{NM Daily}

Brioni's Angelo Di Febo

This year Brioni introduced its youngest chief master tailor, Angelo Di Febo, 27. This graduate of the Brioni Tailoring School (Nazareno Fonticoli) became an integral component of the house, due to his advanced tailoring and production techniques. He’s already been involved in creating wardrobe pieces for James Bond in “The World is Not Enough” and “Die Another Day.” He embodies the Brioni slogan, “Be One of a Kind.” All this, before he’s hit 30.

Where are you originally from? How did you get into this industry?

I grow up in Penne, a place close to the sea and with a high quality of life and, above all, an area with a very deep tradition in tailoring. Even today, you can still find what we call “bottega” (tailor shops) with an old tailor. As you know, Brioni founded a school here. I graduated from the Brioni Tailoring School, “Nazareno Fonticoli,” and upon graduation, I started working immediately for the design house.

Todd Snyder, Fall 2011

Todd Snyder, the founder of his namesake men’s line, once received this advice: “Work for the best.” Since those four words of wisdom were uttered, he’s worked for Ralph Lauren and J. Crew. When he turned 40, he took a leap of faith and ventured onto his own, launching a line of classic pieces for the modern man.

Barker Black

Derrick Miller, creative director of Barker Black Ltd., comes by his innate design sense initially from his father, Frank Miller, an artist and clotheshorse obsessed with custom English shoes and clothing. He enrolled at Parson’s School of Design in Paris, where he fell in love with photography – which helped him evolve his progressive eye for style and detail. He landed spots on the mastheads at GQ and Nylon, but he was most interested in the process involved in clothing design. So he did what anyone would do if they had the nerve. He contacted Mr. Ralph Lauren personally, arrived for their appointment in a $19.99 handmade suit from the Salvation Army, and Miller was hired on the spot to work on the top-of-the-line Purple Label. Shortly thereafter, Miller was approached with a pivotal opportunity. Barker Shoes, a 125-year-old shoe company from Northampton, England was looking for someone to relaunch their brand with a more modern flair.

Rogue leather jacket

As the self-proclaimed dark horse of Americana, Rogue is for the modern guy who consistently maintains a five o’clock shadow, rocks out to Sly and The Family Stone, and counts his best worked-in leather jacket as one of his wardrobe essentials. NMdaily spoke with designer Jimmy Reilly about the motorcycle-inspired collection.

What is your background in design? 

You could say I got drafted out of high school and began designing outerwear because I was living the lifestyle.    

For someone who doesn’t have a design background and isn’t trained in pattern making, Nick Friedberg, founder of NSF Clothing, is doing something right. He’s captured a generation of guys whose casual aesthetic is constantly drawn to softer fabrics, reinterpreted classics, and new shapes that still maintain their masculinity.  With a new Japanese denim line underway (designed by Simon Miller) and plans to tackle the world of women’s wear, Friedberg fills us in on the future of NSF, his connection to Van Halen, and why the Beach Boys will be supplying the soundtrack to his California summer.

In the 1940’s, a new line of swimwear started to appear on dudes who spent much of their time beachside, when surf culture was in its initial inception. Form-fitting, brightly colored and artfully proportioned, Sundek became instantly recognizable by its blazing sun logo, later translated into the mission: “chase the sun.” In 1958, Italy-based Sundek began to focus its attention on the California coasts and islands of Hawaii and developed a legion of dedicated loyalists. Styles have changed slightly. They currently emulate Eighties prototypes, becoming highly influential in the general trend toward shorter swim trunks. NMdaily spoke with Agostino Magni, CEO of Kickoff USA, Sundek’s parent company.

B.D. Baggies

In 1986 a line of shirts hit the market, designed with one simple tactic in mind: give real guys shirts that are so soft, they feel as if they’ve been passed down through multiple generations. Their packaging was unique, as the shirts came in small laundry bags. The brand soared. But in the mid 1990s, B.D. Baggies hit a slump. To shake things up, the new parent company WP Lavori in Corso, the Bologna, Italy based company that revived Woolrich, recently brought on designer Dave Mullen, who is acclaimed for designing Save Khaki.

Designer Billy Reid

With Southern tradition and heritage in his soul, Billy Reid designs men’s clothes that encapsulate genteel yet sturdily constructed goods. His materials of choice—such as the thick corduroys, chunky wools, and carefully constructed cottons seen in his Fall/Winter 2011 presentation—help translate his point of view to men who care about the way they look, but most importantly, how they feel. The approach has as much appeal in New York City as in Florence, Alabama, where Reid is based.

For Summer, he’s made the approach to getting dressed in the morning quite simple: chambray blazers, crisp oxfords with subtle detailing, polo shirts and an assortment of lightweight nautical inspired V-neck sweaters.

Summer looks featuring Haspel seersucker.

Haspel, founded in New Orleans in 1909 and later credited with making seersucker popular in America, is newly compelling right now as young men take a new interest in sartorial tradition—and as temperatures are rising.

The brand made waves when founder Joseph Haspel, Sr. wore his seersucker into the ocean during a trade show. Now Joseph’s great-granddaughter Laurie Haspel steers the ship, maintaining the born-in-America tradition and lineage. Haspel still makes no-nonsense clothing for the modern gentleman.