Norbert Stumpfl took inspiration for this Brioni collection from a fresco that was painted in 1614 by Guido Reni at the Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi, in the house’s home city, Rome. It shows Aurora, clad in gold raiments and radiating light, leading Apollo through the night sky to bring dawn to the darkened world below. This collection’s Aurora was a closing suit, shirt, and dickie bow all cut in a fabric spun of 54% silk around which electromagnetic wave technology had clad a 46% coating of 24-karat gold. Said Stumpfl: “There’s not Lurex or anything like that, and it doesn’t have the scratchiness of other metallic fabrics…the technique used to make this is quite new, and after we found the manufacturer we learned that there is another client for this material here in Rome, at the Vatican.” He added: “For me it’s less about ostentation that it is about hope. It’s about bringing light back after the darkness.”
In truth this gold suit was about hope and ostentation. And while the rest of the collection was less eye-catchingly lavish and more muted in tone, the fabrication was equally sumptuous. Bouclé knitwear was fashioned of blended cashmere and silk, while hand-spun scarves blended cashmere and suede. A hand-painted and soft-treated crocodile skin panel at the front of a zip-up jacket was seamlessly bonded to cashmere sleeves and back panel. It was worn above a pair of slim-fitting, lightly seamed pants whose cut, Stumpfl said, has become Brad Pitt’s go to, and beneath a double-layered scarf of pure vicuna. Newly roomily-cut belted overcoats came in cashmere brushed to create a cloudily diffuse finish. Tailoring included a marvelous alpaca double-breasted jacket based on a house archive formal-ski piece from the 1950s, and jackets in deerskin and alpaca, as well as wide-lapeled and hand-finished jackets that were part of a suit Stumpfl attested is the lightest ever achieved by Brioni.
Customer-favorite Prince of Wales checks were delicately distorted to blur their definition in cashmere jackets, while combat trousers were presented with same-color informal shirting to reduce the definition of the wearer: “I’ve put on a little weight during lockdown, and wearing tonal looks can help you avoid emphasizing that,” the designer offered. Some pieces came in exclusively produced Escorial wool while denim pieces were offered in a new slightly stretchy Japanese-made selvedge. “It is almost completely sustainable, this denim, and it has a sustainable wash, and sustainable metal hardware. The only part that is not sustainable at the moment are the threads in the stitching because they do not hold the wash, but we hope to change that soon.”
You could see the denim’s easy stretch in a short film that unfussily showcased the pleasures of free movement and supreme touch offered across this collection. That gold suit was spectacular, but it did not overshadow another excellent offering from a house that under Stumpfl has found its stride.
