Norbert Stumpfl, Executive Design Director at Brioni. Image courtesy of Brioni

Until recently, Brioni was a menswear brand in flux, a 20th-century Italian formalwear legend that hit a couple of bumps as it tried to swivel to appeal to sneaker-clad millennials and Gen-Z dudes. But everything is rosy again, as executive design director Norbert Stumpfl explains to Darius Sanai

Modern yet traditional, supremely relevant yet trend averse – Brioni’s understated, logo-free luxury is appealing to a new and established global audience, from twentysomethings to the over seventies. Under Norbert Stumpfl’s expert eye, the brand welcomes Jude Law and his son Raff as its spring/summer ambassadors and rises to the challenge of creating a comfortable, stylish and sustainable wardrobe for the modern man.

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LUX: How will recent times, with people staying at home, affect menswear in the long-term?
Norbert Stumpfl: This is something we ask ourselves in the studio all the time. I think that there will be some kind of change. People will change their habits a little bit. Or there might be pockets of people who are more interested in something more meaningful – this is where we can step in, with something not ‘throwaway’ but something a man can build on in his wardrobe, something not so trend-driven. I am very positive in my feelings for the future. Also, we are all watching a lot of sport, which involves T-shirts and sweatshirts, and many designers are working in this direction. But in the long run, people might find that they have too much of this in their wardrobes and that they want to change again. There’s always a pendulum in fashion: sometimes it goes more traditional, sometimes it goes sportier, and the two influence each other much more nowadays. We, for instance, in our fabric research, are being more influenced by sportswear and new technologies. Our fabrics are now crease-resistant, they have a natural stretch, a lightness. So, we are evolving as well.

Jude Law, currently one of Brioni’s brand ambassadors. Image courtesy of Brioni

LUX: Will markets in Asia, where sport-influenced fashion dominates, become interested in tailoring?
NS: Brioni’s not very strong in the Asian market – we’re doing well in Japan, but not in China. Our Chinese clientele is the youngest; it’s 30- plus, whereas, worldwide, we are more in the 50-year-old bracket. But, recently, there has been an explosion of people wearing it there. A lot of actors wear Brioni tuxedos or suits to events, and if these people are wearing Brioni, people will be interested. Also, in the past few years, our Chinese clientele has been the one that picked up on our new directions the quickest; while in the US or Russia, we have a slow change – they like the collection, then it takes a season or two to pick up certain garments.

LUX: Brioni has been perceived as a sophisticated tailoring brand for wealthy gentlemen. Is that changing?
NS: When I was hired, François Pinault [CEO of Kering, which owns Brioni] asked me to give the brand a modern approach. Our clients are loyal, they enjoy the suits, the comfort, the lightness – and that nobody knows it’s Brioni, just those in the know. It’s a personal luxury. So, I approach modernisation very gently.

Raff Law, currently one of Brioni’s brand ambassadors. Image courtesy of Brioni

Of course, the high-ticket sales are coming from tailoring, and from bespoke clothing. However, recently, we’ve seen a change: with the collection picking up high-ticket sales, as well. This means that our traditional client is also really enjoying the new direction, because it’s not groundbreaking, but it is modernising just a little bit. In China, we’re showing the more modern man of Brioni; our imagery is going in this direction, because our typical client, who is maybe 50, 60, 70, is not looking at the images on Instagram or on the runway. So in the new imagery it’s always on younger models. There is a new Brioni, but it’s inspired by the old Brioni.

LUX: What’s your view on e-commerce?
NS: For me, the digital side is very important. It’s going to be challenging to sell our tailoring online. I prefer to go to the store, have the proper fitting and look around. Yes, it’s getting more important, but for our type of garments, which need to fit well, it’s much easier to be in a physical store. There’s always a tailor in our Brioni stores, who is trained in Italy, to give this kind of service. Nevertheless, I think e-commerce needs to be our shop window to the world.

LUX: How did you choose Jude and Raff Law as Brioni’s new ambassadors?
NS: Jude is a master of his craft and Raff is following the footsteps of his father. They are both fascinating characters. The most interesting aspect is the interaction between father and son – both equally at ease in Brioni. Their natural elegance comes through.

