CHROMATIC COLOSSUS: AN EXCLUSIVE COLLECTION BY LUCA RUBINACCI FOR THE RAKE

Luca Rubinacci’s family are not simply masters of the alchemic métier that is Neapolitan tailoring, which reconciles the seemingly disparate elements of effortless comfort with immaculate style. The fact is, they created it.

Indeed, it was Luca’s grandfather Gennaro Rubinacci who first removed the stuffy horsehair and canvas in British tailoring and thus pioneered the first jackets that were, as they say, “as light as the winds over Vesuvius”. The result was a style that soon captivated the world for its slightly more relaxed, softer construction, which brought with it a powerful dégagé elan and sense of effortless chic often described by pundits as sprezzatura. Although that word is overused today, and its meaning has become diluted and co-opted, when you look at a Rubinacci suit — the way it moulds to the body like “a second skin”, as Luca puts it — you’ll understand the original essence of the term.

There is no playground more suited to Luca Rubinacci’s imagination than the world of infinite chromatic possibility.

But more than that, the Rubinacci family are masters of colour and pattern that can be wielded classically, as with Luca’s father, the inimitable Mariano Rubinacci, or with unabashed daring, as is Luca’s way. In fact, you would imagine there is no playground more suited to the younger Rubinacci’s imagination than the world of infinite chromatic possibility represented by his family’s bespoke tailoring. It was for his use of colour and pattern, combined with the perfect fit, that helped Luca Rubinacci ignite the world of social media. Scott Schuman, my friend and the legendary street-style photographer, says: “The first time I saw Luca, I was blown away by his style. Here was a young guy in his twenties but dressed in the most immaculate classic style and suiting. But it was his use of colour that