A GUIDE TO MILANESE TAILORS
When The Rake asked me if I wanted to write a guide to Milanese tailoring, I didn’t think twice before agreeing — and not only because I’ve been a faithful reader of the magazine for years and a passionate observer of classic men’s style. No, my chief motivation was something else: it seemed like the perfect opportunity to delve deeper into a question that has often played on my mind — is there such a thing as the Milanese jacket? Or is it merely a variation on the theme of the Caraceni jacket? One thing is certain, the Milanese tailoring of jackets — compared with the rest of Italy — is the closest it gets to an English style. This resemblance is most apparent in the extensive use of liner fabrics: canvas, horsehair, flannel for the chest, reinforcement canvas for the yoke (the so-called spallaccio), and shoulder pads. The differences can be discerned in the cut, the style, and consequently the size, which in Milan tends to be less restrictive than your typical Savile Row creation, although more structured than anything you are likely to find in the rest of the bel paese. So fasten your braces and get set for my diagnosis…
The tour kicks off by examining are well versed in both general tailoring and with the clan in question, whose name is to tailoring what Ferrari is to motor sports. Our next port of call was Musella Dembech, who makes jackets that break the confines of the more traditional Milanese fare, before a final stop at Prata & Mastrale, who perhaps tailor the least recognisably Milanese jacket of the four, although they retain some of the features that allow it to be included in this guide.
