The Bite Magazine - Autumn/Winter 2023 - Issue 34

bitemen A t a time when the Città Eterna (Eternal City) of Rome was crowded with men wearing elegant, tai- lor-made suits, Giuseppe Cifonelli opened his work- shop in 1880. His son, Arturo, regarded as one of the most renowned artisans in history, defined the brand thanks to his training at the prestigious Minister's Cutting Academy in London. He moved the brand to Paris in 1926, where it flour- ished through Italian flair, British technique and French finish- ing in the heart of the 'Golden Triangle’. Arturo was specific and uncompromising in his quest for per- fection. When he inspected the jackets before sending them to the customers, his employees prayed he would not cut the fabric with scissors, meaning they had to make it again. When he died in 1972, his son Adriano took over the family business and con- tinued his father’s legacy until the end of the last decade. Iconic fashion house Hermès partnered with Cifonelli to produce the exclusive bespoke line Hermès by Cifonelli from 1992 to 2007. Its clientele has included Italian actors Lino Ventura and Mar- cello Mastroianni, French actor Paul Meurisse, American-born French dancer and singer Josephine Baker, American actors Cary Grant and Charlton Heston, dancer and actor Fred As- taire and former French president François Mitterrand. In 2003, Lorenzo, Adriano’s son and his cousin Massimo took over the reins, reinventing the tailor-made suits for a modern lifestyle and creating comfortable, contemporary clothing from classic craftsmanship. The five ranges and textiles comprise forty unique collections, including Travel, Gatsby, Qilian, Hunting, Preppy, Imperia, Nara and Baikal. Each jacket expresses infinite couture tailor- ing with French cuffs, Mao collars, multiple buttonholes, welt pockets, martingales and more. In 2007, Massimo and Lorenzo developed made-to-measure and ready-to-wear collections that fully respect house tradition. It also became an outlet for their exciting creative ideas designed to reflect Cifonelli’s exclusive bespoke luxury. Cifonelli is renowned for its iconic shoulder. The late Karl La- gerfeld once said, “I could recognise a Cifonelli shoulder from a distance of a hundred metres.” The famous shoulder is cut to- ward the front and offers an unrivalled freedom of movement in the high armholes, refining the silhouette. It’s accompanied by Milanese-style buttonholes, step collars, unique lapels and other stylistic devices that perfectly symbolise the spirit of Cifonelli, a faithful men’s haute couture company. “Our armhole is very high and sits close to the body,” Massimo explained in an interview with The Rake . “We create a soft, natu- ral shoulder with little padding and shape the sleeve head using a form we call ‘Le Cigarette’. To the untrained eye, ‘Le Cigarette’ cosmetically resembles a British roped shoulder. Its curvature is created using [only] a little structural hand-wadding and the painstaking stretching and pressing of the cloth (rather than the rope insert forming the rigid Savile Row roped sleeve head).” A tailor’s workshop that started in Rome, moved to Paris and incorporated Brit- ish technique; Jada Brookes discovered the prestigious Cifonelli. CIFONELLI Italian Flair with British Technique and French Finishing