Since its creation in 1872 by Eugenio Torelli Viollier, who would later launch Corriere della Sera a few years later, the Circolo Filologico Milanese dedicated itself to unraveling the most acute and nuanced cadences of language. This morning, Norbert Stumpfl brought his Brioni, who is also dedicated to the details of cultured menswear, to temporarily take up residence in the space.
The mannequins were spread out throughout the darkened library and several other rooms below. The producers left out Easter egg nods to recent notable Brioni moments in the lineup — a patron named J.Law was hung within arm’s reach — but the truly extraordinary details were left for Stumpfl to reveal. ‘I found this in the archives, because you know I’m a book nerd: Gaetano Savini [Brioni’s founder] worked with Mariano Fortuny for ten years. He was Fortuny’s assistant and worked with him.” That detail was crazy. Fortuny was a polymath (what you’d call a high-performance multi-hyphenate) who invented new lighting systems for the theater and was a celebrated couturier in women’s wear, especially for his Delphos dress. Knowing that Savini was close to this made the color and romance of the early Brioni collections (which became so influential in the US in the 1950s) suddenly fresh and fascinating.
This research inspired Stumpfl to articulate that connection and restore it in the fabric of Brioni. There was a pleated evening gown embroidered with a grosgrain design by Fortuny, shared with permission from the designer’s foundation. An evening jacket was embedded with pearlescent sequins, just as Fortuny once used Murano glass, and a fitted bronze silk jacket had the tight, narrow pleats—a kind of pre-Miyake Miyake—that once made the Delphos dress so famous. There was also room for technical innovation created using artisanal methods, including a double-sided jacket made from two super-light fabrics attached with a scalpel and silk. There was a full cast of crushingly handsome menswear, ranging from sartorial to seemingly casual.
There was also a small group of mannequins in women’s clothing, something Stumpfl has been quietly developing for a while. As we looked at his floor-length tuxedo jackets and his poorly cut silk wool trousers, he dropped another surprise: For the first time since its founding almost 80 years ago, Brioni will show a full womenswear collection at Milan Fashion Week next month.
