Also in this issue:

• Drinks
  The Burgundian Model
• Good Life Guide
  Xikar Xi3 Redwood Cutter
• Good Life Guide
  Run Silent, Run Deep
• News & Features
  The Fat Cigar Trend
• Cuba Report
  Quality Time
• More from this Issue

Goal! Italia!

Take a work break down a back alley. Add the easy, yet elegant fashions of Italy. Throw in a ball. And you've got one stylish soccer game.

From the Print Edition:
The Best Places to Gamble, Sep/Oct 02

Italians understand that seeming contradictions create excitement. And strict rules do not. Or as the folks from Zegna point out, soft can equal sharp. Therefore, don't be surprised at the Tuscan willingness to mix media. A sweater tied over the shoulders of a suit is accepted policy. Driving moccasins with evening clothes is not unheard of. Neither is wearing two shirts at once.

Stodginess and unwillingness to experiment have never been the hallmarks of the Italian tailor. In his hands the newest super worsteds and the most delicate cashmeres have transformed the once weighty and hot business uniform into a globe-trotting, climate-spanning suit. While a firm like Loro Piana is famous worldwide for its high-tech Biella factory, Italians are never so ethnocentric that they can't appreciate the product of other cultures. Kiton gets most of its fabric from England.

Family values loom large in the Italian fashion world, where businesses get handed down from generation to generation. The Zegnas have been in the business for generations and run their $600 million-plus operation with a collection of cousins who oversee every aspect of the business.

Lines blur in Italian fashion. Nino Cerruti took his family firm from cloth making to fashion forging in the '40s and later gave Armani his first opportunity. Barbera pulled off a similar switch after three generations of fabric making. Ottavio Missoni started out making track uniforms, Emilio Pucci, skiwear. Cerruti's first show included plays he had produced with the actors wearing his clothes. Brioni now publishes prestigious books, some fashion oriented -- a celebration of boutonnieres; some not -- a tome on single-malt Scotch.

Even as Italian fashion recognizes that an ever-changing world moves relentlessly into the future, one thing never changes: the appreciation of quality materials and expert workmanship.

< 1 2