Cerruti 1881 fall 2017

Now let this be a lesson to you!! This is what happens when a designer (Jason Basmajian) taps into a brand’s actual DNA and then tweaks it to the point of utterly chic, divinely tasteful and OMG that curse word … wearable. 

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Yes, I can be very boring in my personal tastes but I cannot and will not ignore the fact that clothes must be sold and their primary source of importance is sales not runway hype. 

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Anyone with a strong knowledge of fashion history will recall that Cerruti was an exceptionally big player in menswear decades ago and remained strong for decades and then came the mega brands and the power houses and these absurd media grabbing trends,  so like many of its cousins, the brand sort of dissolved even after several incarnations. Happily if not thrillingly, Cerruti has reemerged as, OMG, a realistic answer to fashion that men of any age can wear. Imagine that? Imagine actually looking rich, polished and slick!

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Unquestionably, there is a touch or a soupcon of Armani in there but hell, who cares? Just look at it and think about why the retail business sucks and what it might take to reinvigorate it on a consistent basis rather than dependent on the media grab of the season. It is classic and modern and timeless… geezz I keep scaring myself when I say those words! The palette is sophisticated and subtle and the silhouettes range from the trendy to the classic.

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What more can be asked for other than a reasonable amount of favorable press in a season of clown clothes palmed off as fashion?

Cerruti 1881 men's spring 2017

Here’s what I know: Cerruti was long revered as one of the most revered and fashionable collections for men who favor a more classical approach to fashion. Perhaps its heyday was in the 70s and 80s and has since been brought back to life several times but not really with any great success and yet the brand survives and perseveres and retains its original DNA.

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In its current incarnation, designed by Jason Basmajian, it returns to what made it famous and that was and is wonderfully executed and very stylish men’s clothes. Yes you know men’s clothes that men wear. These are not fashion victim clothes, these are not trendoidal of the moment clothes, these are the clothes that you see on the street and maybe take a second glance or not. It’s all about tailoring, fabrics and a bit of a classical twist. If you are old enough to recall, these are the clothes of a haberdasher when sales help actually assisted clients and men had salesmen who outfitted them from head to toe.

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Yes of course most will decry it as B O R I N G but give me 1 of these instead of ten Raf collections and I’d be a happy man. Again, these clothes don’t require a romance card nor a how to wear manual, these are clothes you own and keep and wear year after with great pride.

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Of course my favorites are the camo pieces but it is the kind of camo patterning that whispers rather than screams and has a much more ageless appeal than let’s say that of Valentino or Givenchy or Saint Laurent. There ae so many pieces when the collection is dissected. Discretion seems to be a code word here and … well I’m in!

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PS... I don’t quite get the denim group but nothing is perfect!

Berluti.. Cerruti 1881 ..fall 2015 men's

Apparently it is no longer in fashion to speak favorably about collections that are... oh those dirty words… salable and wearable! In defiance of this current trend, let’s speak of Berluti and Cerruti and despite the rhyme their genealogy couldn’t be more different.

First there is Berluti which began as a shoe brand and once snatched up by LVMH, it became the pet project or brainchild of one Antoine Arnault… oh you recognize the name ... well much to his credit Arnault Jr. wasn’t so concerned with the latest and greatest but more concerned about launching a collection aimed at chic stylish men of any age… the horrors!! “Either you are a gentleman of great taste and style or you are a mystery gendered wannabe fashion victim."... He and Sartori chose the former rather than the latter!

The brand has gone from small presentations to full balls out shows and this collection if by the largest and most comprehensive to date. The evolutionary collection is beautifully executed and realized by Alessandro Sartori who has expanded the offering exponentially without too much of a problem. The clothes are modern yet classic, conservative yet trendy but above all they speak to their eventual wearer. The silhouettes are from lean and sharp to classic, from double breasted to single button and everything in between. The essence of the collection is that these are massaged classics that have no expiration date.

Now it’s time to speak of a classic brand, Cerruti 1881,  that has been around for decades and has tried several times to resurface I its original incarnation.. Menswear! We needn’t go back to the brands textile roots. But!! Now that it’s mentioned... The lineage/development is much the same as Zegna who began its apparel as an outgrowth of its textile business. Actually, the paths are quite parallel if not overlapping.

Aldo Maria Camillo has massaged the classics and taken them a step further by adding to them and taking a more edgy stance. The button stance is higher, the pants are a bit more fashion and the general tenure of the collection is that it skews younger but not in the extreme. Favorite pieces include a suede coat that may have started out as a jean jacket, the classic reefer with suede details or maybe we call it texture blocking or the toggle coat that is offered both short and long with suede or leather accents (texture blocking). Again, what comes to mind is nuance and not outrageous designs for no one to wear. The question remains if the brand can steer a steady course and not veer off the lands of the super trendoidal. Right now, the path seems clear, the DNA is there and the vocabulary is spoken quite literally.