Question:
I have been a fan of Luciano Barbera for years. I used to think of his apparel as the best of British and Italian style. His fabrics are amazing. I was even married in one of his suits. In 2003 he seemed to be "ramping up" with a larger sportswear line and a retail shop in Milan. It seemed to be an exciting direction. Then early last year Saks and many other stores stopped carrying it, or in the case of Neiman's seem to have cut back to a very small assortment. Their materials and quality have always been impressive but I guess they didn't keep up enough with certain aspects of fashion? Anyone know what happened??? Is their hope?
Answer:
Could they have refocused on the fabric operations?
Maybe prepping for a relaunch?
They were an odd duck in my eyes as the fabrics were amazing but the construction of the SFA line was often very poor in my opinion.
Answer:
I don't know what happened. I have always held the design and construction of the Sartoriale line to be the of the highest caliber available retail. My guess is that the bigger marketing machines of Kiton and Brioni sort of shoved them out of places like Neimans. In no way do I believe that they are of any lesser quality than the other two, and I think that the fabrics are, on balance, superior to what Kiton and Brioni use now that the two of them have moved to almost 100% Italian mills.
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Didn't they also have leather goods? I remember seeing duffle bag type things.
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Yes, they have had some leather luggage in a nice textured tan color but the function was rather lacking for such an expensive item. It wasn't up to the rest of the clothing line in my opinion. I used to see it at Wilkes in SF. They even had a special edition suitcase set in cream colored leather with black trim and gold-tone hardware. The suitcases came with a canvas zipper cover, to protect them from getting scuffed.
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Did you ever see that set of LB luggage at Virtual Clothes horse, just incredible.
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Yes, here is the link.
http://www.virtualclotheshorse.com/i...duct_id=349955
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Yes, that canvas cover is actually a traditional device that higher-quality leather suitcases used to have to protect them from scuffs and the grubby hands of porters.
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They are still in stores in Moscow, I was looking at the new autumn stuff last night.
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I have a black pebbled leather garment bag from LB. It is fantastic and IMO is worth the price of admission. No, it isn't good for road warriors who travel constantly, as you probably wouldn't want the leather to get so constantly battered (thought it fits in the overhead of most planes). But, for weekend trips and for occasional travel, it's fantastic. Beautiful leather that is tough too.
Answer:
I love LB, in fact my two favorite suits are LB's. I think what someone above said is true, either larger marketing budgets forced them out of NM and the handful of indy shops where they appeared, or else LB just didn't have enough "brand name appeal" for the masses.
I did notice that they revamped their website relatively recently though . . . at least I think they did.
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LB's ties are amazing as well. The old LB space at Saks is now populated by their formal section (which is pretty average in my opinion)
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We have custom built luggage that came with fitted canvas covers that have small opening/aperture for the handle. It keeps the leather protected but I rarely use the covers as its a pain to put on and take off.
Regards.
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What brands?
The Saks in Detroit may be the worst men's store on the planet, so I'm always curious what other cities stock.
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We saw a nice A/W selection of Luciano Barbera at Marc Laurent in Toronto last weekend. I recently picked up a linen/silk/wool LB mainline marked Sartoria, which I assume is the new Partenopena make, and it is cut perfectly for me. Unfortunately, no one stocks LB in Vancouver.
