In 1898, a 16 year old man would live his township of San Michele in Bosco and make his way to Turin in order to continue a long family tradition of Bianchi men (Paride, his father and Giuliano, his grandfather) entering the tailoring trade. I’m talking about Luigi Bianchi who like his sons aEdgardo and Giuliano would later found the company of “Luigi Bianchi – Men’s Clothes and Dresses and Suits for Women” at 11 Via Pietro Fortunato Calvi in 1911 with their own sons, attracting the likes of Edward Prince of Wales with their sophisticated pret-a-porter garments.

The following decade, the haberdasher dropped the women’s line to focus on menswear before solidifying the House into “Luigi Bianchi Industrial Production”- growing from 250 employees in 1933 to 400 by 1936. In the scant two years that would follow, it would reach its peak with 500 staff, eventually settling on the name which all sartorialists recognise- LUBIAM, an acronym born from LUigi BIAnchi Mantova- a reminder of the tailors’ roots.

The best of Lubiam Fall/Winter 13/14

Today, Luigi Bianchi Mantova celebrates 100 years of tailored menswear and quite honestly, there has never been another suit company that has quite captured the fervent devotion of the #menswear style blog community perhaps save for Rose & Born. That said, Lubiam, a label comprising of a range of su misura (that’s Italian for made to measure) and ready-to-wear lines, the Italian atelier released one of the finest Fall Winter 2013-14 collections I’ve seen yet.