Brioni’s designs and tailoring have been favoured for decades by Hollywood royalty including Samuel L Jackson. Image courtesy of Eddy Chen

LUX: You’ve used the word ‘modern’ a lot – does that mean appealing to younger people?
NS: No – what I consider modern is just a way of cutting the pieces, maybe using a more modern colour palette, working on the fabric technology, making the garments lighter, water-repellent… It’s just for a modern man. I see my design as invisible, but it’s there to make the life of the Brioni man easier.

When you touch a Brioni garment I want you to say, “Wow!” It puts you in a good mood because you’re enveloped by this super-soft material, and I think this is where the modernity lies. In our lookbooks, we also show a lot of tonal dressing – the colours are more modern, they are inspired by the Roman palettes, they are inspired by the Roman streets. There’s a modernity in me, as a designer, staying in the background to allow Brioni men to shine.

LUX: Is it hard to balance your choice of materials with a drive for sustainability?
NS: Yes, sometimes it’s quite hard. Our clients expect the best materials. It’s been a long journey, even finding our sustainable partners and getting something that is what you would expect from Brioni. There have been a lot of steps forward, and the quality of the sustainable products are getting much better. It’s something that is, personally, very important for me. I’m on the same side as Mr Pinault, who really pushes us on this. I’m a designer who wants to make garments that have a use in the world and does not damage it. For sustainable fabric, I always go to auctions.

A look from the Brioni SS22 menswear collection. Image courtesy of Brioni

We made a big step forward by making almost all of our denim sustainable, which means using sustainable fabrics and sustainable metal pieces. What is not sustainable, at the moment, are the threads and the leather patches. But we will push this everywhere. For instance, the cotton for our T-shirts is sustainable, and we also have sustainable rules – it’s very important that there aren’t thousands of sheep that destroy the land then move on. We are trying to take more categories into sustainability now. It’s not easy. For instance, cotton can’t always be sustainable – you can see a lot of black dots, which is not acceptable for us. We’re working with the mills to really explain what we expect.

LUX: What do you personally take the most pleasure in designing?
NS: I really like the process. It all starts with an idea. I like creating the product together with our tailors, because they are truly talented people. I like challenging them. We did this jacket for Brad Pitt, for instance, which was a super- light, double-splittable cashmere sports jacket using a fabric that is really nice, but it has to be split in half with a scalpel and stitched back together. In the beginning they said it was too difficult, but they found a way. So, working with them and their 75 years’ worth of knowledge at Penne [where Brioni has a factory and a tailoring school], and with my modern approach, we can create something very impressive.

LUX: Is Dior Homme your main competitor?
NS: I wouldn’t consider Dior Homme as a competitor – I think of Dior as a brand that is much more fashion-oriented, which we are not. We’re a luxury brand that moves very slowly. Maybe, with our product, the art is more important, the way of making it. My viewpoint is also less important – I want to be in the background. With designers like Dior, it’s more about a strong style – if a person stands 50m away, you will still recognise it as Dior. I like to let the person shine, but with designer clothes, you’re showing that you can afford them.

Clark Gable being fitted in a Brioni suit. Image courtesy of Chris Pizzello-Pool

LUX: You mentioned some Italian tailors, but you didn’t mention Savile Row.
NS: Savile Row is definitely on the same level, but Brioni tailoring is between Savile Row and southern Italian tailoring. We have the appearance of Savile Row, which is very constructed, very precise, with strong lines, but with constructed interfacing. Brioni has more of the flavour of southern Italy, with soft shoulders and almost no construction inside.

LUX: You originally planned to be an architect. Are we going to see any Brioni hotels?
NS: No. For now, we have to work on our boutiques. They’re very different, they’ve been through different periods. Together with our CEO we are trying to bring the same visuals to all our boutiques, and this takes time. We might have one store design in Milan, another one in New York, another one in London, which I think is one of the most beautiful. It has the feel of extreme luxury, but also feels very human inside. It doesn’t shine, it’s not all marble.

LUX: What do you think the well-dressed man will be wearing in 2022?
NS: There are so many possibilities in the collection. I know what I’m going to be wearing – a beautiful constructed coat, with a very soft cashmere sweater and some relaxed trousers from Brioni. It’s about just being able to put things on that feel almost weightless.

