Corduroy has always been a fairly casual cloth associated with Boston college professors. On the other hand, its unique texture makes it interesting and interpretable.
I’ve seen a purple corduroy suit that I loved and owned a pair of purple cords trousers myself. I also have baby blue, forest green and cream. They all look and feel very different from each other.
Black has been banned from tailoring for a long time; with the exception of black-tie. It has been perceived as too closely related to Fashion after the designers imposed their total black uniform (easy game!) on the market in the 90’s and early 2000.
I feel it’s about time to bring it back — but never in a boring way. By this I mean that we must be very careful to choose a texture that will enhance the black, giving life to it.
Black is the colour of rock’n’roll, of poets, of nightclubbing. Black is New York and London. Black is urban and strong, mysterious and romantic.
Let it be a choice, not an imposition.
Welcome back black!
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London at night. I’m on the wet streets of Mayfair walking back to my Hotel. To me, Mayfair at night is a place of strong contrasts. People in black-tie cross my way. I notice how popular black-tie is in certain countries, especially compared to Italy where people would usually just wear a suit. Perhaps the reason might be that Italian people don’t want to take it too seriously?
My thoughts fly to a less ceremonial idea. However, it is still precious, a modern idea for formal attire — “The King” is born.
I have a passion for Alpaca and have learned to appreciate the raglan shoulder. The silhouette is simple, clean, comfortable. It is again made mostly from the actual cloth, unlined. The name brings an irony too, like the nicknames of the rock stars, because, yes, “The King” is also Rock ’n’ Roll!
Due to its preciousness “The King” is only available Made-to-Order.
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We know now that we produce way too much and consume way too many resources just for pumping the extreme consumerism that our society accepted as a lifestyle. Writers, activists, few politicians, journalists ask big company to slow down and people in general are called to act in their daily life against the overproduction and the unsustainable use of any resource.
More and more people are becoming more conscious of the actual situation and its gravity, and their choices are changing.
On my side I’ve always been sensitive on certain matters, in fact I’ve always loved the idea of sartorial products for their inner value of sustainability too; I’ve preferred small and high-quality productions to anything set on a large scale.
Recently I came across a very interesting book, Fashionopolis by Dana Thomas. The author gives a wide and complete overview on the actual market critical points and tells a lot of inspiring stories of small business with a very modern vision on sustainability.
I felt encouraged on telling the little steps we did with PML clothing following an idea I’ve always felt right in any choice, which is the optimization of the resources.
I’ve always been excited about repairing something nice still useful, or piece of clothing of high quality found in a flea market or and old wardrobe that with a couple of adjustment to the fitting and details could still work. For PML I do more: I travel and search anywhere I can find precious fabrics forgotten or left after productions; the strongest inspiration in making the garments comes from the cloth I find; It’s like it would talk to me suggesting what to make with it.
The result makes me proud knowing that I’m not only producing a nice piece of garment that will probably make someone happy when he wears it, but also the fact I’m giving a second chance to that forgotten cloth, maybe left there for ages, to become a beautiful piece, what a magic!!!
The same things happen with the buttons, a little passion I developed, sitting on the shelves of some shop forever; beautiful as anything that was able to change peacefully through time.
Yes, being a little more sustainable makes me feel better and more in balance with my world.
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Like the title of a music album by the poet Vinicius De Moraes and his colleague Ungaretti, performed by Toquino.
A meeting is made of three fundamental steps: the introduction, the exchange, and the goodbye.
It’s similar to life’s structure, and all the three parts have the same importance and complexity.
Meeting people has always had a great importance in my life.
Human beings have had my full attention ever since I was a teenager. I’ve always found something interesting in everybody: just sitting in a crossroads of a big city where you have the chance to see a large amount of different faces, you might start to appreciate the uniqueness of anyone, ugly and beautiful, regular and peculiar, masterpieces of nature each in their own unique way.
This observation, and some experience, pull me into the curiosity of meeting people and get to know a little more about them, their life, their point of views.
Sometimes you learn something new, hopefully almost always; sometimes your views are confirmed or maybe you find out that everyone shares similar struggles, fears, and difficulties, which helps you finding your own position.
A few times you realize that your expectations of a person were higher than the reality, a little dissatisfying, but always useful; discovering that underneath a façade of strength, originality, or special features, rests a common person - that can help building your confidence; people can give you parameters to understand yourself.
I’m so curious about people that I’ve focused my work as a filmmaker on documentaries about their lives. The conversation (I don’t like to call it interview, I’m no journalist) is the main thing, and it has to be conducted in complete, relaxed freedom. To achieve this, you need trust from the person, and the only way, I find, is to let the person talk freely. I never try to push the conversation towards the topic I had in mind. I can actually completely abandon it for a while until it comes back. You need to really listen and ask questions to build a personal relation, even if a temporary one.
Everbody likes to be listened to and understood, everybody likes to share experiences and memories.
Even the most normal experience can sound very important and special if projected in an honest and passionate way.
