When one thinks of Italian sartoria, the brands that immediately come to mind are those classically elegant tailoring houses of the south, Naples especially, who have handed down the craft and expertise from generation to generation, each successive time cementing the codes of the original founder. But to overlook the new wave of tailoring invention being cut from Italian cloth would be to close one's eyes to a wealth of talent and creativity, and one which is swelling by the day. Foremost among the disrupters of the Italian menswear scene today is Doppiaa, which takes its name 'Double A' from the first names of its founders, Alain Fracassi and long-time friend Albert Carreras (son of the lauded Spanish tenor José Carreras.)
Having founded the brand in 2015, Fracassi and Carreras have already made a significant impression on the menswear market and on us here at The Rake, precisely because they reinterpret the classic tenets of Italian tailoring in favour of a more modern approach to colour and pattern. Soft tailoring, tailoring 2.0, sprezzatura reinvented... call it what you want, but Doppiaa has very quickly defined a niche in the market for high quality smart casual clothing at a very reasonable price. From their flagship store on Milan's Via Dell Spiga, Doppiaa channels Fracassi's family history (his father founded a Brescia-based tailoring retail business in 1969) with Carreras' business acumen, creating a refreshingly new take on how to wear classic silhouettes and fabrics in ways that haven't been approached before.
