If there's one piece that we've been requested time and time again, it's a blue blazer!
And that's good, because it's what I've wanted for a year: a dressy piece to wear with formal shirts. It was very close to my heart!
Alexandre can testify to this:
“Alex, we need a blazer anyway... with a Milanese buttonhole. And it would need to be at an affordable price.”
At that point, I think he broke out in a cold sweat:
"That's it, he's still asking me for the moon after telling me what he saw at Pitti Uomo. And what's more, we're going to have to convince Geoffrey. I work in a crazy company."
But Alexandre is not the type to give up...
We therefore wanted:
- Suggest a beautiful blue blazer, but with a more elaborate material. I especially didn't want us to have the impression that one of our customers simply took a suit jacket as a blazer .
- But on the other hand, we also needed a fabric that was easy to wear ... Do you see the difficulty?
- And finally, I wanted a detail that couldn't be found elsewhere , this famous Milanese buttonhole...
I'm wearing three of the items from this new BonneGueule III Line (and the team even pushed me to wear a hint of a smile in the photo).
What is the Milanese buttonhole?
The Milanese buttonhole is a decorative buttonhole usually found on the lapels of jackets... large suits!
But nothing to do with the city of Milan. The name comes from “ La Milanese” which was a brand of thick and rigid thread used for its creation. The yarn brand no longer exists, but the name has remained.
His particuliarity ? It can only be done by hand: the operation is far too delicate and precise for a machine.
It consists of reinforcing and raising the buttonhole using a small cord (the famous Milanese thread!). The result is a refined, dense, fine and very refined buttonhole .
La Boutonnière Milanaise: “ Yes, it’s clear that I am fine, dense, pure and refined! It’s my Italian sprezzatura side !” ( NO we didn't make a buttonhole talk )
At a time when suits had to last as long as possible, buttonholes, subject to recurring friction, had to be reinforced: the Milanese buttonhole was born.
That said, it’s an extremely rare detail in contemporary ready-to-wear.
I saw some at Tom Ford (entry level: €2,000), a little at Lanvin for the most high-end suits, and at Gucci on the half-measure Lapo Elkann line. Indeed, few large luxury houses risk integrating into their margin structure an operation that can only be carried out manually...
In any case, we are extremely proud to offer you a Milanese buttonhole on our blazer. I believe that in this price range, we are the only ones to offer this detail.
Why is this detail so important to me?
It is an extremely distinguished and elegant finish.
At Pitti - where the best dressed men on the planet meet - it was a recurring detail that really struck me. And yet, it was nowhere to be found in French ready-to-wear (and this is still the case).
So, when Alexandre came back to me saying:
“It’s okay, we can do it, the workshop is excited about the idea!”
You can imagine that I jumped at the chance! All we had to do was prepare an argument to convince Geoffrey and the matter was settled. Alexandre then ensured that this precious Milanese was carried out well throughout production.
And I find it very nice that a handmade element, supposed to reinforce a buttonhole, has such an aesthetic result, with a much more sophisticated appearance than a classic buttonhole .
This photo sums up the whole spirit of our new collection. We wanted to show you that a linen shirt goes very well with a jacket... and a Milanese buttonhole! Note the natural rendering of the shoulder.
In short, it’s a real piece of handmade work that you will have on the back!
Sleeve buttonholes... closed
If you looked closely at the photos, you noticed that the buttonholes on the sleeves are closed , although we have regularly written that open buttonholes are indications of beautiful workmanship.
But open buttonholes posed a (big) problem for us: retouching the sleeve length would have been very complicated . The retoucher is obliged to completely dismantle the sleeve at the shoulder to shorten it. And I might as well tell you that it is a very expensive finish... that some people refuse to do.
Whereas in the case of closed buttonholes, the retoucher can very easily shift the buttonholes and retouch the length of the sleeve from below . More classic, retouching is much less expensive and easy to do (around €30)!
And obviously, we can of course extend the sleeves by 2 or 3 cm ...
Kissing buttons?
That said, we went all out on the other finishes : the Milanese buttonhole obviously, but also the horn buttons and the (very poetic) kissing buttons ...
The buttons overlap very slightly, hence the "kissing buttons".
The kissing button technique consists of very subtly overlapping the buttons on the sleeves. It’s a purist detail, and our little nod to Naples 😉
A blazer with real semi-interlining
Little reminder: the importance of interlining
Interlining is the layer sewn between the outer fabric and the lining. It reinforces a piece of a jacket by providing thicknesses that facilitate its assembly, or which give its shape, its hold and its drape to a jacket.
If there was no interlining, the jacket would have no hold and would hang like a shirt.
The whole delicacy of interlining consists of finding a flexible finish (which can follow your movements) BUT also rigid (to structure the jacket). And man has yet to find anything better than a horsehair suit to combine these two requirements.
