The evolution of the men’s suit between sartorial innovations and mass production. Italian tailoring and the prêt-à-porter haut de gamme Brioni

The essay studies the evolution of men’s tailoring during the 19th century and the first half of the 20th, to arrive at the development of Italian tailoring and its international success after World War II. Starting from the simplification of the bourgeois masculine dress, between the late 18th and early 19th century, we assist at the affirmation of the so-called “three-piece suit”, the first paragraph illustrates the research conducted in the 19th century to improve measurement methods and the tailoring cut, in order to create men’s clothes with perfect fit. These researches, in addition to making men’s tailoring a highly specialized profession, led also to the definition of the first sizes thanks to which it was possible to start a ready-made clothing industry. The second paragraph is dedicated to the evolution of men’s tailoring, and the first attempts to create a male fashion independent of the English style that dominated the international male fashion in that period. The last paragraph will then be dedicated to the first results of a research related to the Roman tailoring Brioni, founded in 1945, which in the sixties - when the success of ready fashion risked to undermine the haute couture - invented the prêt-à-porter haut de gamme, that stood halfway between a high fashion tailored suit and an industrial dress. With Brioni, Italy - and Rome in particular - contributed to the birth of Made in Italy also in terms of men’s fashion which today represents an important voice in the Italian fashion system.