Denzel Washington accepting the Hollywood Legacy Award in 2017 wearing Brioni. Photo by Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez

LUX: And how will professional men dress in 30 years’ time? In T-shirts, chinos and jeans?
NS: It’s a really good question: will they be wearing tailoring? At the moment, they still do. When you go to the bank or to a lawyer’s office, they wear suits. There might be a trend for more separates, as well. I’m trying to move Brioni in a way that, as I said before, fits the modern man’s wardrobe. So we are working on innovation, so that we don’t find ourselves, in 20 or 50 years, disconnected from what’s happening with men.

Read more: Donatella Versace Interview: Doing It Her Way

This is really important – to always think of ourselves as innovators. I was asked if I think of Brioni as a heritage brand, and I said: absolutely not. Brioni was born as a super-innovative brand – our founders used new materials, they were thinking outside the box, they were putting men on the catwalk, they were the first to do trunk shows. I think we might have lost this spirit a bit, in the past 20 years or so, but we are moving forward again. Brioni will, or should, represent the modern man. This is my challenge.

Find out more: brioni.com

This article appears in the Summer 2022 issue of LUX

Nigel Curtiss’s brand is expanding into suits for women (modelled here by the designer’s daughter Aiden), luxury leather goods and less formal wear for men

Gauhar Kapparova

Nigel Curtiss makes suits for A-listers, with cuts and fabrics that fuse the wearer’s own personal style with a timeless elegance. LUX’s Editor-at-Large, Gauhar Kapparova hears how he moved from being a model into design, about his time in Japan, and what makes the perfect Curtiss capsule wardrobe

Nigel Curtiss

LUX: Why have you chosen to move entirely into custom design now?
Nigel Curtiss: I moved into custom design for many reasons. Firstly, for a pragmatic one, being a small luxury-level designer selling to retail was not fun anymore. Many stores, especially independent ones, were struggling and the problems were passed down the line. Secondly, I was becoming weary of the system, the cost of a show, the samples, a showroom, fighting for space on a shop floor, and most importantly my collection not being bought and displayed as I imagined it. I felt increasingly detached from the end user. In a way, I felt comfortable going in the opposite direction of fast fashion. Slowing it down, making it more personal.

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LUX: You’ve said that you don’t design just clothes but an identity. Do you mean the client’s identity?
Nigel Curtiss: I feel that in modern-day fashion you end up wearing the personality of the designer. In many cases you are shouting that from the rooftops by wearing their logo. It is not so much about the personality of the wearer but being part of a tribe. My clients generally prefer to show their own personality. I work closely with them to understand what makes them tick. The clothes need to complement the person, not take over. There is an underlying theme in what I do – amazing fabrics, lightweight construction, comfort and perfect fit. The client gives me the clues to do the rest.

LUX: Do you notice a style divide between your clients in the US and the UK? Does your design approach change accordingly?
Nigel Curtiss: No, I don’t. Maybe because the clients who want to work with me have the same desires and all demand the best. The only location-specific changes are due to climate. Clients in Miami can’t wear what I sell in NYC in the winter.

LUX: Clean, uncomplicated lines are a signature part of the Nigel Curtiss look. Do your clients inspire you to add design touches that tap into their personal tastes or lifestyle?
Nigel Curtiss: Absolutely, that happens all the time. Quite often, when I understand that they have a more expressive personality, I will suggest some details that will make the difference without taking over the garment.

LUX: You began an almost decade-long tenure working at Comme des Garçons after first being cast as a model for them. How did you make this transition?
Nigel Curtiss: I guest lecture at Parsons School of Design and get asked this question a lot! I always say that I think I’ve had a lot of luck in my career, but that I made my own luck. I modelled in the first CDG show in Paris. They didn’t use models, compliments”, or “My wife says I look great/sexy in this”. That’s when we know we’ve cracked it.

LUX: Made-to-measure tailoring that doesn’t date taps into the idea of slow fashion. How sustainable is your business?
Nigel Curtiss: Sustainability is becoming so important. Made to measure is already a far more sustainable fashion option. We have no dead stock, in fact no stock and no landfill. What we do isn’t a passing fad. My clients wear what I make them for years until it’s worn out, and that’s a long time. Also, we try to limit our carbon footprint and are looking at biodegradable packaging, recycled hangers, and so on.

