A Japanese-designed, Italian-styled collection that is heavily appreciated on an American blog —Camoshita could potentially make the world explode, or at least the Internets. After a meeting in midtown the other day, I popped into Barneys to survey the new goods that had recently arrived. Low and behold, right there on the main men’s floor, was the Camoshita collection. It reminded me of these images from Pitti that have clearly been neglected for too long. Though, all is not lost because these clothes still have a few more months before they hit stores.

The Camoshita collection is designed and produced under the United Arrows umbrella by Yasuto Kamoshita (the UA creative director) in Japan, and the line beautifully represents the double-barreled Japanese commitments to craftsmanship and Italian tailoring.

2 Comments

Last night I had a dream about hand made shirting. I’m not kidding, I remember I could see the beautifully imperfect shoulder stitches vividly. This is probably the strangest confession I have ever made here. You know when you are dreaming about shirts, you might have some issues. Instead of seeking help, I think I need to go buy a bunch of Salvatore Piccolo shirts. Honestly, that’s just a dream too, because these shirts ain’t cheap. And the way I blow through wovens, I don’t know if that is the best use of my money. All that aside, if I were still dreaming I would buy one of each, because I don’t seem to encounter nicer shirts very often.

7 Comments

There’s a sign outside of one of my favorite restaurants in New York that justifies its quirky existence with the following statement: “You either get it or you don’t.” I think the same can be said for Massimo Piombo’s new MP by Massimo Piombo collection. It is probably safe to say that many an ACL reader is not going to be up for the quirkiness or price tag of this new line. It is also presumable to consider that I would not be pulling these rigs verbatim, but the spirit of Piombo will certainly be my guide, and I am definitely a believer in Mr. Piombo when it comes to clothing.

Not content with having one beautifully made and insanely designed collection, Piombo got together with a little Neapolitan brand called Kiton to launch this new high-end label. The fabrics included in the range are sourced from all over the world, from Shetland to Nepal, the clothing is made almost entirely by hand (by Kiton) in Italy, and there is no chance of missing the fact that the color stories patterns are distinctly Piombo.

15 Comments

There’s no denying the styling ability of the people at Lubiam. There’s also no denying their ability to crush you with texture. I mean crush you in a good way. By now you probably recognize that I am taking a measured approach in doling out my coverage from Pitti, because it’s not like these clothes are going to be in stores for another few months, so what’s the rush.

11 Comments

If you spend any amount of time at Italian clothing trade shows (or reading blogs about the things seen at Italian clothing tradeshows) you start to get a complex about your ability to dress yourself — at least I do. When I go to Pitti I start to wonder about my comparative ability to layer, choose colors and to mix textures. It’s a humbling exorcise in general, but my perceived personal style deficiencies are provoked most inside the Brunello Cucinelli stand.

8 Comments

The new Nanamica AW12 collection is in the running for the best stuff I saw at Pitti. I base that statement on the fact that I literally wanted to buy every piece. The pairing of technical fabrics and traditional colors / styles really moves the needle for me. The Gore-Tex trench coats and that Gore-tex blackwatch sport coat are basically as good as it gets. A few years back I bought a North Face Purple Label khaki trench coat (which is basically the same as these Nanamica jobs) and I consider it one of the best purchases I have ever made. The coats are so similar because Nanamica holds the license for Purple Label, so this collection is basically purple label for distribution outside of Japan.

10 Comments

The Woolrich John Rich & Bros collection gets better every season. The brand is a product of the Italian apparel group WP (who also created Woolrich Woolen Mills, the Barbour Beacon collection and others). Since I spent most of my time at Pitti with my good friend Aaron Levine, I forced him to model our collective favorite piece from the new collection — a tweed arctic parka.

24 Comments