Word: client
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Downstairs at headquarters, the pattern for Nelson Mandela's pant legs flutters on a rack, and two master tailors look over a camel-colored coat in vicuņa before it is sent to a client. "The fabric alone is about $4,800, but it will never, ever wear out," says Alessandro Corso, who grew up in a family of tailors. His colleague Simone Lovino is busy pressing a suit for a client who has returned it because the collar is riding up. "The collar is perfect. He doesn't need a new jacket; he needs a new dry cleaner...
Angeloni shows off the adjacent paneled fitting room, designed to evoke a library. "Our client is looking for one-of-a-kind products. They want small scale, not 200,000-sq.-ft. stores with untold goods," he says, noting that there are 25 dedicated Brioni stores worldwide, all staffed by trained tailors, and 400 stores that sell Brioni alongside other brands. "We haven't diversified beyond our core customer. Real luxury should not be so ubiquitous...
Although the bespoke service (the term comes from the English tradition of setting aside a client's fabric, which was said to be "spoken for") is limited to Rome and Milan and accounts for only 3% of Brioni's sales, Angeloni says it's what differentiates the brand from others. Today most of the company's business is in off-the-rack suits, priced from $2,600 and available in the same quality fabrics and with the same buttons used for the bespoke versions. A quarter of the company's 1,600 employees worldwide are trained tailors. About...
Still, the basic procedure remains the same for everyone. First the client articulates what he or she is looking for. After about 10 days, several drawings are produced. Once a design is agreed upon, a mock-up in metal is created with rhinestones and colored glass. The final price and the delay period come with the mock-up. The latter often poses more of a problem than the price...
...client ordered a Mysterious Settings ruby brooch composed of rows of small rectangular stones in invisible settings (a technique invented by Van Cleef in 1933). Although the client wanted it "for next month," Gautier explained why it would require a year by taking her to the atelier and demonstrating how three teeny rubies might need an entire day to be cut. "After seeing the process, she understood," he says...