Lorenzo Cifonelli with beard

 
At our Tailoring Symposium next week in Florence, we have six of the greatest tailors in the world presenting their styles to the audience of press and buyers: Panico, Cifonelli, Edward Sexton, Richard Anderson, Liverano & Liverano, and Anderson & Sheppard.

The six have been picked for their quality, but also for their variation in style. On the night, the head cutter of each house will use a suit being worn by a younger member of the team to describe and demonstrate their style. We want to show the wider media – coming from the bright colours and flashy models of Pitti – how subtle differences in shoulder, chest and waist create such beautifully varying effects. 
  

Panico suit bespoke VBC

  
Each tailor is also making a unique piece to display at the party afterwards, so the guests can see the styles for themselves, up close. These pieces are all being made in Vitale Barberis Canonico cloth, and the photos here are of some of them being made. (Flannel, blues and double breasts proved to be very popular.)

The chosen styles and cloths are:

  • Panico: Blue chalk-stripe flannel suit (Antonio cutting it, above)
  • Cifonelli: Royal-blue double-breasted flannel jacket (Lorenzo, with his Father Christmas beard, shown top)
  • Edward Sexton: Cream flannel jacket
  • Richard Anderson: Dark-blue 4-ply worsted suit with red stripes
  • Liverano & Liverano: Midnight-blue barathea tuxedo
  • Anderson & Sheppard: Double-breasted navy flannel suit
     

Anderson & Sheppard

Anderson and SHeppard double breasted jacket VBC3Anderson and SHeppard double breasted jacket orderAnderson and SHeppard double breasted jacket VBC2

 

Cifonelli

Cifonelli blazer VBC Lorenzo Cifonelli blazer VBC


Richard Anderson

Richard Anderson bespoke suit savile row Richard Anderson bespoke suit fitting Richard Anderson bespoke suit

 

Edward Sexton

Sexton-5 Sexton-7 Sexton

Panico 

Panico suit making Panico suit making chalkstripe

 

Liverano

Liverano tuxedo making

 

 

 

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Stefan

By coincidence, do they all happen to be your size?

Sartorialword

Very interesting project, it’s rare to have the possibility to compare tailor style at the same time.

Will there be a vid of it?

B

This is great—can’t wait.

Anonymous

Is it me, or has the A&S cut changed over the last few years? It seems less roomy and certainly more waisted than their signature house style. Sacrilege or progress?

Omar

Interesting choice of cloth, while I like their Revenge range but VBC cloths generally are too light weight and a bit ‘soft’ for most tailors……specially their flannel, it’s just way too delicate, according to an off Row tailor “lasts 5 minutes”

Carmelo Pugliatti

Fantastico!
Just imagine a permanent forum in which young cutters exchange from a tailor to another (for exemple Anderson & Sheppard young cutter work with Panico,and a young Neapolitan cutter with Anderson & Sheppard) in a sharing of experience and style!

Shams

Hi Simon,

Do you know much about King and Allen or have you had any personal experience with them yourself? I am after a navy flannel suit with a Neapolitan/shirt shoulder and am wondering whether they can do it? You otherwise recommended Graham Browne to me for this particular style.
Thanks.

Anonymous

I tried K&A three or four years ago. They struggled to make a run of the mill business suit (buttoning point on the first jacket was incredibly low; shoulders on the second were well off and very heavily padded) so I wouldn’t hold out much hope for a Neapolitan cut. It was admittedly only around £350 but would have been far better off going RTW somewhere else. A relatively inexpensive, but valuable, lesson regarding cheap MTM. You can do a lot worse than the Havana fit odd jackets from Suit Supply.

David Craggs

What a great idea albeit, I’d have liked to have seen a different choice of cloths and cuts. It could have been more interesting to see some linens and corduroys.
That said, it could also have been interesting to see them work with exactly the same cloth — that would have been a real exercise in style!
I also don’t understand why A&S always field their DB. In my not so humble opinion (IMNSHO) it’s their SB that is their killer. I recently took delivery of a SB in 13oz linen and it is absolutely fabulous. I had them cut the trousers slim with side fasteners and with the exception of patch pockets (excluding the breast) went with their full on house style two button, double vent jacket and the result is great.
I just love their relaxed style and always like to feel that I’m wearing the suit and not the other away around. I hate this trussed up look.

jamesB

please have a word with Richard Anderson’s tailor about his shirt and shoes.

Richard Heffernan

Hi Simon. Do you know which blue chalk stripe flannel cloth was used in the Panico suit? Thanks, Richard.

Richard Heffernan

Thanks!

Peter

Sometime in the future it would be interesting to see a range of work from provincial Tailors. Some people who have posted on your Blog have alluded to this subject in the past. There are many talented people out there and they are not getting the coverage they deserve. On this point I did feel that The Rake had turned a corner when they featured a young shirt maker from Clapham, regrettably that has died a death and all we are reading about is the work of “Superstars”