The Suit that made me love suits: Brioni.
Is Brioni the Best Suit Maker in the World?
Brioni was the suit that made me fall in love with suits
It’s 1995. After a six-year hiatus, James Bond is back — and it’s kind of a big deal.
There’s a new Bond (Pierce Brosnan, the suavest of all Brosnans), a new car (BMW, because apparently Aston Martin needed a break), and — perhaps most importantly — a new suit maker: Brioni.
As a red-blooded teenage guy, Bond was supposed to be the blueprint. He had everything: the cars, the gadgets, the ability to kill people with household items, and, of course, the best suits money could buy. But here’s the thing — up until GoldenEye, Bond was more concept than connection for me.
Timothy Dalton? Respectfully, not my guy. I was six when Licence to Kill came out, so it didn’t hit. But in 1995, when girls, cars, and clothes started to matter, Brosnan’s Bond hit like a revelation.
A Departure from Savile Row
A British Icon wearing Roman Tailoring
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From Savile Row to Speed: Why Bond Ditched the Brits
For decades, every Bond suit was Savile Row bespoke — handcrafted by the best tailors in the world. But when GoldenEye came around, that approach just didn’t fit (pun intended).
Savile Row tailors are built for one-on-one artistry, not cinematic deadlines. They make one suit at a time, by hand, for one client. Bond, on the other hand, needed dozens of suits — ready for running, shooting, exploding, and occasionally seducing — all on a tight film schedule.
Enter Brioni.
The Italian powerhouse could do what Savile Row couldn’t: deliver luxury craftsmanship at scale. They had pedigree, polish, and production speed. They were fast and flawless — which, coincidentally, is exactly what Bond needed to be too.
My First Brioni: The Full-Circle Moment
Fast-forward a few decades. I’m now deep in the custom tailoring world, making bespoke suits for a living. One day, I finally got the chance (and the bank account) to have my own Brioni made-to-measure suit, tailored in their Rome atelier.
The experience was everything I dreamed it would be. I felt like royalty — or at least like an Italian CEO who owned multiple speedboats. The tailor noted every nuance: the pitch of my shoulders, the roll of my stance, even how my arm naturally hangs when I’m not thinking about it.
Twelve weeks later, the suit arrived. Perfectly pressed. Perfectly cut. Perfectly… perfect. It felt like my career had come full circle — from that kid in Hacienda Heights who touched a Zegna suit for the first time, to a grown man holding his own piece of Italian artistry.
To this day, it’s one of my proudest professional moments.
Why Brioni Still Sets the Bar
Here’s what most people don’t realize: Brioni still hand-makes everything. I mean everything. Every seam, shoulder, and piece of internal canvas is sewn by hand. Even the little details — buttonholes, hems, waistbands — are all handcrafted.
Each suit takes around 40 hours to make. That’s not marketing fluff — that’s old-school precision.
The first time I really studied a Brioni suit (after becoming a tailor myself), I took one apart. Literally dissected it piece by piece. What I found blew me away:
Every stitch matched the grain and hand of the ultra-light Super 180’s fabric.
The tension of the handwork was perfectly balanced — something even experienced bespoke tailors struggle with.
And the pattern? Not a single straight line. Every cut had a soft curve, echoing the shape of the human body.
That’s why Brioni jackets look like they’re alive — they move like you, not against you.
Pierce Brosnan getting custom fitted in a suit for the move Golden Eye by a Brioni master tailor.
The Legacy
In the 1950s, Savile Row represented structure, formality, and power. It was tailoring as discipline — an exoskeleton of prestige.
Brioni, on the other hand, represented freedom. Their suits were lighter, softer, expressive — a rebellion wrapped in wool.
They didn’t just redefine Italian tailoring; they redefined how men dress, period. Every time you put on a suit that feels effortless, modern, and natural, you’re wearing a piece of Brioni’s legacy — whether you realize it or not.
So yeah, Bond might have changed his car and his gadgets, but the real upgrade? That Brioni suit.
And for the rest of us mere mortals, it’s proof that great tailoring — when done right — can still make you feel like the hero in your own story.