One of the best compliments I have received in my life (professionally) has been: “When I sat down here I had never thought that I would tell you all this… I don’t know what happened.”
What happened was that we met. We connected.
This is what human beings look for since childhood: to be understood, to be heard in their daily life struggle, to be cared for, to be recognized. We need this, we need to feel that we are not alone. We are social animals, and we need to be together. We don’t need judgements, but understanding.
When I studied acting we used to help our pals who had monologues; the help consisted in listening, really listening to the monologue, and believe me it helped! One of my best teachers surprised me by saying: “Very good work, Gianluca! It’s not easy to just listen but you did it perfectly!” Surprising, no? But also very true.
I’ve spent a few years in New York as a student, and I remember the casual conversations in the subway, just sharing a few words about whatever topic with a stranger. Some people have this talent, to open up for a very brief conversation and close it naturally without putting the two in any awkward situation of fake confidence; I’ve always admired this capacity of opening with people, reaching a good level of confidence just to communicate strongly enough, to then been able to close it politely leaving a feeling of having actually met someone.
To be able to share something significant on different levels, not always dramatic or important, but a sign, a touch, for that limited amount of time, enough to create a shared experience.
Listening, you can’t fake it.
Curiosity, you can’t learn it, but you can train it.
Will to share your thoughts, feeling and experiences as to receive them in an honest way.
Those are the ingredients for the magic of meeting.
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Vintage therefore can be imperfect, probably not the best in terms of performance, not always super comfortable, often with weird proportions, but we still look at it with a lot of respect and fascination. It can bring back memories or just recall images of movies, album covers, old magazines.
In my personal endless research of beauty I encounter unique pieces that I buy as references, being the most of time available only in one piece.
This time I was lucky enough to get in touch with a deadstock of vintage sunglasses which I fell in love with. Unique shape, unique materials, unique proportions.
I bought one for myself, a little rounded overall, smooth, a little small compared with the more popular glasses on the market. Honestly they made me feel like a 70’s playboy.
Yes, they are bold glasses with a lot of personality; don’t we often buy shades to look cool? To feel cool? To tell the world we are here and we are proud of bringing ourselves out in life?
Yes, that is the answer.
And yes I love these glasses and am proud to share with you.
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After a brief chat we understood we had the same vision about style and quality and following Carin’s wishes we came up with an idea for a pair of trousers for her.
It came out an astonishing pair of oversized pleated trousers in tweed, absolutely marvelous.
The chat went on at the second appointment and Carin expressed the need of offering a better quality to her clients, higher than the most of the fashion brands. That is a popular topic: often the big fashion brands focus on the style more than the quality and don’t offer an MTO service.
It came natural for me to offer that possibility, feeling that this crazy idea that was born between three people with a similar vision was just the right thing to do.
Carin seemed to be very happy about the idea and Richard became the glue for the three of us.
I made another pair for Carin feeling free on the choice of cloth, to check if my impression on the similar vision was right; she loved them!
So we started from there: Carin designed 5 different style of trousers, all fantastic; since then we have a weekly meeting and our small collection is coming out.
You can find our first style, “Suzanne”, in two different cloths online now.
More to come… very exciting!
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Traditional coats are structured and heavy but everyday life has changed so much. Modern production is always searching for comfort and lightness. I have to admit, the older I get the more I understand and appreciate the comfort of an unstructured garment. The sense of ease throws you immediately into a different mood like when you wear a t-shirt layered with a cashmere sweater.
During my research searching for fabrics I found a reversible cloth; super high quality, soft and warm, almost a blanket. This was my opportunity to make a reversible overcoat. I decided to go the extra-mile, and so, The Weekend was born. This name reflects many of its characteristics but also declares the philosophy of this garment.
An overcoat, actually two because it’s reversible, is the perfect companion for your moment to relax. Always dressy enough, you can wear it with a sport coat. Equally, you can dress it down with a t-shirt and a sweater, sneakers or loafers, trousers or jeans. There are many options.
Light, obviously unlined, and featuring many details. It takes very specialized craftsmen to make The Weekend. Reversible overcoats require certain amount of work to get the fit we find to be the most comfortable and versatile.
It is available in two versions: single and double breasted.
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When first I decided to start the new brand PML clothing what I was trying to do was to find a new interpretation of the same clothes we were using for classic trousers.
I grew up with my father telling me how important was the importance of the material in clothing, that the most of the average production would have used only mediocre clothes.
I found exciting to imagine new piece of garments made out of the same cloth I’ve always seen used for suits, trousers and sportcoats.
Then I came up with a capsule collection using the Palazzi flannel by Fox, which has it’s best expression in the overshirt, a supercomfortable and unique piece of garment. The buttons are original vintage from the 40's.
The hats are the result of a short trip I took last summer while spending my holydays in the Marche region. A friend told me about a village well known for the hat makers. I drove there and remained astonished from the beauty of the land, the villages and the level of excellence of the productions I’ve visited.
We added a very special and precious watch strap hand made by my friend HuitCinq, only Made to order. A pretty unique piece, so nice that it was copied right away!! ;)
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