A New Chapter For Boglioli
“Boglioli’s unstructured blazer is the one jacket I love wearing the most. It almost feels like a jumper. I can wear it even in the Silicon Valley without looking too formal or being mistaken for a banker”, said Kevin Systrom, co-founder and former CEO of Instagram. Wearing the most iconic style within Boglioli’s collections, the K-Jacket for the last ten years, we couldn’t agree more.
By breaking down the jacket to reveal each component, Boglioli has created a new style prototype whereby the jacket feels utterly comfortable and is made to naturally adapt to the shape of the body. Boglioli’s tailoring secret is the use of soft, light-weight, and unique high-quality fabrics to create excellent garments – thanks to the sophisticated tailoring technique which has always characterized their production. Each jacket is carefully designed in every minor detail, as well as extremely soft and comfortable. However, their major strength is precisely their essentiality, which makes them a must-have for anybody wanting a sartorial jacket that has been created to be worn with nonchalance as they have no shoulder pads nor lining.
We sat down with Mr. Marco Re, Boglioli’s Creative Director, to learn more about the care for details, the inspiration that is coming from both tradition and innovation as well as the future direction of the Boglioli brand.
What is your own creative background and history at Boglioli?
I was born and grew up in Parma. First, I started to work in a clothing store where I became responsible for the development of their private label. I began to collaborate with clothing companies specialized in different product categories, such as Cantarelli and Incotex. In the mid-1990s, I worked with Romeo Gigli for several seasons, where I reached the maturity as a designer and the ability to attain a complete vision of the collection. A further step to develop my creative skills was a collaboration with major Italian luxury brands such as Corneliani and Brunello Cuccinelli. Around the mid-2000s, I joined Boglioli for the first time, working closely with Pierluigi “Gigi” Boglioli. The brand’s vision had taken a different direction for a few years and I left the company, only to come back to Boglioli as a Creative Director. My aim is to bring back all the know-how and historicity of the brand, starting a new development towards defining, what was once known as the true Boglioli style.
Tell us a bit about the most recent collection and its inspiration?
Our current S/S 20 collection, entitled The Artist’s Studio, offers slightly wider fit, and our fabrics are designed, built, and tested to respond to contemporary customer’s needs with the aim to combine high performance with an elegant and precious style of living. The art has always influenced my approach to fashion, and a meeting with the New York-based artist Jan Frank about a year ago was an immediate inspiration. The power of colors on his large-scale paintings, in contrast with the obvious calm and naturalness of a relaxed approach in his studio – instantly found their synthesis in the new Boglioli collection. A painter's atelier is a magical place, an unreal place, a sort of limbo that lets its visitor escape from the chaos of urban and city life. Immerse in a fantastic, pure, and impalpable world surrounded by works of art, wonderful colors inside an orderly disorder. This is the true Boglioli style.
What are your own three wardrobe favorites from the recent collection and why?
The first one is the garment-dyed K-jacket in cashmere and silk: a jacket that combines luxury, lightness, and comfort... a product that sums up the Boglioli's DNA. Second is the polo shirt in garment-dyed linen, very fresh and colorful in a relaxed, yet sophisticated style. Finally, there is one inevitable item for the summer: our baby corduroy Bermuda shorts to be worn every day at the beach as if they were a swimsuit.
Brown Luxury Lightweight Cashmere K-Jacket
Light Sky Blue Linen Jersey Polo Shirt
White Baby Corduroy Bermuda Shorts
Boglioli is known for its dressed-down tailoring, the K-jacket in particular. Where are you taking the brand now?
Boglioli style is the way of dressing with the ambition to create something new with an avant-garde, revolutionary spirit – starting from present knowledge and craftsmanship. We define ourselves through “effortless style”, with the ability to combine elegance and comfort in an exceptionally natural way. Our research into materials and colors have always been the starting point for our collections. The materials we use are exclusive, designed, and made specifically for us. The technique of "garment-dyeing" is an iconic and distinctive characteristic of the Boglioli style, and we are first and foremost inspired by the nature that surrounds us. The very same technique is applied to our sweaters, jumpers, shirts, and trousers, with intense or natural color hues making every garment absolutely unique.
In addition, our garments must always feel soft and pleasant to the touch, as we were the first to develop a completely unstructured jacket in garment-dyed cashmere. This is a part of our history and heritage. Sustainability is also an important factor, which is why we are designing entirely eco-sustainable capsule collections for the coming seasons. However, what excites us the most at the moment, is the research in new production processes within the natural garment-dyeing techniques. It is fine materials, craftsmanship, and the ability to innovate and invent new production processes that are our brand’s cornerstones.
Due to Covid-19, the whole fashion industry was heavily affected. How do you plan to realign collections with your online store, boutiques, and your factory in Italy?
The upcoming collections will continue even more cohesive process, in order to achieve greater effectiveness and the style identity of the brand. It is of the highest importance that our collections are able to convey a clear stylistic message without dispersing higher costs and energy invested. The direction we developed in recent seasons is already bringing positive results and we are assured that we will be able to deliver even better results to all our stakeholders. Furthermore, the current situation has accelerated the process in the development of eco-sustainable capsules, that will gradually integrate with the rest of the collection. Our greatest challenge, since we have always been specialists in the garment-dyeing techniques, is to be able to make this process as sustainable as possible.
Finally, what’s your personal philosophy on style?
I believe that the style should never feel forced, but always stay current. The Boglioli man is instinctively unconventional and sophisticated as he fully embraces the spirit of the moment by discreetly taking pleasure in living his life to the fullest. When creating those garments, I think of an intelligent and well-informed man who seeks items that will endure the test of time, yet with the quality and the contemporary details that are equally important as aesthetics. An effortless style is precious and rare, that is what I am trying to achieve with each and every Boglioli creation.