BeSPOKE 07

“A GENTLEMAN’S WARDROBE
MUST BE FULL OF SHIRTS.
THESE ARE THE TRIUMPH
OF MODERN LIFE.
I HAVE SO MANy THAT I’VE
LOST COUNT OF THE NUMBER.
yOU MUST HAVE SO MANy
THAT yOUR OWN GOOD TASTE
SURPRISES yOU EVERy TIME
AND yOU ARE AMAzED EVERy
TIME yOU GET THEM OUT
OF yOUR WARDROBE”.
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again and take back the world of elegance. We have
the history, tradition, style, intuition and beauty. Let’s
learn how to sell it on every continent. But quality
must be supreme. We’ve made Biella a centre for
research into textiles and the relationship between
textiles and health, denouncing the criminal use of
azo dyes which cause skin tumours in consumers.
Ours is a philosophy of timeless, guaranteed excellence.
We can teach it to the world. It is the only way
open to us. Save traditions so that they can be new
markets for sophistication and definite values”. Between
1990 and 2000 Barbera was universally recognised
as a style guru and, to all intents and
purposes, the most elegant man of those years. One
day, John John, Kennedy’s favourite, called him to
tell him that he had been for a visit to the White
House and that never had such an elegant American
entered the Oval Office. He was wearing clothes
with Barbera’s brand name. “I understand that the
clothing caste wants bulk sales. But this is how history
is destroyed and, that way, we lose our sense of
who we are. My teachers were my father for fabrics,
Mario Pozzi, Consilvio’s son in law and Mario Caraceni
for clothes, shirtmaker Vittorio Siniscalchi and
for shoes Antonio Bentivegna, great names in Milanese
and international tailoring. Today I mainly wear
clothes that I’ve designed myself. When I was eighteen
my father sent me to England to gain experi-
ence in weaving and spinning. In Biella I studied
combing and dyeing. Then I found out about the
great transformations in fabric in Milan where they
looked into your soul and sewed your true identity
onto you. They knew how to look into your mind.
That was how I understood that true elegance is not
appearance but your true essence. One day, at the
end of a visit to our company, an Australian wool
maker said to me, amazed: “But we sold you virgin
wool and not cashmere. What miracles have you
performed?” This is what I mean by substance and
the unique, exceptional Italian way. In defence of
our product, however, we must learn from the
Americans who write everything clearly on their la-
bels. An unruly market is to nobody’s advantage. In
1960, after seeing a photo of me dressed in Mulas in
a Saxony over-checked three-piece suit in dual
panel brown, Murray Pearlstein asked me to create
a clothing range for him. I’d learnt something at the
Milanese tailors. Today we’ve even got vintage fabrics.
We conserve our wools like champagne in our
Pianezze cellars keeping them there eight months
in constant humidity because it has to regenerate
there before it is woven. The 1911 reserve is dedicated
to my father Carlo, honorary member of the
Superfine Wool Producers, the most exclusive wool
making club in the world. We don’t forget history”.
www.lucianobarbera.com
THE GREAT TRADITION
CONTINUES: ABOVE luCiAno
BARBERA’S GRANDSON.
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