For Alessandro Botta, of the Drago Lanificio wool mill in Italy, fabric’s role in sartorial flair isn’t just important: it’s more akin to how a master chef sees superior ingredients. A high-quality cloth emphasizes the sartorial art of any master tailor,” he says, “and helps them transform the essence of elegance into a piece of art.”
Relatively speaking a ‘new kid on the block’, in a country replete with centuries-old weaving houses, Drago Lanificio was founded by Umberto and Laura Drago as a modest spinning company in 1973, and acquired Lanificio Fintes two decades later: the same year the founders’ children Paolo and Daniela took over. Now, as a fully integrated company, it produces more than 1.7 million meters of exceptional cloth each year, and exports them to brands and bespoke tailors all over the world (Japan, South Korea and the US in particular).
Two core philosophies underpin the company’s exponential growth. Firstly, the idea that the ultimate quality of any luxury product is dictated by what nature provides. Consider master shoemakers’ obsession with the source and suppleness of the leather they use, or the world’s top winemakers’ anxious wait each year to assess the character of the next grape harvest: Drago has the same fixation with the quality of fleece, which in large part comes down to regularity of crimp — meaning the number of, and regularity of, bends in a strand. Ideally, quality raw material should feel squeaky-soft in the hand, to the point of being almost rubbery, spongy and absorbent.
With this in mind, Drago has selected sheep farms in Australia and New Zealand, plus cashmere farms in Mongolia – altitude, pastures, native grasses and how livestock is tended are all factors that can determine choice of farm – and subjects every batch it receives to laboratory tests to guarantee that the quality falls within strict parameters concerning crimp and fineness.
“Drago has a fresh and modern approach,” Botta says – the word ‘modern’ here referring to the house constantly updating its state-of-the art weaving, carding and spinning machinery – and one which combines tradition and innovation. The innovation brought by the new generations operating within the group's factories joins forces with the vast experience of the masters they work with.” Indeed, the inheritance of techniques and skills, Botta believes, is crucial not only to Drago Lanificio’s ongoing commercial health: but the integrity of timeless style itself. The young contingent, he says, is embracing the concept hungrily. “The new generations are constantly comparing themselves with those who have carried the company’s know-how" up to now,” he says.
The results speak for themselves. The results speak for themselves. So crucial is the character and wrinkle-resistant integrity of the Super 130's Merino Wool from which it is made, that several pieces available at Anatoly & Sons are even named after them, including their best-selling Deep Black Suit and their cold weather Rugby Flannel. Another, Skyfall – a wool-silk blend created from strands of fleece which, at 14.5 microns, are finer than most cashmere – is named after a Bond movie due to its 007-worthy natural shoulders, double-vent design, and overall imperious silhouette. This pair of cavalry twill trousers, meanwhile, in Charcoal Super 130's Virgin Wool fabric, showcase Drago’s adeptness at twill cloth, charcoal and black tones having in this instance been woven together to give off a subtle sheen.
These and other pieces crafted from fabrics by Drago Lanificio beautifully embody one of our favorite menswear adages: when it comes to style, “understatedly flamboyant” is no oxymoron.
