In collaboration with filmmaker Gianluca Migliarotti (@kiddandy on Insta), the fine folks at The Armoury made a documentary about legendary Florentine tailor Antonio Liverano back in 2012, called I Colori di Antonio. They’ve posted it to YouTube, so you can watch it for free, and are hosting a Q&A today with the director at 11 a.m. EDT (11 p.m. Hong Kong time). They have a page about the documentary here.
I Colori came on the heels of another documentary Migliarotti had done about tailors in Naples called O’mast. That documentary is worth watching, as well. It gives an oral history of the tailoring tradition of Naples from the tailors themselves.
I think if I ever were to become a high-roller and could drop serious money on tailoring, Liverano is the first tailor I’d try. His house style is celebrated (and much-imitated—see my photo below) for good reason. Tailoring’s primary appeal, in my mind, is to flatter the wearer. Any tailored jacket from any tradition (structured and British or soft and Italian) that fits well and is proportioned well makes a man look better because the basic form is designed to do that. Personal expression comes in the form of putting together outfits, cloth choices, color preferences, etc. But Liverano’s style has a beauty to it that stands on its own; an artistic expression just in the garment itself, apart from how it sits on and makes a man look when worn. Ethan Newton described it well years ago when he still worked at The Armoury (he now runs Bryceland’s in Tokyo and Hong Kong):
The Liverano Silhouette
The jacket is soft in the shoulders, with a rear slanted shoulder seam and line that extends past the deltoid. It is generous, and perhaps a little more masculine than the very neat shoulder line seen in other regional Italian tailoring styles.
The dartless front is characteristically Florentine. It would be sackish and flat if left with a straight seam and no iron, but the single dart in the single front panel is angled, and the waist pressed into a gentle swell. The round sweep from lapel notch to open quarter adds to the slightly rural, countrified appearance. The jacket is left short, with the notch and breast pocket traditionally low.
The trousers are a higher rise, generally pleated and cuffed if in a suiting cloth, with a strong taper to the ankle. It makes the overall feel slightly top heavy, but not imbalanced – more a masculine heft to the torso.
The overall effect is almost a little antique – an anti-fashion cut that doesn’t feel too prissy or too uniform. It feels like Florence – an elegant old city that has never found cause to abandon tradition for the new.
Riveting film. Thanks for sharing. I’m suddenly obsessed with the triple patch oatmeal textured jacket Taka seems to live in. I’ll need to find a less expensive iteration of that.
Have you ever wondered how Mark Cho got his financing and how The Armoury got off the ground? Nobody has ever asked him about this in any interviews as far as I can tell. I’d be interested to know how someone so young got the business going when he did and how it was financed.