The market-leading success of Vitale Barberis Canonico is pinned to innovation, high-quality, Made-in-Italy fabric, and a remarkable 360-year heritage. But there is another dimension driving success for the family-owned mill. The famed fabric maker is working with emerging designers as part of its Heritage and New Talents program.
The program, which spotlights womenswear, was launched earlier this year with VitoVi, the brand of Maria Vittoria Lazzarini Merloni. That collaboration showcased the blazer as an iconic garment, but using fabrics normally used in men’s drapery, the mill said in a statement.
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In its latest collaboration, Vitale Barberis Canonico is collaborating with CUANTICO, which was founded in 2021 “with the desire to create a wardrobe of iconic garments,” the company said, adding that the dress shirt “was immediately identified as a fundamental element in the dress code, aware of the fact that, when worn by a woman, it is a manifestation of elegance but also a potent weapon of seduction.”
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The collaboration will be unveiled at Milan Fashion Week on Tuesday in the showroom at Via Solferino 23. “The itinerary will take the guests through the heritage of Vitale Barberis Canonico to the discovery of the 12 shirts which incarnate the CUANTICO philosophy,” the mill said. “A leitmotif which unites textile tradition with feminine contemporaneity.”
Regarding why the mill works with new talent, Francesco Barberis Canonico, creative director at Vitale Barberis Canonico, said the mill works with new and emerging designers “to give them access, and to keep us up to date,” he said. “CUANTICO is a new company that is doing dress shirts for women. So, it’s not exactly our core business and it’s not something that we normally do, but the collaboration gives us certain opportunities to explore different areas, such as womenswear, while also reaching a younger customer. It’s forcing us to step out of our normal boundaries, which is good thing.”
When asked about the collection, Barberis Canonico said the shirt “represents a milestone and the point of departure when taking care of one’s look. Increasing numbers of women are wearing iconic garments taken from the men’s formal classic wardrobe to exemplify their personality. The founders of CUANTICO have done a great job in terms of style, construction, and the selection of the fabrics, and we are happy to collaborate with them and to continue to support young talents in the fashion world.”
Barberis Canonico also noted that the timing of the collaboration is key. “Overall, this is a good time for us as more and more consumers shift away from fast fashion,” Barberis Canonico said. “They’re looking for high-quality apparel and finer materials. They want products that last. They’re also more careful with their money and are willing to spend more on quality rather than on low-quality fast fashion.”
Barberis Canonico also said there’s demand for greater transparency. Customers want to know how and where products are made. For Vitale Barberis Canonico, the mill’s transparency and traceability are globally recognized. The wool can even be traced to the farm.
For the CUANTICO collection, Vitale Barberis Canonico proposes three iconic fabrics. “The first is Seersucker, a summer fabric which is distinguished by its alternating flat yarns combined with others woven to create the undulated, crinkly surface,” the mill said, adding that it “proposes it in pure wool with natural stretch and crease-resistance.”
The second is Montecarlo, which is made from 21 Micron wool “to give it durability, crease-resistance, perfect drape, breathability and a dry handle,” Vitale Barberis Canonico said in a statement, also noting the hopsack weave “creates three-dimensionality and emphasizes the intensity of the colors.” The fabric can be lined or unlined for use in four seasons.
The third fabric is Perennial, which is designed for day suits. “It is created with wool, it has a comfortable weight ideal for any season and is presented in refined fancies and a wide range of colors,” the mill said.
The three CUANTICO founders, —Chiara, Consuelo, and Chiara— said the brand chose the shirt as an iconic garment “because it has always existed, in every culture, as an accompaniment to the history of humanity. For this reason, we believe it is a fundamental element of the dress code. The versatility and the research of the shapes, and the attention paid to the detail, make this style immediately recognizable, between tradition and contemporaneity.”
The founders said they welcomed the invitation to collaborate with Vitale Barberis Canonico “because they represent the textile excellence of Made in Italy and for us it is a privilege to be able to create a capsule with them. We visited their facilities and were impressed by the level of quality and care taken at every step of the production process. This is not only a wonderful collaboration, but also a challenge to bring to life a female collection using textiles created by a historical company which has always turned to the men’s world.”