The real backbone of the jacket, it is a flexible and breathable canvas made of horsehair threads:
The horsehair tailored canvas fills out the jacket's bib.
At entry-level, fed up with heat-sealing
Entry-level costumes are iron-on : a canvas coated with iron-on resin is applied and it is heated so that it adheres to the fabric.
The rendering is rigid and lacks fluidity, but the implementation is economical and quick. In short, it is the ideal technique for large entry-level industrial volumes.
On the other hand, it quickly blister in the rain or after a few visits to the dry cleaners (it's a bit like the planned obsolescence of the blazer...). And it's of course much less breathable (but ideal if you like the sauna in summer!).
In contrast, traditional interlining
Here, no resin or glue, but only tailoring canvas and thread. This is the technique used for large-scale costumes (€2,000 and more).
It's long and expensive... it takes several dozen hours of work for qualified tailors to make ONE fully canvassed suit.
But the advantages are indisputable: given that it is "just" superimposed fabrics, without glue, the drape is much more flexible and fluid, and it accompanies the movement.
You gain in comfort, and the blazer stands the test of time much better...
Economical and durable: semi-interlining
And between the two, there is the semi-canvassed construction of our blazer: the ease of making iron-on, and the flexibility of full interlining .
All semi-canvassed jackets have a small heat-sealed base (admittedly much lighter than heat-sealed, you hardly feel it) located particularly at the bottom of the jacket (hence the name "semi-canvassed").
But beware ! Among the industry's best-kept secrets are two qualities of semi-interlining:
- Entry-level covering : only the lapels are covered (and not the bib which covers the bust),
- The “real” semi-interlining : with a flying bib (our personal criterion of quality). You can easily feel it when pinching the fabric. How do we know? We went to dissect a jacket at our favorite retoucher (Michel, from Atelier Kost, rue de Cléry in Paris). As Alexandre says: only high-end: no amalgamation.
The flying bib indicates the type of interlining it is, in addition to providing a crisp and clean finish inside the jacket.
An effortless, flexible fall
The semi-canvass construction allowed us to give this blazer comfort and great flexibility in the fit.
The backhand roll (also called a drop) lands roundly on the chest, solely by the effect of gravity (nothing to do with a roll crushed with an iron).
The jacket collar is soft and falls naturally over the shirt collar.
And finally, the jacket follows your movements perfectly , given that the part in contact with your chest (the flying bib) is not attached to the outer fabric:
The natural shoulder and the Milanese just make me happy. I always wear the BonneGueule linen shirt with the blazer.
A blazer with a fitted cut with Italian influences
You should know that the patronage of the jacket comes straight from Alberto Caruso, who has a considerable reputation in the manufacture of high-end suits, so much so that Laurent de Milanese Special Edition devoted two articles to it: one on the Caruso brand , and another on the founder .
In short, he's a gentleman who knows what he's doing when he designs a jacket pattern!
In this case, its "paw" is felt on two points:
A high armhole to promote movement
The sleeve fits high enough with the chest, to give comfort and freedom of movement (you are not a Playmobil).
My opinion is also that it visually enhances a silhouette.
A natural shoulder with light padding
The shoulder design is simple and light. There is very little padding (= the usual shoulder padding).
The jacket fits your shoulder perfectly, in a natural way.
It’s a nod to the Neapolitan shoulder, light and perfectly suited to summer weather.
Italian influences are also evident on the fairly rounded sides of the jacket.
Last detail: a small barchetta
Perhaps you have seen it: the chest pocket (the one where you put the pouch ) has a slight rounding.
It has a nice name: the barchetta , which means - again according to Hugo - "small boat", this shape evoking a ship's hull.
I love this kind of subtle little detail that everyone senses, but which is only revealed to the connoisseur's eye.
A natural bend that accompanies the movement
And finally, regarding the bending, I think the photos speak for themselves.
It's a rather fitted cut, cut with a scalpel, with a length suitable for casual/mismatched wear (jeans, chinos, no worries)!
The precise cut highlights your silhouette.
This is how a back jacket should fall.
The material: 100% wool airy mesh from Vitale Barberis Canonico
We returned to see Vitale Barberis Canonico in Biella (VBC which is, remember, the oldest spinning mill in the world, still in operation after 300 years).
This 100% wool fabric weighs 280 grams per linear meter (much lighter than our flannel pants), in a blue that will transport you on vacation!
I especially didn't want a fabric that could be found on a classic suit, but I even less wanted something exuberant... That's why this embossed, airy "hopsack" fabric, mouliné with tones of blue, immediately convinced me .
Whether with gray jeans, raw jeans or chinos, it will be very difficult to get your color combinations wrong.
Why wool in summer?
