The decision by Italian clothing brand Corneliani to use American psychedelic folk musician and artist Devendra Banhart as its “face” for this season is a telling one. This firm from Mantua, which has been making sartorial Italian menswear for nearly a century now, made its name creating traditional style for professionals. But times change, and style with it. So, wisely, Corneliani has been developing modern menswear that uses its traditional tailoring and fabric knowledge but applies it to more casual designs. Style director Stefano Gaudioso Tramonte says, “Today’s Corneliani man is no less interested in quality, but the life he lives is less constrained by formal conventions. He still wants elegance, but not in an uptight way.” Unlined coats, bomber jackets, hybrid shirt-jacket “shackets”, relaxed high-quality knitwear, and the accessories to go with all this are now the order of the day. And who better to show this off than a 40-something man who looks like he’s lived a little and is comfortable rewriting the rules.
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