I am always on the lookout for innovations in bespoke tailoring. And this summer I have come across something quite remarkable.
It was suggested to me by my friend Lorenzo Cifonelli that he make me a seasonal jacket in lightweight pink wool. Of course I consented, and not just because Lorenzo is a preternaturally gifted tailor. I have long been of the unshakeable opinion that there are not nearly enough pink jackets for men, a shortage that I ascribe to the notion that in childhood pink is the colour worn by girls.
I have long campaigned against this sort of pernicious and antiquated gender stereotyping.
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For more than 40 years I have been passionate and tireless in my advocacy for the righting of this egregious sartorial wrong. Until a century or so ago, pink was the accepted colour for boys (probably, as a derivative of red, the colour of the planet named for the god of war Mars, it was considered macho). Girls, however, were dressed in blue, as it was held to be more delicate.
But somehow mid-century the gender specific colours were switched, and as a child I always considered it a monstrous injustice that my gender disqualified me from wearing pink.
Of course I love blue, but pink is such an optimistic colour. My advocacy began in my late teens, when I became the proud possessor of a pink sharkskin suit that was, even then, about 50 years old. (This was long before vintage had been invented; instead we talked about second-hand clothes.)
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It was clearly made for someone of considerable physical stature – I could have fitted my entire skinny teenage frame inside one of the giant elephant legs that comprised the trousers.
Similarly, the jacket was of such Brobdingnagian dimensions that it even made David Byrne’s Stop Making Sense suit seem positively close-fitting. How I loved that suit. Had they made an episode of Miami Vice set it in the 1930s, it would have been perfect.
Since then, I have dedicated myself, and consecrated a not inconsiderable chunk of my wardrobe, to the MPGA – Make Pink (on men) Great Again – cause. Selflessly I have allowed the great Terry Haste to make me a three-piece suit in rose corduroy, and a two-piece in lobster linen. He is hard at work on a pink denim sports coat. Mariano Rubinacci has made me a blush linen two-piece and a very enjoyable lightweight jacket in Pepto Bismol pink corduroy intended for shirts.
Saving weight
But with Lorenzo, it was about more than being light in colour and spirit.
It is lighter in weight than anything he has ever made before. Indeed, he believes he has reached the hitherto unachievable goal of making a garment that weights no more than the fabric, thread and buttons with which it is made. Usually, the fabric and trimmings of a garment are just the beginning, as a jacket is built rather than made.
The structure of a jacket (more properly known as a ‘coat’, of course) is achieved with interlinings of all manner of different types of fabric: body canvas for jacket fronts, horsehair canvas to build chest and shoulder, domette, which goes over the itchy horsehair to give softness, and collar canvas of stiff linen among them. All of which, like the foundations and framework of a building, is concealed between the lining and the selected fabric.
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Lorenzo has taken a metaphorical wrecking ball to all that. Just as an ecurie preparing a car for racing will strip out all unnecessary parts, replace steel panels such as boot lid, bonnet and doors with carbon fibre, substitute glass windows with polycarbonate, and drill out the pedals in an effort to shave off another precious gram or two, so Lorenzo has approached the challenge of weight saving with remarkable rigour.
He has created a garment that is an incredible 40 per cent lighter than a conventional jacket. He also suggests using thin slivers of mother of pearl as buttons (he did not reveal how many grams this typically saves), enabling him to make his signature six-button double-breasted jackets that fasten with the bottom buttons, rolling the upper two pairs.
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The result is astonishing. I almost feel that I have heavier shirts in my wardrobe.
Of course, there are already warm weather solutions: half-canvassing, buggy backs and the like. But Lorenzo maintains that what he calls his ‘scarf jacket’ (don’t ask me why) is no mere small step forward, but a giant leap for male apparel. Not since Richard Mille made a watch for Rafael Nadal that even with strap weighed a barely perceptible 18.83g (the RM 27-01) has the world of luxury witnessed such a feat of feathery weightlessness.
It is the sort of advance in human development that makes one happy to be living in such advanced times.
This article first appeared in Spear’s Magazine Issue 96. Click here to subscribe