Read more: Fine dining on the ski slopes of Andermatt, Switzerland

LUX: Quality fabric is a cornerstone of your design ethos. Who makes the best fabrics?
Nigel Curtiss: There are so many great sources of fabric. English wools; Italian wools, shirting and silks. I love Japanese fabrics, too. But for me, it has to be amazing quality, beautifully designed and close to my manufacturing base. I’m not going to ship fabric half-way around the world.

LUX: Has a particular fabric ever inspired a design, rather than vice versa?
Nigel Curtiss: For me, the fabric is always the starting point. I don’t design first then look for a fabric.

LUX: If you could ban one item of men’s clothing, what would it be?
Nigel Curtiss: This is one of those questions that always comes back to haunt you. I can’t think of anything I hate except anything that’s boring. Oh, and fast, disposable fashion.

LUX: What five pieces make up the perfect Nigel Curtiss capsule wardrobe?
Nigel Curtiss: Only five? That’s going to be tough. Charcoal-grey suit. Navy sports coat (you can wear it with the charcoal pants). Perfect slim, dark denim jeans (you can wear them with both jackets). The perfect white shirt, and a pale blue one (if that doesn’t count as my fifth item). The Nigel Curtiss navy polo shirt. It’s my classic and all my clients buy it. The collar stands up just perfectly to wear with a jacket or without. I have some high-profile clients who wear them with a suit on a daily basis. That’s six or seven outfits!

Read more: Artist Richard Orlinski on pop culture & creative freedom

LUX: You have a great celebrity following, with Kyle MacLachlan, David Schwimmer, Pierce Brosnan, Jeff Goldblum, and so on. Is it different designing for the red carpet?
Nigel Curtiss: The vast majority of my red-carpet attendees are the powerful men behind the scenes – the studio heads and the top executives. They are happy to be more low profile. I’m always very happy to work with any celebrities and dress them so they stand out in the most positive way. It shouldn’t be about the clothes.

LUX: You also dress a lot of high-profile athletes and sportsmen. Do you take a different approach to designing their clothes?
Nigel Curtiss: We try to use more performance fabrics, with natural-stretch, cool, lightweight fabrics. We might need to work more on the silhouette, but the concept stays the same.

LUX: Who will you be dressing for the 2020 awards season?
Nigel Curtiss: Well, we are already working with a few but I’m not at liberty to say anything yet. Also, you really don’t know until the day.

LUX: What is the first thing you notice about a good suit?
Nigel Curtiss: The balance. The fit can be altered for a client but if the balance is off, then it will never be right. But I can’t think of a design detail that I would look at and say it’s ruined the suit. I’m happy to look at creativity in context.

LUX: Are there rules for dressing well or is this an outdated concept?
Nigel Curtiss: Being British, we were brought up with so many rules. For dressing, for how to eat, the list goes on. Working with Rei encouraged me to re-evaluate those rules. I don’t like them. However, I think that if you are unsure about how to dress, then rules can help you feel better about what you are wearing. Some of my clients need to start in that place and then we edge them towards being confident in what they are wearing. Compliments help a lot!

LUX: What is next on the horizon for the Nigel Curtiss brand?
Nigel Curtiss: A proper, luxury Nigel Curtiss women’s tailoring brand is very close. Watch this space.

View the collections: nigelcurtiss.com

This article was originally published in the Spring 2020 Issue.

Number 16 Clifford Street in Mayfair, Cifonelli’s new residence

One of Paris’ most illustrious tailoring houses has opened the doors to its a new London boutique. LUX takes a look inside

It’s not often mannequins are intimidating, but the three standing in the shopfront windows of Number 16 Clifford Street are enough to make most men question their wardrobe. This is the new London residence of Cifonelli, a tailoring house renowned for its distinctive details and sharp lines. Karl Lagerfeld was famously quoted as exclaiming that he “could recognise a Cifonelli shoulder from a distance of a hundred metres.”

