Brioni
A tailor from Penne, a businessman from Umbria, and the first menswear runway show in fashion.
Brioni is a Roman tailoring house founded in 1945 at Via Barberini 79 by Nazareno Fonticoli, a tailor from Penne, and Gaetano Savini, a businessman from Umbria. In 1952 it staged the first menswear fashion show in the modern history of fashion, at the Palazzo Pitti in Florence. It originated the trunk show and its Su Misura made-to-measure service, introduced Prêt Couture at its Penne facility in 1959, and opened a tailoring school in Penne in 1985 to pass on its own sartorial method. It is now part of the Kering group.
Via Barberini 79,
Rome, 1945.
Brioni was founded in Rome in 1945, at Via Barberini 79, by two men with complementary halves of the same problem: Nazareno Fonticoli, a tailor from Penne in Abruzzo, and Gaetano Savini, a businessman from Umbria.
Fonticoli brought the hand. Savini brought the conviction that Italian tailoring could be sold as something more than a local service — and the instinct for how to show it.
The first menswear show
in modern fashion.
In 1952, at the Sala Bianca of the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, Brioni staged what is recorded as the first menswear fashion show in the modern history of fashion.
It is easy to underrate now. Before it, menswear was something a man was measured for in a room; it was not something presented, seasonally, as an idea. The show is where the modern menswear industry gets its format.
The marks of the house.
- 01Su MisuraThe made-to-measure service the house is built around — the tailor's relationship, kept rather than industrialised away.
- 02The trunk showBrioni originated it: taking the collection to the customer's city and personalising it there, instead of waiting for the customer to travel.
- 03Prêt CoutureIntroduced at the Penne production facility in 1959 — ready-to-wear built to couture standards rather than down to a price.
- 04The Penne schoolOpened in 1985 to transmit the house's specific sartorial method to a next generation — a maker treating its own technique as something that has to be taught, or lost.
"A tailor from Penne and a businessman from Umbria. One knew how, the other knew that it should be shown."— Anemoia Vestiaire, on Brioni
Brioni cuts.
Someone else weaves.
Brioni is a maker. It cuts and constructs the garment; the cloth itself is woven by a mill. A Brioni jacket in Loro Piana cloth means Brioni made it and Loro Piana wove the fabric — two houses, two crafts, one garment.
It is the distinction that makes a label legible. Once you can see which half of the sentence a name belongs to, a great deal of vintage stops being guesswork.
Why vintage Brioni
is worth waiting for.
Because the construction is the value, and construction is the part that survives. A jacket built by hand to a method taught in a school the house founded for the purpose will outlast the fashion that surrounded it — and a good one alters well, which matters more in vintage than any label does. The house is now part of the Kering group.
Brioni in the archive.
About Brioni.
Who founded Brioni?
Nazareno Fonticoli, a tailor from Penne in Abruzzo, and Gaetano Savini, a businessman from Umbria, in Rome in 1945 at Via Barberini 79. Fonticoli brought the hand; Savini brought the conviction that Italian tailoring could be presented rather than merely provided.
Did Brioni really stage the first menswear fashion show?
Yes — in 1952, at the Sala Bianca of the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, Brioni staged what is recorded as the first menswear fashion show in the modern history of fashion. Before it, menswear was something a man was measured for, not something presented seasonally as an idea.
What is Brioni Su Misura?
The house's made-to-measure service, the tailor's relationship kept rather than industrialised away. Brioni also originated the trunk show — taking the collection to the customer's city and personalising it there — and introduced Prêt Couture, ready-to-wear built to couture standards, at its Penne facility in 1959.
Does Brioni weave its own cloth?
No. Brioni is a maker, not a mill: it cuts and constructs the garment, while the cloth is woven elsewhere. A Brioni jacket in Loro Piana cloth means Brioni made it and Loro Piana wove the fabric — two houses, two crafts, one garment.
Why is vintage Brioni worth buying?
Because the construction is the value, and construction is the part that survives. A jacket built by hand to a method the house founded a school in Penne in 1985 to teach will outlast the fashion around it, and a well-made one alters well — which matters more in vintage than a label does.