Berluti’s fall ’22 collection was the first by its new no-name design studio and hit stores not long ago. Word from within the house suggests that its core band of brand fans, the all-important customers, have responded positively to the new proposition. That communication between brand and fan is a dialogue, as this season’s golf capsule demonstrates. Berluti began offering a golf shoe, the Swing, some years ago. Customer-enthusiasm prompted them to offer a made-to-order golf bag in Berluti’s signature leather, which also proved a hit. So now luxury golf bros will be able to choose from B-embossed collegiate jackets in leather and nylon as well as some specially-developed pants and pullovers—plus a particularly handsome visor—to play a round in full-look Berluti.
Elsewhere, this collection continued Berluti’s strategy to offer a greater ratio of de-formalized menswear, elevated by fabrication and detail, in order to appeal to men who value style over fashion. The 2018-launched Shadow knit sneaker has become Berluti’s top-selling product, and here was worn below some assertively unpretentious pieces. These included a beautifully subtle linen workwear jacket with leather detailing under the collar, and an at-first-glance James-Dean-basic jean and t-shirt look. You realized it was anything but thanks to the embroidered white-on-white Scritto detailing on the shirt. There was, as per, plenty of that proprietary tattoo-esque calligraphy on gleaming leather bags with one of three new seasonal patinas. It also showed up on folios and shoe soles and was applied to a lightly padded nylon for the first time, on bags.
Look 6’s peak collar jacket was tailored in leather and outrageously understated in its luxeness. More blatantly lavish pieces included a patinated blue leather blouson (teamed in blue suede with a new driving shoe variant of the house Lorenzo loafer), and a dégradé version of the Luti tote that is being reintroduced to the mainline as a permanent fixture, again in response to customer demand. Shirts both short- and long-sleeve, as well as swim shorts were cut in attractive floral cyanotype prints. Although much quieter these days, Berluti is developing nicely.