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The brand was established in Rome in 1880 by Giuseppe Cifonelli before settling in Paris via a short stint in London, and now it’s back in Britain’s capital with fourth-generation cousins Lorenzo and Massimo at the helm.

Cifonelli’s boutique has been designed to offer clients a space to relax and shop

Read more: Truffle making & Michelin-star dining at St. James’s Hotel & Club

On a wintery evening earlier this month, LUX joined a crowd of handsomely dressed men to celebrate the opening with a glass or two of champagne, and dancing to tunes from the in-house DJ. Not the kind of scene you’d necessarily expect from a traditional tailors, but Cifonelli despite its heritage remains very much on the pulse.

The shop itself, for example, is luxurious, but welcoming with plush velvet seats and flattering lighting, the idea being that customers can come in to relax as well as buy. It’s well worth a visit, if only to admire those well-dressed mannequins.

For more information visit: cifonelli.com

Labassa Woolfe’s Fitzrovia boutique

Fitzrovia’s latest opening, Labassa Woolfe is the brainchild of Johan Labassa, an antiques dealer, and Joe Woolfe, previously Retail Director at Savile Row tailor Spencer Hart, and a celebrity stylist in his own right. The boutique melds their passions to create the ultimate retail experience for men, with a collection of curated antiques, a bespoke tailoring service and a menu of Armagnac and foie gras sourced from Johan’s family farm in the southwest of France. Kitty Harris speaks to the duo about styling the stars, what makes perfect tailoring and the modern gentleman.

LUX: How do antiques and tailoring relate? Or are they mutually exclusive?
Joe Woolfe: I think this is a concept people aren’t used to. They’re not used to a tailoring business with an antiques element; they didn’t understand what it was about. They thought the back of the shop was our private salon. It’s just about letting people know what it’s all about. We try to communicate across our media platforms and in interviews and slowly people are getting it.

LUX: How is your shop different to Savile Row tailors, independent of the fact you sell antiques and fois gras?
Joe Woolfe: I think on the tailoring side I am different. My other business, or my day job if you like, dressing iconic men, and having to sort and source perfect outfits, I always try to find something a bit different. Hence the buttons (all sourced in Paris) and the cufflinks and the extra bits we can do to an outfit. I don’t know if there is another brand on Savile Row that does what we do. I’ve worked with them all, because obviously not all of my clients are going to wear Labassa Woolfe. Benedict Cumberbatch wears Thom Sweeney, he wears Richard James, Kilgour, all kinds of products. Someone came in the other day and said they needed a top hot so I worked with Lock Hatters to get them one. My styling side really works well with this.

LUX: Joe, you mentioned being Benedict Cumberbatch’s stylist? Is there more pressure working with a celebrity?
JW: I think all clients are demanding especially when they are spending a lot of money. I think from my Spencer Hart days there was a mistake in how we ran the business whereby we concentrated far too much on the celebrities and it didn’t go down very well with our other clients. They felt the celebrities were more important than them so now I am aware not to go on and on about celebrities. I like to keep that discreetly on the side and concentrate on the person I’m with.

Joe Wolfe, Benedict Cumberbatch and Johan Labassa

LUX: Why did you decide to set up shop on your own?
JW: I think it was an inevitable step. I work in menswear and I love tailoring and I’ve never been able to get quite what I want out of other brands. I was reluctant to set up a tailoring business. But when me and Johan started talking about what we could do together it really excited me. It was obvious we were going to produce something that was unique and made a lot of sense to me. I couldn’t of done this without Johan and vice versa and it’s worked out really well.

Read next: Hotel Byblos’ owner, Antoine Chevanne on the allure of St. Tropes

LUX: Joe, what makes good tailoring?
JW: Fabric, fabric is really important. I’ve learnt a lot about fabrics because after I left Spencer Hart I went and work with Scabal who are probably one of the best cloth manufacturers in the world, alongside Loro Piana, and they do have an amazing business. They have a £60 million cloth business and 5,000 cloths. It was like going into a kitchen with the best ingredients in the world and being able to use them. Cloth is really important and the people who make the suits. I know a lot about tailoring and the construction of a suit and how that translates onto a person. It’s all about the architecture in a garment and how the garment is built. Anybody who has worn good tailoring, and you then try and put something on them that isn’t well built or manufactured they’re not going to feel good in it. It’s about education, about what people expect. It’s like once you’ve been in an AMG Mercedes you don’t want to go back in a cheap one. Fabric, cut, manufacturing, details. Sometimes less is more. I don’t like people looking like peacocks or like clowns. I like my guys to be really sophisticated, really cool and elegant. Quite often it’s about textures rather than lots of different colours or lots of loud things. We have a few contradictions in the shop, like the black jacket with the coloured Sophie Hallette lace. But there aren’t many people who would wear that.

