Italian Tailoring for MenFil à fil
What makes this fabric special is that it is woven from yarns of contrasting colour, for a truly original final effect: fine crosswise ribs of alternating colours, silky to the touch and bright in colour. Fil à fil comes from French and literally means "thread by thread". It is one of the best-loved fabrics, because it can be worn in every season of the year, and it can be produced in a great many colour variations. The final optical effect is that of an extremely fine vertical pinstripe, or of a light check.
Pure new wool
The name "pure new wool" guarantees that the fabric is made entirely of new wool, taken directly from the shearing of the animals and therefore not regenerated, that is, not recovered and recycled from earlier industrial processing. Garments in pure new wool must be treated with particular care, both when washing and when storing them.
If the suit is made of pure new wool it must carry the relevant mark on its inner label; very often, however, we also find designations such as Super 110's, Super 120's and the like. These refer to the micron count, that is, to the fineness of the yarn: a higher number means the fibre is thinner, so the wool is finer and the suit lighter, more flexible and softer to the touch. Most industrially produced suits are made with Super 100's, 120's or Super 140's wools.
Alpaca wool
Alpaca wool does not felt and does not cause allergic reactions, because it contains no lanolin. Prized for its thermal properties, its lightness and its silky touch, this precious natural fibre was once used to make fabrics reserved for the clothing of the Inca emperors. The fibre comes in 22 beautiful natural colour variations, from white to cream, beige, brown and grey all the way to black, and therefore needs no dyeing.
Today alpaca fibre is used to create some of the finest and most sought-after fabrics in the world: it is light and yet strong and hard-wearing, as well as elastic.
Mohair wool
The fibre is obtained by processing the fleece of the Angora goat, a breed native to Turkey — more precisely to Ankara, from which this millennia-old breed takes its name. Its characteristics are similar to those of silk in lustre and softness, and the fibre is also remarkably long.
Another thing that makes mohair precious is how well it takes dye: the colour is even and durable, firmly rooted in the fibre. Because of its particular reflective properties, mohair fibre is often blended with less precious fibres to improve the quality of the finished product.
Serge wool
Serge, or twill, is a pure or blended combed wool, perfectly smooth and rather lustrous. Free of nap, it traces a clean, distinct diagonal on the surface, although not one that stands out excessively. It lends itself to several uses: in stripes it is the business suit par excellence, the uniform of the classic city gentleman. Plain and luminous in solid colours, blue serge is the material of naval uniforms, and therefore ideal for the nautically inspired blazer, to be finished with metal buttons. Serge shows fine wools off beautifully, which is why it has also been celebrated in formalwear.
Cool wool
Cool wool, or fresco, is a variant of wool of medium or light weight, granular in appearance, crease-resistant, porous and hard-wearing. To the touch it is rough, smooth and dry: a feel that comes from its combed and tightly twisted yarns.
Its fineness is given by a "super's" designation, such as Super 100's, Super 120's, Super 140's: the higher the number, the finer the warp and therefore the better the quality of the fabric. It is mainly used to make men's summer or spring suits, both casual and formal. Its Italian name, fresco, comes from the word for "fresco" painting, which its granular surface recalls.
Prince of Wales check
The Prince of Wales fabric was invented by Edward VII of the United Kingdom, who was particularly fond of this checked pattern in sporting clothes. It is produced on carded or combed wool, on which a design of large square windows is reproduced, inside which checked and houndstooth patterns alternate.
Black and white, white, brown or grey yarns are normally used, but to make the fabric more modern it is now also produced in red or light blue. One of its particularities is the batavia weave: the fabric is in fact identical on the face and on the back, with a diagonal effect.
Houndstooth
Houndstooth (pied-de-poule) is a fabric of interplaying colours, obtained by using contrasting yarns that form a characteristic design closely resembling a hen's foot.
The motif is built on a module of four dark threads and four light threads, wefted to form checks that alternate with areas where the threads of one shade are interlaced with wefts of the opposite colour, thus forming small diagonal motifs.
It is mainly made in wool, but there are also versions in cotton and man-made fibres which, in any case, lose nothing of the extreme elegance that distinguishes this fabric.
Shantung silk
Shantung is a wild silk (tussah) fabric in a solid colour, with a rough, very irregular surface and a raw look, originally from Japan. Built on a plain weave and generally made in bright colours, it is a fabric with body that plays on glossy and matte effects.
The original shantung, extremely precious, was woven with doupion: a double silk filament produced by two silkworms building their cocoon together, very rare and very costly, with great irregularity, slubs, lumps and knots.
Shantung is bright rather than shiny, and it is stronger and cooler than it looks. Perfect for the cocktail jacket, shantung is used for dinner jackets, suits, trousers and stand-alone jackets.
Cotton
Cotton fabric is obtained by weaving yarns from the down covering the seeds of a plant of the Gossypium species. Cotton is therefore a natural fibre of plant origin, light and sturdy at the same time, which does not protect from the cold the way wool does but does protect from the heat, especially in white cotton clothes.
Its name comes from the Arabic katun and, after linen and wool, cotton is the oldest textile fibre, as well as the most widespread fabric in the world. Its spread is due to its great versatility and to how readily it takes any kind of colour.
Damask
Damask is a fabric woven on jacquard looms, on which raised designs appear on the face. The relief comes from contrasting weft and warp weave effects, worked with different twists and counts, for a chiaroscuro effect with glossy designs on a matte ground or the other way round. Its origin is Chinese, but its name comes from the city of Damascus, which became the nerve centre of its trade.
Damask suits have body and usually carry stylised or floral designs. Damask is best made in silk, but it also works very well in man-made fibres.
Damier
A French term for a fabric woven in a chequerboard, in alternating squares of different shades of the same colour or of different colours.
Jacquard
Jacquard is the name given to those fine fabrics with complex, refined designs, such as damasks, brocades and gobelins. Jacquard fabrics are used for furnishing, upholstery and linen, but they work beautifully in clothing too, which is what made them so widespread.
Jacquard designs can be produced on a variety of fibres: linen, cotton, silk or other fibres, natural or otherwise. The fabric is rather stiff to the touch and the designs stand out in relief.
Velvet
Velvet is a fabric whose face carries a dense pile, in the case of plain velvet, or a series of tiny loops of thread, in the case of terry velvet. The name comes from the Latin vellus, "fleece", since its peculiar characteristic is to look like a covering of hair, of varying length and kind.
There are velvets in wool, silk and viscose, but cotton velvet is the most widespread, both in clothing and in upholstery. It is properly suited to evening occasions and to cold seasons.