This morning at Max Mara’s Pacific Centre location, an unveiling: Sartoriale, a new tailor-made suit project from the Italian brand. Being the only metropolis in North America with three Max Mara stores (plus its flagship bridal collection at the South Granville location and two Weekend Max Mara stores, with a third on the way), the city is well-suited to, well, suits.
“Max Mara was built around the fact that its customers were drawn to these tailor-made coats,” says Catherine Guadagnuolo, president and founder of the Vestis Fashion Group, who operates the store. “With these, you’re getting a piece made by a person with the highest skill set. Italy has the highest quality of tailoring in the world still. They are skillful engineers who understand fit.”
Each individual jacket is handmade by one person in 345 minutes (just under six hours). The inside of the jacket includes horsehair and camel hair, a combination referred to as “canvas”, which is sewn in and pressed to perfection. There is a lightness in the jackets that falls softly on shoulders and skims the chest. Cashmere, camel hair, silk, silk-wool mix, and silk-mohair mix ensure a feminine shape. “This company knows women,” adds Guadagnuolo. “They wanted to create a businesswoman’s attire that fits a businesswoman. Many tailors will sew a coat, but it will fit like it’s going to fit a man. This fits the shape of a woman’s body.”
The new line not only feels handcrafted, but looks it too—a nod to an earlier time when women had clothes made by dressmakers. Should today’s woman have the need to make any adjustments to her jacket (and every fashion industry professional will tell you that you ought to make friends with a tailor), Sartoriale lends itself well to nips and tucks.
Certainly, integrating a masculine-inspired jacket into your wardrobe is very of-the-moment and on-trend, but as Guadagnuolo notes, “like Max Mara’s coats, these suits are forever.”
