"Artisanal maker" should be considered the most overused menswear buzzword of the decade. The other reason I don't like the word is that it has a funny suffix, one that always evokes imagery of something not appealing.
Once the topic of "artisan" was brought up in my discussion of shoemakers with @a.meccariello. When I mentioned a few Japanese names, apart from a few cheeky comments, Antonio added the remark -
"Makers are just makers," he said, "being able to make nice shoes doesn't automatically make you an artist."
And it feels a bit amusing for this comment to come from an Italian maker. One would have thought they invented the description "small artisan maker". But Antonio is right - being small in scale, and make something, even if combined, don't make a maker an artisan.
In the shirt fabric world, the smallest Italian maker still in existence, arguably, is Bonfanti Tessuti (http://bonfantitessuti.com/) -
Previously an unknown name in Asia, Giancarlo Bonfanti marketed his own brand as the sister brand of Carlo Riva and tried to compete with high-end mills in the luxury sector starting in the mid-2010s. @shirtingfantasy first came across the brand from a StyleForum search of "best shirt fabric" - inevitably, posts mentioning Alumo, Carlo Riva and David & John Anderson came up; scrutinizing the posts - which were mostly written by users who have barely handled any of the brands and discussed fabric as "buttery", "velvety", or pondering whether fabric import to the USA would attract tax - revealed that there is a brand called "Bonfanti" which offers something similar to Carlo Riva in quality. And, honestly, the interaction with Giancarlo Bonfanti was where @shirtingfantasy's shirting journey really started.
Back in 2014, when @shirtingfantasy first contacted Giancarlo Bonfanti, 90 cm width shirt fabric was an imagined quality which only existed in shirtmakers' memory. To most local makers, including very high-end makers such as Ascot Chang, 90 cm width shirt fabric was a thing of the past. As shirt fabric moved from 90 cm (36") to 45" and eventually to 60", there was significant yardage economy, especially for the bigger clients. An email query to Giancarlo Bonfanti was received warmly and passionately -
"We have worked (me and my company) with Carlo Riva ( they was my uncles) for a long time and after when they died we organized my trade and my new company 20 years ago.
We use same looms, same yarn and same mentality...."
Little did @shirtingfantasy know what Italian mentality was about - although even if @shirtingfantasy did know, there was probably no change in outcome. A frenzy in shirt fabric shopping soon began, mainly to compare and mine out the differences between 90 cm vs 150 cm width (a wonderful quality called Grasmere from Acorn fabric was still available; @shirtingfantasy still holds the opinion that it is the best poplin in the 160/2 - 170/2 class), the difference among Giza 87, 88, 45, Supima and WISICA Sea Island cotton.
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| Carlo Riva Voile Tela 1000/02. A fine voile fabric in 180/2 with extreme softness, one that is very enjoyable in summer - but could be considered too sheer for many. Carlo Riva is often considered an artisanal maker of shirt fabric, due to her small production scale, exclusively, and perhaps rampant urban legends of her fabric being "hand-woven". |
Once the topic of "artisan" was brought up in my discussion of shoemakers with @a.meccariello. When I mentioned a few Japanese names, apart from a few cheeky comments, Antonio added the remark -
"Makers are just makers," he said, "being able to make nice shoes doesn't automatically make you an artist."
And it feels a bit amusing for this comment to come from an Italian maker. One would have thought they invented the description "small artisan maker". But Antonio is right - being small in scale, and make something, even if combined, don't make a maker an artisan.
In the shirt fabric world, the smallest Italian maker still in existence, arguably, is Bonfanti Tessuti (http://bonfantitessuti.com/) -
 |
| Bonfanti Tessuti website. Their original website looked way more primitive, but it is perhaps worth remembering that what small makers are valued for is often their quality and exclusivity - both do not benefit from modern-looking, fancy websites or hyperactive marketing. |
Previously an unknown name in Asia, Giancarlo Bonfanti marketed his own brand as the sister brand of Carlo Riva and tried to compete with high-end mills in the luxury sector starting in the mid-2010s. @shirtingfantasy first came across the brand from a StyleForum search of "best shirt fabric" - inevitably, posts mentioning Alumo, Carlo Riva and David & John Anderson came up; scrutinizing the posts - which were mostly written by users who have barely handled any of the brands and discussed fabric as "buttery", "velvety", or pondering whether fabric import to the USA would attract tax - revealed that there is a brand called "Bonfanti" which offers something similar to Carlo Riva in quality. And, honestly, the interaction with Giancarlo Bonfanti was where @shirtingfantasy's shirting journey really started.
Back in 2014, when @shirtingfantasy first contacted Giancarlo Bonfanti, 90 cm width shirt fabric was an imagined quality which only existed in shirtmakers' memory. To most local makers, including very high-end makers such as Ascot Chang, 90 cm width shirt fabric was a thing of the past. As shirt fabric moved from 90 cm (36") to 45" and eventually to 60", there was significant yardage economy, especially for the bigger clients. An email query to Giancarlo Bonfanti was received warmly and passionately -
"We have worked (me and my company) with Carlo Riva ( they was my uncles) for a long time and after when they died we organized my trade and my new company 20 years ago.
We use same looms, same yarn and same mentality...."
Little did @shirtingfantasy know what Italian mentality was about - although even if @shirtingfantasy did know, there was probably no change in outcome. A frenzy in shirt fabric shopping soon began, mainly to compare and mine out the differences between 90 cm vs 150 cm width (a wonderful quality called Grasmere from Acorn fabric was still available; @shirtingfantasy still holds the opinion that it is the best poplin in the 160/2 - 170/2 class), the difference among Giza 87, 88, 45, Supima and WISICA Sea Island cotton.
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