I stumbled upon this and hope it's ok to post...
http://www.shibui.eu/matuozzo.php (Click the photo gallery link at the bottom)
Edit: Nice pics, too, of Paolo Scafora shoes.
Last edited by Marc Grayson (2007-02-25 13:15:33)
Anna makes a very, very nice shirt. It is definitely a shirt that calls notice to itself as it has a lot of detailing and a soft shape that is pretty distinct from the shirts of any other shirtmaker that I have encountered. More than anything Anna and her family, like has been said about the Sivigias, are wonderful, generous people. I always look forward to spending time with them.
The shirts that you mention, BCL, are in fact interesting. They are a sort of sport shirt/polo that is made from regular shirting material. I actually have never been tempted by them as I find them very hard to get on and off, but the only other client of Anna's who I know really loves the one he had made up. Anna tends to be very creative and has made me shirt-jackets that are wonderful and is very adept at making womens shirts as well. My wife is a big fan of them.
Thanks for posting the pictures Marc.
Do I detect a bespoke Italian version of the infamous "Popover" shirt?
Yes PB, I suppose that it is. The first time I tried them on, my wife was with me at the shop. As I was getting it off of me, I just couldn't get it over my head correctly and all I could hear in my blindness were my wife, Anna and her daughter laughing at me jumping around half clothed. For my summer casual shirts, I have decided to go the non-popover route and to get a soft riviera style collar.
The downside is that the popover style is better with my favorite santa headwear.
Nice shirts! However, in my opinion, handstitching in shirtmaking is more about making a point on wearing a shirt that took longer to make than one that performs better from the practical and aesthetic points of view.
Maybe I am wrong but each of those seams look like a "ribattitura", meaning that handstitching is made above a machine stitch to hold the folded cloth allowance.
I had not seen hand-stitching on a shirt previously and in admiring the photos, I can appreciate why fans of Anna Matuozzo enjoy her shirts. There is an almost organic quality, a tangible sense of the human hand having played an integal part in the making of the shirt. You feel a connection with AM. At the same time, I also marvel at the level of fastidiousness of the machine-stitching of my MS shirts, which is so uncannily straight, refined, and clean as to be nearly invisible to the eye. Both approaches display their own esthetics, and can co-exist and do so on an artisanal level.