Reviews
Bringing Sartorial Elegance Into Horology
From a cultural perspective, one of the most interesting phenomena following the 2008 world banking crisis was an extremely clear and vocal redefinition of men’s style. A whole new generation in their 20s and 30s collectively began rejecting the ephemeral nature of fashion and began to re-embrace classic elegance. And this has led to a massive resurgence in the sartorial arts and a renaissance in tailoring the world over. In places like Naples, tailors from the mainstream kings of sprezzatura Rubinacci to more-obscure elder statesmen like Antonio Panico have never seen such demand. Says Luca Rubinacci, the latest generation to helm his family’s firm, “We’ve never had more young people captivated by tailoring. And today our client is totally international; he could be from the United States but just as easily from Kazakhstan.” Says Charles de Luca of the legendary Camps de Luca tailors in Paris, “This new generation loves the self-expressive power that tailoring can achieve, which is to make something that is uniquely for you and no one else.” Says Michael Brown, a dynamic young tailor at Chittleborough and Morgan on London’s fabled Savile Row, “Young people are also connecting with the concept of buying less but better. They would rather have one jacket, than 10, that is truly handmade and crafted specifically for their body.”
Selmoni continues, “Luxury has evolved very significantly in the past decade. And where it was once about uniformity, we have once again come to embrace the concept of individuality. It’s funny, but a decade ago, I would come to Singapore and I would, over the course of my visit, see dozens of ladies wearing the same Gucci outfit. Today I don’t think that would happen. Today there is a desire for uniqueness, exclusivity and also discretion, and so people are looking for products that are created in smaller series that express a real refinement in details and also connect with them in a very personal way.”
Says Vacheron Constantin’s marketing director Julien Marchenoir, “At Vacheron Constantin, the idea of individualism and the possibility for clients to create something unique with us has been there since we were founded. Indeed, many of the most famous watches in our history were born out of this dynamic collaboration between the end-client and a manufacture capable of realizing their dreams. This is true for watches like the King Farouk and, in 2015, the 57260. In our history, we’ve always embraced people with the quirkiness or even the outright daring to push the boundaries of horology, in the same way that many great patrons have pushed other art forms. This also is a statement of the completeness of our manufacture in that we are able to be ambitious in avenues related to both the technical and métiers d’art. Combined with clients of great taste and culture, and a desire to create something that doesn’t exist, this cultivates a dialogue that nourishes the brand and compels us to greater heights.”
Says Selmoni, “You know, as Proust put it, ‘Style is the revelation of that universe, which is visible only to us and hidden from others.’ The goal of any luxury brand today is to express the inner world of our clientele in a way that delights him or her. And so we found a very logical connection with tailoring and with the art of fabric weaving — in particular with Vitale Barberis Canonico.”
Says Marchenoir, “The first time we heard from Vitale Barberis Canonico was three years ago when we created a society for brands that were in excess of 250 years old. Francesco Barberis Canonico came to themanufacture and explained to us that he was a great watch lover. Immediately we realized that the history of our two companies created a wonderful common ground for a conversation.”
Marchenoir explains, “As we discussed various ideas, we gravitated to the idea of our interpretation of five of Barberis’s iconic fabrics: Prince of Wales, Herringbone, Windowpane, Pinstripes and Tartan — because we were struck by how identifiable these patterns were in the lexicon of male sartorial culture.”
And he is right. Because if you somehow achieved means in the past, you were expected to learn about art or music or architecture. You were expected to learn how to have conversation and invoke a sense of gentility and largesse. You were expected to pick up the right fork and understand the multitude of cloistered terroirs of Burgundy. But if Vacheron Constantin and Vitale Barberis Canonico have correctly predicted, that a new renaissance is upon us, one that favors craft, manners, education and subtle beauty, then the watches they have created in collaboration are more than an embodiment of these values — they are beacons of hope heralding the return of a new cultural and social Belle Époque.