to describe Brioni in a nutshell is through the words of the current Chief Master tailor of Brioni, Angelo Petrucci: “Brioni, the quintessential name in luxurious hand crafted menswear, has for over fifty years brought its singular Roman sophistication and sartorial elegance to the most discerning clientele. Some of the world’s most illustrious politicians and businessmen choose Brioni as their ‘power suit’ to showcase their elegance and individuality.”