LUX: How do you think the world of tailoring has evolved in recent years?
JW: Guys know so much more about tailoring than they did. You can walk into Topman now and get a made to measure suit, or into Massimo Dutti. All of the highstreet brands have followed what was going on on Savile Row fifteen years ago. We’re really up against it. There are incredible online tailoring businesses that produce a really good product for a couple of hundred quid. It’s crazy. I know a lot of the cutters on Savile Row who have gone and worked with huge Chinese manufactures and they’ve brought their expertise over to China and over to India. They are producing really good product at a really good price. I’ve felt I’ve had to work harder. Haute couture is always copied onto the highstreet even with womenswear, so it was inevitable that it was going to happen with men’s tailoring as well and it has. But I think the people who are at the forefront of men’s tailoring are always going to be producing better product than highstreet brands.

LUX: How would you describe the modern gentleman?
JW: The modern guy is more educated, they read magazines that inform them on what they need to wear and how they need to wear it. You’ve got iconic men like Oliver Chesire, Jack Guinness, David Gandy who inform every guy on what’s cool and what’s not. GQ is a big supporter. We’ve got men’s fashion week that has a huge visibility so I think most guys know what they’re looking for a lot more than they used to. They have staples in their wardrobe. They often come and know exactly what they want. Some don’t get it quite right. What is a modern guy? A modern guy wants to look cool and sexy…but is that just a modern guy? I think all guys have always wanted that. Even back to the 1850s, everyone says that the One Button Narrow Notch Suit is a new thing, but it’s not. It was around 150 years ago.

Oliver Cheshire and Jack Guinness

LUX: What’s the ultimate men’s accessory?
JW: I think watches are really important which surprises me in this digital age, that guys are so into having something mechanical on their wrist. The amount of money that people spend on watches just blows my mind, it’s phenomenal.

LUX: Johan, your speciality is antiques – is there a particular period you prefer? Which has been your most exciting discovery and where did you find it?
Johan Labassa: Yes, mostly Louis XV, Regency, Directory. But I don’t really have a favourite period. It depends on the furniture and what I find. As for my favourite piece I’ve found…I like them all but I found a great desk from a French family near Paris. It was very hard to get because they were not ready to sell so I had to deal with it long term but at the end of the day I got it and I love it.

Read next: Bill Bensley’s Art Deco palace in Bangkok 

LUX: Do you think there’s an increasing demand in luxury to offer the client more than just the product?
JW: I’m actually bored with retail, because with what I do on the branding and styling side I have to spend a lot of time in luxury stores. There are very few retail experiences that I enjoy. They all have this mono brand feel to the and the staff are quite controlled in what they can and can’t do. We don’t have a huge online presence, you can’t get our candle online or our fragrance or Fois Gras. It’s pointless because unless you come here, see, touch and feel and get looked after by us you’re not going to experience what this brand is about. I think what this brand is about is proper old school retailing experience. All the little things that are bespoke to this business even down to the packaging, the bags and the covers; we’ve worked hard to get unique pieces. We want people to come here and experience us.

LUX: What are the “quintessential elements of French and English style” that are the fundamentals of the brand?
JW: It’s just a bit decadent.

JL: It’s just not normal. We’ve done something that isn’t done, it’s different.

JW: If we serve you a glass of Champagne, A) it’s French, B) We’ll add a little something to it, armagnac, syrup, orange, vanilla and coffee – it’s something Johan has manufactured. C) the foie gras is beautiful, the shoes are beautiful (all custom made in Italy), the art deco chairs are beautiful. It’s all an extension of our home, of who we are.

labassawoolfe.com