On Via Fra’ Bartolomeo, just outside Florence’ old city center, you’ll find Leonardo Bugelli, a genuine bespoke shirtmaker. He makes shirts the traditional way creating a trial shirt for a fitting, before he makes the first real shirt for the customer.
Like most bespoke shirtmakers today, he prefers to machinesew his shirts. However, his seamstress attaches the buttons by hand. Pattern matching looks very exact compared to his English counterparts.
Among other things, we talked about Giancarlo Bonfanti’s shirting. Bonfanti’s old looms gives his cloth a lot of character, Leonardo Bugelli told me.
Photos: The Journal of Style