Peerless custom-made shirts
His favorite fabric? Oxford cloth, with its wonderfully light texture, colored warp threads and white weft threads, and that unmistakable weave effect that makes for an immediate, and unmistakable, youthful chic.
The way Simone Abbarchi touches fabrics, evaluating and weighing them with his fingertips, or measuring up close and cutting, is the telltale sign of his virtuosity. His careful stroke, and attentive glance, are those of a master craftsman.
A composer of choice beauty, an artisan who cultivates the art of handcrafting bespoke gentlemen’s shirts in the heart of Renaissance Florence. Committed to his job, and to doing it perfectly, Simone is inspired by beauty, and dedicated to handcrafting it with every single shirt he makes.
It all started in 1987, when a time-honored Florentine craftsman taught Simone the secrets and techniques which lie behind making superlative gentlemen’s shirts. Passion, hard work, mastery and proficiency came next. They blended with the most outstanding poplin and cotton fabrics, such as Thomas Mason, Albini 1876 and Canclini, as well as superb silks, which came to life as Simone Abbarchi’s signature shirts.
In 1997 Simone found his haven, an evocative dwelling nestled in the winding side streets between the Ponte Vecchio and boutique-studded Via de’ Tornabuoni. A cosy haunt rising within the premises of a nineteenth-century building where the Bagni delle Antiche Terme, i.e. the Ancient Thermal Baths, constructed by Antonio Peppini above the remnants of the ancient Roman thermal baths Floretia.
An enchanting spot for a new Florentine bottega, a uniquely fascinating atelier, in Borgo Santissimi Apostoli, just steps away from the Arno river. A dedicated workshop in the pretty residential Cure neighbourhood, with 7 expert seamstresses and tailors, was added to the bottega in the year 2000.
Today, the atelier and workshop handcraft around 4000 custom-made shirts each year. Only gentlemen’s shirts. Because being the best, rather than the biggest, is what Simone Abbarchi is all about.
Creating superior world class shirts that can last a lifetime, providing their owners with elegance and finesse, is his mission and talent. And it shows. Simone’s made to measure shirts are authentic handcrafted masterpieces, and his city center atelier is an enchanted oasis of creative talent and skilled artistry. As each new, or regular, client approaches, the yardsticks, measuring tape, scissors, and rolls of precious fabrics come to life in the master’s hands, becoming a whole with each discerning customer’s personality, tastes, and most intimate preferences.
With a glance, and a swift movement, Simone capably selects and suggests buttons, wrist cut options and shirt collar styles, aiming to provide each client the ones most adequate to suit his personal, distinctive, physical characteristics. Selections include horn buttons and mother-of-pearl ones, shirts made for cufflinks and a variety of different solutions for wrists. He studies each fit meticulously, designing and fashioning the shirts based on each customer’s singular anatomical features. Once all measurements are taken, and fabrics and accessory details chosen, Simone starts creating, with unending enthusiasm and zealous fervor. In fact… a brand new client’s test shirt can be put together in just 24 hours!
Personally meeting each client, and taking measurements by hand, is a must. Just as handcrafting each single piece. “We do all there is to do ourselves, hands-on, scrupulously. Pleasing our clients and meeting the standards of elegance is crucial, so we offer endless possibilities for collars and wrists, take care of any possible fit defect, and recommend suitable buttons” says Simone, explaining his vision.
Hence, most of his time is spent in the atelier, or at the workshop, although a few trunk shows have brought him to London, New York and the Far East several times over the last few years. “To create veritable bespoke excellence one must have the opportunity to meet people. I don’t really believe in online” declares Simone, who hopes to have a chance to travel abroad again soon, and further present his unique art.
A centuries-old legacy of craftsmanship. A passion for beauty, elegance and style. These are the calling cards of Italian tailoring, a long-practiced art which offers made-to-measure items, handcrafted using fabrics of the highest quality and superior Italian accessory features.
Painstaking attention to detail, and scrupulous tailoring, honor the tradition of Italian textile craftsmanship, famous worldwide for its utmost quality and elegance. Thanks to Simone Abbarchi’s art, alongside that of many other craftsmen, Italy’s traditional heritage lives on, endowing future generations with a taste for gentility.
