Celebrating 90 Years: How Canali’s Subtle Evolution Defines Modern Luxury
There has been no shortage of bumps on the road to Canali marking its momentous 90th anniversary. The made-in-Italy luxury brand was founded in 1934 by brothers Giovanni and Giacomo Canali—the first, the director of a textile factory, and the second, a tailor. In the nine decades since, the business has witnessed a calamitous world war, a radical change in the way men dress, and a once-in-a-century pandemic.
Through it all, Canali has maintained its status as a family business, now in its third generation under the leadership of CEO Stefano Canali, and has remained committed to 100-percent Italian manufacturing in an era of widespread offshoring. And while its present offering—best embodied by a just-released 90th Anniversary Capsule Collection—may look a bit different from the garments that Giovanni and Giacomo might have proposed, the brand continues to be guided by what Stefano calls its eight pillars: made in Italy, care, respect, excellence, whispered luxury, heritage, innovation, and inner beauty.
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What has been the key to preserving these pillars though a near-century of constant change? In Stefano’s thinking, it’s all about evolution—but not revolution.
“I’m convinced that evolution is the right way to approach the way you want to change and update a 90-year-old brand,” he tells Robb Report. “According to our experience and according to what we saw as far as other brands are concerned, revolution never pays off.”
It’s a wise strategy for a business that’s been rocked by outside revolutions on several occasions but has managed to successfully pivot each time without losing its sense of self. The first was the shock of World War II, which put a halt to the early success Canali had enjoyed under its founding generation. The second generation responded by ingeniously harnessing the technical fabrics that emerged post war and applying them to traditional overcoat silhouettes to produce functional, weatherproof outerwear, eventually becoming a leader in the raincoat business.
When the cultural changes of the 1960s pushed these tailored raincoats out of style, Canali returned to its roots—the sartorial suit—and soon presented it to a new market: the United States. In the late 1970s, American men were just becoming attuned to the finer points of tailoring and quality signifiers like full-canvas construction, and Canali entered the market at an auspicious time.
“It was a sort of marriage made in heaven” says Stefano, adding that the U.S. quickly became Canali’s largest market, a distinction it retains today.
This brings us to what Stefano refers to as the brand’s “third turning point”—the pandemic. In the wake of its transformative changes to dress codes and workplaces, Canali’s earlier decision to update its product offering and embrace its new status as a true lifestyle brand capable of outfitting its customer for any occasion or situation has been vindicated.
This latest direction is richly represented in the scope of the 90th Anniversary Capsule Collection, which seamlessly presents Super 160s wool suits and belted trench coats beside T-shirts, baseball caps, and sneakers. What unites these disparate-seeming items is a commitment not only to Italian manufacturing, but also to the use of fine sartorial fabrics, such as the cotton-silk blend used in the make of the aforementioned T-shirt, or the rich blend of wool and suede that constitutes the sneakers’ upper.
“We really did our best, and we’ll keep on doing our best in order to make sure that the DNA of Canali will be preserved over time,” Stefano says. “So, if Canali is known for high-quality sartorial suits, we want to make sure that our customers will fall in love with whatever new garments will be proposed by us in the upcoming years.”
All of this leaves a final question. In a world where a man might wear anything from a two-piece suit to a crewneck tee during the workday, what’s left to guide how he might shop for each? For Stefano, the answer lies in how said garment has been made—no matter how formal or informal it may be—and whether its construction and quality properly communicate that most important value in dressing.
“At the end of the day,” says Stefano, “proposing a quality piece of clothing is a form of respect.”
Respect is just one value, among many others, that we imagine Canali will continue to champion for its next 90 years.
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