Yes, wool can absolutely be used for summer clothing. The one we chose even has several advantages over cotton:
- This wool “mesh” does not crease (it’s amazing),
- The weave is very airy , which means that the jacket “breathes” better than with classic wool,
- Wool has thermoregulating properties , because it is a fiber that naturally traps air,
- The wool fiber hardly gets wet (unlike cotton which absorbs), for excellent evacuation of sweat, and against the retention of odors.
Those who want to go further will read the last part of this Hugo article , where Maurizio Albertini (he leads the Vitale Barberis design team) comments on the fabric we chose...
High-end finishes
Our blazer is made in exactly the same place as our flannel pants, in Romania, in our workshop specializing in tailoring pieces.
In terms of finishes, in addition to the two exterior pockets and three interior pockets , including one under the bend line for your cell phone, without risk of distorting the cut .
The pockets have half-moons , like on our flannel pants, which protect the seams from tears.
Two things to notice here: the half-moon, and the fact that the pocket is sewn into the wool, and not directly into the lining. This is additional reinforcement.
Finally, there are what we call "salt shakers" at the armpit level: these are reinforcements in the lining which protect the outer fabric from friction and perspiration.
The salt shaker from one of the armpits.
And the buttons are made of horn!
There are white threads on the sleeves and at the bottom, is this normal?
Yes ! We call them “frame wires”. There are some on the sleeves, on the back panels, and on the Milanese buttonhole. They protect these areas during transport .
In the same way, the exterior pockets and the chest pockets are sewn, in order to keep them well placed throughout the delivery circuit.
Whether it's the white threads or the pockets to open, simply remove the threads (small, sharp blade, not your butter knife).
I insist on this point: it's very simple to do , and it takes 47 seconds to sew (it's even a pleasure when you buy a beautiful piece).
How to choose your size ?
The blazer fits normally : as usual, take your usual size! This is perhaps the phrase I repeat the most in a presentation article, but really, there are no surprises in terms of the cut! Trust us and trust yourself!
If you ordered from us (or usually carry):
- XS, take 44 on this blazer
- size S, take 46 on this blazer
- M, take 48 on this blazer
- size L, take 50 on this blazer
- XL, take 52 on this blazer
- XXL, take size 54 on this blazer
There really is no need to complicate life!
A blazer that can be worn without risk
Wearing this blazer is not complicated: its cut lends itself to both formal and casual outfits, and as you know, blue goes with almost all the colors in your wardrobe. It's super intuitive.
Striped shirt and gray jeans. Nothing difficult, just stick to a shirt whose tones do not overpower those of the blazer. (Striped linen shirt and BonneGueule jeans, Atelier Voisin ankle boots). And look at that bend on the hips!
A blazer, a linen shirt, gray jeans, and a big splash of madness from Geoffrey with his Septième Largeur ankle boots.
Note that patinated ankle boots are not exclusively reserved for the suit, the result is also interesting with well-cut jeans.
And for once, we have someone older than us in the shoots! This is Fred, our office roommate, who makes beautiful videos.
Wearing your blazer with a tie is a spontaneous assembly. Here, Florian's look, phlegmatic as ever, is based on the three main colors of the men's summer wardrobe: beige, blue and white. (BonneGueule shirt, Gant tie, Asos tie clip, Pochette Square pocket square, DNM Pieces chinos and Septième Width derby)
The work done on the wool, the finesse of the shirt and the rougher appearance of the tie create relief by contrasting the textures.
If, like Luca, you are more of the Riviera type, remember that a blue blazer goes well with white pants. Rely on shades of blue to complete the rest of your outfit, at the risk of losing harmony otherwise: white pants remain a strong piece. Finally, if Luca opted for small sneakers, brown derbies would also have found their place. (De Fursac shirt and pants, Boggi clutch, Vans sneakers)
Let's return to a more casual look with Jérémy, who wears his blazer with a sweater. The combination is certainly less intuitive, but actually works very well, even without a shirt. The outfit is completed by desert boots, these recalling the color of her sweater, which adds coherence to the whole. As usual, the blue/beige combo works seamlessly, although we could have just as easily imagined a casual shirt on this look. (Hédus sweater, Japan Line jeans, Diesel desert boots)
As summer arrives, you can also play with t-shirts, as long as the collar is not too flared. The key is to avoid cheap materials to counterbalance the apparent simplicity of the outfit, and to stick with a sober color. No more no less. (BonneGueule T-shirt, Carhartt chinos, Adidas sneakers - Stan Smith)
The BonneGueule III line is now available!
Now, as you read this article, the collection is available on Atelier BonneGueule :
- The wrinkle-resistant wool mesh blazer Vitale Barberis Canonico BG-3.1
- The two linen shirts with striped and houndstooth patterns BG-3.2
