Brioni introduced its eightieth anniversary celebration to New York Metropolis on Wednesday with artistic director Norbert Stumpfl making a particular journey to Bergdorf Goodman to unveil a capsule designed completely for the retailer to honor its milestone birthday. The shop additionally devoted 4 home windows on Fifth Avenue to the gathering, which can stay by way of April 30.
The particular capsule, which consists of eight seems to be, known as Sala Bianca, a nod to a different milestone in Brioni’s historical past. “Brioni in 1952 organized the primary males’s catwalk present — earlier than, it was solely ladies,” Stumpfl mentioned. That present was held in Florence within the Sala Bianca, which implies white room.
However whereas there are neutrals within the assortment, there are additionally some eye-popping daring blue and inexperienced shades.
“It’s a celebration as effectively,” Stumpfl defined. “And colour could be very emotional for me. It provides you that further kick and I believe it’s additionally deeply embedded in Brioni.”
He mentioned when the corporate was created again within the Nineteen Fifties, “it was thought-about elegant for males to put on black, navy, ivory or generally deep inexperienced dinner jackets. However Brioni would use canary yellow or orange or couture materials. So these type of colours are literally a part of our heritage. It’s type of daring, and you need to make certain the colours usually are not overpowering, however if you put on them, it provides you an additional raise.”
Norbert Stumpfl, Mehdi Benabadji, Yumi Shin and Younger-Su Kim.
Yvonne Tnt/BFA.com
Yumi Shin, chief merchandising officer of Bergdorf’s, mentioned the shop’s males’s buyer shouldn’t be afraid of colour. “However it’s not simply the colour, it’s additionally the match that our buyer loves,” she mentioned. “It’s not tremendous conventional. It’s a bit extra relaxed within the shoulder and it’s turn out to be a way more fashionable tackle conventional.”
Stumpfl mentioned as a designer, he strives to create a garment that not solely feels gentle but additionally permits for motion. “You place it on and overlook about it,” he mentioned. “Our purchasers are very busy and dealing quite a bit in order that they respect that very a lot.”
Among the many key items within the Sala Bianca assortment are a light-weight Soffio Jacket, the Journey Jacket with 13 tailor-made pockets and the fashionable Journey Trousers, all of which mirror a mix of heritage and modernity.
Stumpfl acknowledged that designing based mostly on archival items whereas striving to make them related for right now’s buyer is not any straightforward job. “I really feel you need to take the essence of the archive, however by no means repeat it. And that’s actually essential. Simply taking a garment out of the archive and redoing it’s not one thing I do fairly often.”
The Sala Bianca assortment provided fits in daring colours.
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As a substitute, he research the historical past of the clothes after which creates fashionable interpretations by updating materials and silhouettes. For example, he pointed to the brilliant blue swimsuit that’s comprised of a silk moire ladies’s material from Como. “These days, the silk moires usually are not even made in silk anymore. Largely of the time they’re viscose and so they’re printed. However ours is made utilizing the previous methods.”
Though Brioni remains to be finest often known as a males’s model, the corporate launched womenswear within the winter of 2022 as a capsule of “5 seems to be embedded into the lads’s assortment,” he mentioned. At the moment, that has was a stand-alone assortment of greater than 20 items, and it has developed a following. Shin mentioned Bergdorf additionally carries the ladies’s line and it’s “doing very effectively.”
“It actually began out as a masculine wardrobe for ladies, which is type of our base floor,” Stumpfl mentioned. “After which we now have seasonal updates when it comes to colours or completely different materials. The design begins out with plenty of particulars, after which we take them off and take them off so it seems to be like a garment that has at all times existed. It’s not a museum piece. It’s one thing you possibly can put on on a day-to-day foundation.”
To have fun the launch of the Sala Bianca capsule, Brioni hosted an intimate cocktail social gathering at Goodman’s Bar contained in the Bergdorf’s males’s retailer for patrons and associates of the home who loved cocktails reminiscent of Tuscan Gin Tonic and Brioni Negroni and canapés impressed by conventional Roman delicacies served on Ginori 1735 ceramics.
The Sala Bianca capsule is unique to Bergdorf Goodman.
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Stumpfl, who mentioned he visits New York a few occasions a 12 months, mentioned he was solely staying two days on this journey. However whereas right here, he deliberate to soak within the environment. “I simply stroll down the streets. I’m at all times an observer of individuals.” He additionally deliberate to go to artwork galleries, take a look at shops and go to with purchasers. “I like to know what individuals are pondering and doing which creates inspiration for me to attempt to give you one thing good for Brioni,” he mentioned.
