My friend Francesco pointed me at a Casentino cloth overcoat in Milan the other day. Only in Italy, and I think I say that in a good sense.
Casentino cloth has been made in Tuscany since the fifteenth century, and the orange hue in the photograph is, with green, one of the two traditional colorways. Worn in an Ulster style cut with a fox collar and a lining in the aforementioned green, the stuff is inexpensive, rough, water resistant and warm. What's more, spotting another coat like it on the streets of New York is highly unlikely.
But then, one would be wearing an orange overcoat...
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Casentino Cloth
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22 comments:
There is an amount of bravery required, that I just don't think I have.
I could live without the fur collar, but I love the color. I'm a bit surprised, though, that the owner of the bright yellow raincoat is put off by the orange.
As always, thank you for the blog.
Will, I am intrigued. Cursory googling reveals no vendors. How would I go about ordering one of these without going to Italy?
Thanks for maintaining the blog. It's an inspiration in many ways.
Who is put off by the color? :-)
Though it is more of a country coat.
Lee,
http://www.tessilnova.com/
http://www.tessutocasentino.com
From 350 euros.
Yeah. Fun to read about. Not so much fun to try and wear.
Possibly, maybe, perhaps, however unlikely, if I were 10 years younger, built like Daniel Craig, and wore it with a grey t shirt.
But probably not.
This coat is righteous. I would have no problem waring this provided the rest of the ensemble was muted. This would look great over a charcoal suit, white shirt, black tie, and black shoes.
Considering the reputation of Italian drivers, this coat’s color may simply be an attempt at pedestrian survival. The fox collar practical during the lovely winters.
In my eyes this this is Hermes orange. Hermes made a ton of money from orange.
P.S. Frank Sinatra might have liked this coat. He loved orange and called it a happy color.
Looks like a lady's coat. Wouldn't be caught dead in that thing.
What are you calling "inexpensive"? Are we talking inexpensive for men who frequent clothes forums or real world inexpensive? Foxes don't grow on trees after all.
Will,
I read somewhere that the 3 tradtional colors (presumably in the U.S.) for topcoats are black, charcoal, and camel. The first two are acceptable in cashmere or wool and the third (as you may have noted previously) is iconic in camelhair.
Though Italian, I am not brave enough for this orange Casantino Cloth coat. But what is your view on a Navy or Olive topcoat in cashmere or wool?
-John L.
Gotta agree with Phil here. I think 1970s pimps would have liked this coat.
But I like the cut, and the green is very nice, as are most of the other colors.
RJ, I wrote that the cloth is inexpensive, not the coat. The cloth is cheap by overcoating standards. The coats on the other hand start at 350 euros and presumeably cost more than 2,000 for Rubinacci bespoke.
John, navy blue overcoats are probably better accepted than black for day wear. HRH Prince Charles has one. He's not been seen in black to the best of my knowledge.
This seems like the sort of thing that Jeeves would have to save Bertie Wooster from.
I think that the color is in now as I have seen many women wearing it this year. I would prefer an olive green coat or the traditional colors. You would stick out like a sore thumb in NY, in the country it would be great for hunting, you won't be mistaken for game.
I must confess to a perhaps unseemly fondness for orange, but the furthest it's gone is an orange raincoat. I think it probably works better here in San Francisco than it would in New York, but, then again, I did buy it in Manhattan.
Just can't abide the color or fox. But what makes it an Ulster style, 6X3, the collar harking back to a cape and the sleeve strap?
"In my eyes this this is Hermes orange. Hermes made a ton of money from orange.
P.S. Frank Sinatra might have liked this coat. He loved orange and called it a happy color"
Mark - as you may have noticed on the forums I am a Sinatra finactic - both music and style. I was thinking the same.
i live in milan but never seen this so feel me in. i have discovered bespoke shoes for 230 pounds though.
I was pointed toward these a few years ago by Alden from the London Lounge. I've been intrigued by them ever since, but haven't been bold enough to have one made.
Casentino Cloth is the logical and chronological continuation of rennaissannce fashion immortalized on masterworks like Jacopo Bassano, The Miraculous Draught of Fishes, 1545,
http://www.nga.gov/feature/artnation/bassano/images/bassano/bassano_fishes_480x280.jpg
Doni Tondo of Michelangelo
http://www.uga.edu/italian/painting/slideshowHolmes/michelanglo_doni.tondo.jpg
Even the shade is pretty much the same than it is on those 500 years old paintings. Pretty classic color, isn't it?
I'm not sure that the orange version is something I have the cojones to wear but the green? I'm for it. And I have no objection to the fox color, either. Heck, if it were possible, I'd send them some winter coyote to use, instead.
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