CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 11/28/2018

Sartorial mastery in 'Italian Tailoring'

"Why do we wear clothes," Yoshimi Hasegawa asks in the Introduction to Italian Tailoring, his new survey of living Italian sartorial masters and their historical houses. "To rephrase the question: why are we captivated by beauty?" He concludes, "Akin to the sun or the moon, beauty is an undeniable fact of life. Beauty is the Italian's paragon, an irreducible and universal currency. Tailoring personifies these differing ideals. Italian hand-stitching is exquisite, but hand-stitching alone does not necessarily dictate a fine suit. The perfect suit is not a panacea. We each seek different qualities in our garments, and thereby have differing definitions of the ideal suit. This gives rise to individual sartorial flair and the suit itself, as a mode of expression that has flourished in Italy." Featured photograph is of Antonio Panico of Sartorio Panico, one of the great living Neapolitan tailors.