Beauty and Fashion Dubai

For Winter 2014, Berluti looks to the architecture of Scandinavia and its organic construction materials to bring a sharp-edged modernity and textural warmth to its new collection. The shapes are bolder and the details are more functional – but only where it serves the cause of human comfort.

Classic craft confronts new technology in the form of innovative fabrics that are worked and finished by human hand using techniques usually reserved for traditional textiles. Such care is taken in their construction that the outerwear pieces in this collection require 60 or 70 hours of meticulous handcrafting in the Berluti ateliers.

Among the luxurious textiles are a triple cashmere backed with a technical membrane and, beneath that, a coloured cashmere jersey, which together serve to reinforce and protect the outer material while giving it a generous fluidity of movement and a weight that dispenses with any need for linings; a pure angora in a large herringbone Jacquard; pure alpaca; precious vicuña; a four-ply Japanese mohair; soft, supple nubuck; and a beautifully dense, matt shearling.

The collection is structured around two scales of proportion. Pieces are either narrow, clean, sharp and tailored close to the body, or, on coats and overcoats, oversized and boxy. The narrow-cut jackets feature an important innovation that allows the arm to move with greater ease: a 5mm intarsio pleat which sits beneath a discreet groove running between the sleeve head and shoulder seam.

Other style details are likewise dictated by their functionality. All jackets – including Berluti’s signature three-piece suit – feature diagonal-cut pocket openings taken from the pea coat, as these are easier to access than the traditional horizontal pocket and bring the ease of a sportswear garment to more formal tailoring. Some coats are cut with a manica a martello, where the sleeve extends up to the collar, enabling greater movement and also creating a sportier silhouette. Lapels feature a wide peak and are connected to the collar with a single stitch, so that when the collar is pulled up for warmth, the lapel rises with it for extra protection from the elements.