La camicia con l'anima - Mary Frittolini bespoke shirts

[Romain]

Dear SFers,

I would like to introduce to you a craftsman (or should I say craftswoman) I recently had the pleasure to meet:

Her name is Maria Teresa Frittolini, but you can call her Mary. She lives in Torino.

While studying ancient letters, and even after, when she started working, Mary has also been sewing and making shirts, just because she likes it. She kept doing both her jobs for 10 years. Then she finally quit her work (not the shirtmaking, the other one) in order to focus on shirtmaking. Hopefully she had the chance to meet Pierre Duboin the owner of laliquette, and "secondarily" former head cutter at Lanvin Paris, managing the bespoke shirts department. He gave Mary advice sharing his 25 year experience with her, so she could improve her skills.

That was the story, now let's talk about the shirts. And what shirts!
This is about real bespoke, i.e. an individual patter is cut for each customer, here are some pictures of mine (Mary sends pictures during the making of your shirt, isn't it nice?):




Stay tuned for the trial shirt...

 

[Romain]

Now that the pattern is made, the following step is the making of a trial shirt, using bad fabric, so the needed adjustments can be easily spotted:



For example you can see above, that yours faithfully needs bigger armholes...

After this, the shirt is ripped off, on the customer, in order to see how falls the fabric on the body, and pinned. Sorry, no pictures of this stage (don't want to end in the "crappy sartorial images" thread ), but I have some of the trial shirt after adjustments:







After this, the pattern is adjusted, according to the result of the trial, and the final shirt is being made...

 

[Romain]

Now that the final pattern has been altered, the real fabric is cut:





What you see above is a poplin by Grandi & Rubinelli, Mary also offers fabrics from Thomas Mason, Alumo, David John & Anderson, and Bonfanti. The latter is very interesting as Bonfanti make some fabrics using old and hand-maneuvred looms, which result in an incredibly great and exclusive fabric. It takes about 1 hour to make 2 meters...


Bonfanti loom

 

[Romain]

Finally the shirt is sewn, and this is where you understand why Mary's shirts are some of the best one can get...









Sleevehead attached by hand:



Check the thiness of this seam under the armholes:



And, marvellous hand made buttonholes and monograms:



(last 3 pictures (c) amator )



I will post pictures of my shirt finished as soon as I get it!

More pictures of Mary's work there:

http://lacamiciaconlanima.blogspot.fr/

https://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/pages/Mary-Frittolini/254167731267548

http://engrandepompe.forumpersos.com/t1453-mary-frittolini

 

[rs232]

I had been following her for a while on la vraie chemise sur mesure, but wasn't aware that she was taking customers!

Apart from the armholes, it doesn't look like there is sufficient ease across the upper back and possibly rear sleeves at the shoulders, and I think the shirt would pull if you tried to lean forward. The wrinkles at the front can be helped by darting at the yoke and front seam, as well as by fixing the scyes (as you mentioned). Overall, the balance looks short on the front (it's pulling up towards your chin on the side shot), which she has tried to compensate for by taking up the back at the yoke. The final fit pictures will be interesting - it's not easy fitting over the internet, and it's brave of her to try.

This is a fancy way of doing this! It also means that you can avoid a thick seam on the leading edge of the collar underside.

 

[F. Corbera]

Good thread.

 

[Holdfast]

It's always interesting to see works in progress, and of course, the final result when it's all done. So I hope you maintain this thread with fresh pics when the end product arrives. Thanks for posting!

 

[Romain]



I had been following her for a while on la vraie chemise sur mesure, but wasn't aware that she was taking customers!

Now you are! She travels to Paris frequently, she also plans to go to London (maybe she already has).
You can contact her by email: [email protected]

Apart from the armholes, it doesn't look like there is sufficient ease across the upper back and possibly rear sleeves at the shoulders, and I think the shirt would pull if you tried to lean forward. The wrinkles at the front can be helped by darting at the yoke and front seam, as well as by fixing the scyes (as you mentioned). Overall, the balance looks short on the front (it's pulling up towards your chin on the side shot), which she has tried to compensate for by taking up the back at the yoke. The final fit pictures will be interesting - it's not easy fitting over the internet, and it's brave of her to try.

Actually Mary was here during the fitting. As she torn almost every seam of the trial shirt, I believe these issues should be resolved. But we'll see this in 9 days, when I get the shirt.

 

[fritzl]

nice report. thanks for sharing.

do you prefer the collar that tight?

 

[TheTukker]

Terrific thread - many thanks!

 

[Romain]



nice report. thanks for sharing.
do you prefer the collar that tight?

Do you find it tighter than usual?
I didn't feel it that way, but anyway, yes I prefer it to be tight (as long as I can easily breathe and the blood flow to my head is sufficient, of course).

 

[fritzl]



Do you find it tighter than usual?
I didn't feel it that way, but anyway, yes I prefer it to be tight (as long as I can easily breathe and the blood flow to my head is sufficient, of course).

that's all that matters.

 

[mmkn]

Things of beauty.

Lanvin bespoke, you say? They hardly make them like this anymore. Can't beat the Parisian heritage of shirtmaking!

- M

 

[Romain]

Delivery this morning:

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[/quote]

Happy I am.

 

[badsha]

Very nice love the collar. What is the collar point length?