My candidates for the best dressed men in the apparel business tend to be Italian. Mind you, Italian dressing is often over the top for my taste. But one man who always looks good is Luciano Barbera, nattily dressed in the photo for a weekend afternoon. Suede shoes (probably chukkas), flannel trousers and an odd jacket with patch pockets in a classic palette of browns, blues, gray, and green.
The pièce de résistance is the pocket square. It relates to nothing else. And yet it does. Brilliant.
11 comments:
The large cuff on the trousers is a nice detail for weekend wear as well.
Brilliant post, Will. This is just perfect. I love everything about this photo. Luciano Barbera is a classic style icon. I have a collection of LB photos on my computer from which I take sartorial inspiration. He has perfected the English country gentleman look, but with an Italian twist and flair.
In this photo he appears to be wearing a 3/2 sack jacket, which I find interesting because certain American trads claim this as their own. And yet I recall reading somewhere (can't remember where) that the 3/2roll is a hallmark of good Neapolitan tailoring. Can you verify this?
I completely agree with your remarks on Mr. Barbera's pocket square. I thought the same thing when looking at the photograph before even reading your narrative.
Thanks for showing this to us Will.
Luciano is one of the best dressed men in the world today. I love that he is not afraid to push the limits, but yet, he always looks classically appointed. In this photo, he looks great as usual. I love the aged (not worn out) look of his suede shoes, and the gray flannels are impeccable. If I could only have one pair of odd trousers, they would be gray flannel. Excellent photo!
After the previous two postings, Luciano Barbera was a sight for sore eyes.
Thanks, Will, for this antidote to that hat and Lorenzo Cifonelli.
I have always admired LB. But why are his hands in the pockets of his coat rather than his pants? His style is not only classic italian but also classic English. My father and I have been dressing like this since the sixties. Also, can't tell if the jacket has a pattern like a hounstooth check. I just happen to be wearing almost an identical outfit today.
It occurs to me that Luciano looks a lot like Frank Langella, from the movie "Starting out in the Evening, which I saw last evening at The Paris Theater.
The imagery and clothing in movies at The Paris tend to be very good.
Although Langella's clothing was boxy and ill-fitting at times - he still looked distinguished and much better than what one usually sees in the movies today.
I really like suede shoes with flannel pants but no one seems to make suede derby style shoes anymore. The English brands like Crockett and Jones and Church no longer make them, are they out of fashion, is that why? Anyone know any good makers?
Nick, check out the Arundel 2 model by Loake.
Trad - thanks for this info. I had not heard of this shoemaker before. I particularly like this model for wear with my brown trousers.
Am I the only one who thinks that his jacket is really ill-fitting? Seems like it is much too large for him.
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