It’s a matter of equal opportunities. For nigh-on 80 years Brioni’s peerless Roman fatto a mano tailoring was only formally available to men. Then, last year, creative director Norbert Stumpfl cautiously began to sprinkle a few refigured feminine pieces into his mix, before showing Brioni’s first ever standalone women’s collection last season.
We started today’s tour in one corner of the new Brioni showroom that was filled with mannequins. It was easy to admire the floor length wide-leg pant shape Stumpfl freshly introduced and nod appreciatively as he described the processes used to create his double-faced cotton trench coats and soft-touch python bags. A wide-revere tuxedo embroidered with 8,000 knots, each tied with a tiny Swarovski crystal was highly impressive (and apparently sold out).
However it was in the next room that Stumpfl’s most significant step forward in presenting his womenswear this season was revealed: real-life models. The luxuriant flow of the dense but intangibly light ivory silk in a floor-length shirt dress with inside-stitched patch pockets only became apparent as it was walked from one side of the room and back again. A strong-shouldered, nipped waist, long-skirted white double breasted jacket worn over a prominently-collared (only semi-tucked) blue shirt and those long wide trousers in a ripe tomato red looked like a lightning rod outfit for character amplification as it followed the same route. And a single-vented white coat version of that previously seen crystal-knotted tux—but here featuring 18,600 crystals applied over 40 hours of handwork—assumed its full room-stealing magnificence when humanly inhabited.
After this press presentation wraps up tomorrow, it will stay open for Very Important Clients who are in town for the shows and keen to see more of Brioni. Stumpfl said they will be able to make made-to-measure orders, and that eventually he hopes that clients who are interested will be able to visit the Brioni workrooms in Penne to see their garments being made. There is another VIC event happening in two week’s time at Bergdorf Goodman. With clothes of this quality, there can be no substitute for seeing them with your own eyes, touching them with your own hand, and ideally enveloping your own being within them.