The Map

An engraved map of the world. The marks are the houses in the archive; hover one for the houses made there.

London

Paris

  • CifonelliParis. The shoulder that runs across the top.
  • Camps de LucaParis. The fishmouth lapel, and the teardrop pocket.

Strasbourg

Lyon

  • ZilliLyon, 1965. Leather cut as cloth.

Italy

New York

Chicago

  • OxxfordChicago, 1916. The most hand-work in American ready-to-wear.

Hover a mark for the houses made there. Each name opens the house.

An engraved map of Italy with the tailoring cities marked: Biella, Milano, Mantova, Vicenza, Parma, Carrara, Fano, Solomeo, Roma, Napoli, Cagliari. Hover a mark for the houses made there.

Biella

Milan

Vicenza

  • Pal Zileriarchive →Quinto Vicentino. The line matters more than the name.
  • BelvestPiazzola sul Brenta. Fully canvassed, or nothing inside at all.
  • RavazzoloGrumolo delle Abbadesse. Buy the coat.

Mantua

Parma

  • CarusoSoragna. The factory behind other people’s labels.

Carrara

  • D’AvenzaCarrara. An English factory, built in Tuscany.

Fano

  • St AndrewsFano. The name inside other people’s coats.

Solomeo

Rome

Naples

Cagliari

How the coat is built

Five levels, sorted by how the chest of the coat is built. The ordering comes from a list that Styleforum members kept for thirteen years; we checked every house against its own record and redrew it. Where the five levels come from →

Two fronts, same cloth. The left is glued to a sheet; the right has a canvas that floats.
A tailor pad-stitching a lapel canvas by hand with crimson silk, a thimble on his finger.
5Excellent

Full canvas that floats, and hand-work where it changes the coat: the lapel padded by hand, the sleevehead set by hand, the buttonholes cut and sewn by hand. Kiton, Brioni, Attolini and Oxxford are here for that, and the mixture of hand and machine is normal even at the top. Read: Excellent →

  • Kiton
  • Cesare Attolini
  • A. Caraceni
  • Tom Ford
  • Oxxford
  • Brioni
  • Luigi Borrelli
  • Luciano Barbera
  • Sartoria Castangia
  • Sartoria Formosa
  • Chester Barrie
  • Orazio Luciano
  • St Andrews
  • Ralph Lauren Purple Label, early
  • Zegna Couture
Pad-stitching a lapel by hand: small diagonal stitches through the canvas, one row at a time.
Inside a full-canvas coat before the lining goes in: the canvas, the chest piece, the basting.
A chest canvas pad-stitched on a machine in even crimson rows, the buttonhole beside it worked by hand.
4Very good

The same floating full canvas, built on machines by specialised operators, with the hand brought back where it shows: the lapel buttonhole, the edge stitching, the collar. The top lines of Canali, Corneliani, Caruso and Pal Zileri sit here, a level above their mainlines. Read: Very good →

  • Sartorio Napoli
  • Stile Latino
  • Isaia
  • Sartoria Partenopea
  • Belvest
  • Ravazzolo
  • Battistoni
  • D’Avenza
  • Canali, top line
  • Corneliani Linea Sartoria
  • Caruso Sartoria Parma
  • Pal Zileri Sartoriale
  • Ralph Lauren Purple Label, later
A Milanese buttonhole, sewn by hand over a gimp cord. About an hour of work.
A canvassed jacket front sewn on an industrial lockstitch machine in a modern factory.
3Good

Canvassed and machine-made throughout, at industrial scale, so the make is repeatable and the cloth and the cut do the separating. Canali, Corneliani and Zegna mainline are here. A Zegna cloth tag inside somebody else’s coat does not make it a Zegna. Read: Good →

  • Canali
  • Corneliani
  • Zegna
  • Caruso
  • Pal Zileri
  • Brunello Cucinelli
A jacket front on a fusing press: canvas over the chest, fusible interlining glued below it.
2Satisfactory

Half-canvassed: a floating canvas in the chest and lapel, fusible glued below it. This is the floor of the list and the way most factory tailoring is built. Armani’s main line sits here, and the lower front is the part to check for bubbling. Read: Satisfactory →

  • Armani Black Label
The pinch test. Two layers moving as one is glue; three, with the middle sliding, is canvas.
Fused jacket fronts coming off a continuous fusing press onto a trolley.
1Mediocre

Fused: the whole front glued to an interlining in under a minute. Some of it is well cut; none of it can be repaired once the glue lets go, which is why nothing from here enters the archive. Read: Mediocre →

  • Nothing from here enters the archive.
The pinch test. Two layers moving as one is glue; three, with the middle sliding, is canvas.

Outside the five: the bespoke houses — Henry Poole, Huntsman, Anderson & Sheppard, Cifonelli, Camps de Luca, Rubinacci — and the cloth houses, Loro Piana and Zilli.