Brioni’s Austrian designer Norbert Stumpfl has an impressive resumé, having cut his sartorial teeth in prestigious fashion houses under the direction of the coolest designers in recent fashion history: Haider Ackermann at Berluti, Kim Jones at Louis Vuitton, Lucas Ossendrijver at Lanvin, plus a brief stint at Balenciaga. Now in his second season as Brioni’s design director, Stumpfl’s expertise was on display in the Spring collection. Shown on mannequins, the presentation mimicked a day in the life of presumably one of the many über-wealthy and famous Brioni customers, spent in his private apartment lounging on an expensive leather couch, hosting a black-tie dinner, even taking a relaxing bath assisted by his adoring girlfriend, who’s casually wearing some of his expensive Brioni pajamas. For such a quintessentially luxe label, the presentation felt a bit formulaic, redolent of the witty displays made by another of Stumpfl’s mentors, the sorely missed Alber Elbaz. Still, it’s no sin to be inspired by geniuses, Diet Prada notwithstanding.
Stumpfl is clearly reveling in the wealth of supreme tailoring expertise at Brioni, both personally and professionally. The collection showed his natural understanding and affinity with the house codes, which he infused with a sense of restrained modernity, a sophisticated chromatic sensibility and a twist of Italian sprezzatura—the art of wearing well-lived-in expensive clothes with a cultivated attitude of nonchalance. There was plenty to like in the collection, starting from a gorgeous bomber jacket made of finely interwoven leather ribbons in a palette of browns and naturals; going through a series of smartly-cut blazers in heavenly smooth fabrics, softer and more malleable than a shirt; ending with the most glamorously relaxed tuxedos, cut in a lavender shade of silk moiré. It was easy to imagine the likes of Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, and Jake Gyllenhaal in these pieces.
Updating tailoring menswear’s codes, especially at the highest echelons of sartorial luxe, ultimately comes down to mastering an exercise in subtlety and finesse, offset by a modern creative vision. As Stumpfl said, it’s about touching formality with a bit of informality and swagger. He definitely knows how to do that.
