Domenico vacca

[imageWIS]

So Saturday was Founders Day at the Flagler museum in Palm Beach, after browsing through the Mansion for the better part of the day and after a quite late afternoon bite at Taboos, I quickly made my way to the Ralph Lauren store (it was already 4:27 and most stores close at 5:30 during the summer) to see if they have any merchandise left, after one whole week of sales, there are hardly any good items left. I bought only a Purple Label lightweight blue cotton terry cloth zip sweater with hood (at 40% off of course). There where no size 38S suits or sports coats, the same goes with 14.5 size shirts; ok they did have two 14.5 blue label forward point collar shirts (eww

). I also went to NM and Saks, but nothing really appealed to me so I left both stores empty handed. Then as 5 pm approached I wondered over to Borrelli. As I aforementioned elsewhere in the forum, the store is a bit larger than a closet. Truly tiny, but the shirts and clothing is truly beautiful. The roll on the collars is really top notch, and the hand finishing is evident. They unfortunately did not have any 14.5 RTW shirts, but offer (of course) MTM / Bespoke services. Luckily the store manager was there and he was fairly knowledgeable regarding pattern matching and what they will and will not do regarding certain options, we also dove a bit into their non-fused suit construction. MTM / Bespoke start at around $365 for base cloths; which I guess is not bad compared to what Lorenzini or T&A charges for MTM machine-made shirts, the Borrelli premium is only about $40 more. The sports coat / suit prices where also quite good, much less than Kiton, and the quality seemed in par or a minuscule notch below. Sartorial items to definitely consider. I left Borrelli and noticed that two doors down there was a new store (that's was oddly similar to the interior design of the Borrelli) and that the shirts are eerily similar to Borrelli's. So I look up and see that the store is called Domenico Vacca (my ignorance is about to show), I had never heard of the brand. I am told that Mr. Vacca owns part of Borrelli, but that the sports coats / suits are made by Attolini (and are really expensive for RTW, they start at $4500 for base fabrics). The shirts start at $400 for MTM / Bespoke. So my questions are: Are Vacca shirts made by Borrelli? Are they better than the Borrelli shirts? If so, why? Why are Attolini's sartorial items so damn expensive? Are they worth the premium over Borrelli's sartorial clothing? Are they better / worse than Kiton (to command such a price for RTW items)? Thanks. Jon.

 

[johnnynorman3]

I liked their ties better than Borrelli, but didn't look at the shirts or the suits.

 

[discostu004]

i might be wrong, but a few months ago Departures magazine did a thing on custom tailors in NYC and i think Vacca was in there. I'd never heard of him, but the name's ringing a bell so i'm guessing that's where i heard it. actually i just did a search and it's here: Link that store is new b/c when i did the store Trillion I don't remember that store at all.

 

[imageWIS]

i might be wrong, but a few months ago Departures magazine did a thing on custom tailors in NYC and i think Vacca was in there. I'd never heard of him, but the name's ringing a bell so i'm guessing that's where i heard it. actually i just did a search and it's here: Link that store is new b/c when i did the store Trillion I don't remember that store at all.

They said they opened in December. Luckily for me the sales woman (Brazilian, Blonde hair blue eyes, not a total hardbody {for lack of a better term} but still adds a pleasant view whilst shopping; her name eludes me at the moment) who now works at Vacca knows me from Giorgio's when she used to work there, so at least I did not get treated like a tourist (which was the way I was treated at Trillion, so I did not purchase anything). As I mentioned, the store looks like it is an extension of the Borrelli store. They did have an amazing amount of shirts (at least compared to other "designer" houses on Worth / Via's). Thanks for the link; interestingly the prices in Departures are seemingly lower than the prices in the store in Palm Beach. Jon.

 

[naturlaut]

Whether Vacca owned bits of Borrelli I wouldn't know --- actually, as far as I know, Borrelli is still privately owned by someone related to the family, but I can't be completely sure.

Domenico Vacca's store carries Sartoria Attolini suits (both ready-made and MTM), Finamore shirts (both ready-made and MTM) and StefanoBi shoes, among other smaller items.  He is not a designer, just someone who sells clothes.

He recommends Finamore shirts over Attolini's, and he constantly offers a small selection of Attolini suits.  You can find fabric swatches for Attolini or Finnamore if you decide to order MTM.  Just like most of you eBay sellers, he marks up his items quite alot, as he is merely a middleman.  Unlike Borrelli, which is a store that sells what it makes from its own factory, the mark up is not so substantial.  Other than shirts/suits/ties, I suspect other Borrelli items are not made in-house: sweaters (Cucinelli?), shoes (Santoni? -- or Mantellassi, which Borrelli owns 30%?), etc..

 

[imageWIS]

Hmmm, I have never heard of Finnamore, do they have a website?

Since Borrelli seems to be in-line with Kiton quality, where does this leave Attolini? Are they better than the aforementioned? Worse?

Jon.

 

[banksmiranda]

Andrea Finamore web site: http://www.finamore.it

 

[imageWIS]

Andrea Finamore web site: http://www.finamore.it

Grazi signore. Jon.