Welcome back to the Gentleman's Gazette. In today's video, we'll discuss
taking a seasonal approach to your menswear wardrobe
and the Italian philosophy of Scorpacciata.
The influence that Italy has had on classic menswear is
obvious from things like the soft shoulders of summer sport coats
to the Milanese buttonhole on high-end suits.
This is also evident in the various vocabulary terms used by menswear
enthusiasts such as "sprezzatura" for the nonchalant
style of dressing favored by Italian men as well as
"spezzato" which is the advanced style technique of pairing elements of
two different suits together. In today's video, then we'll add a third of these
Italian S words to our menswear vocabulary.
Scorpacciata. So what is Scorpacciata then? Well, it
typically refers to a sort of seasonal indulgence. In particular, the
celebration of food that happens to be in season at any
given time. As an example, in Italy, chestnuts are
harvested in late October and around this time,
many villages and towns will have a festival or
"Sagra" to celebrate it. The chestnuts are often served roasted in paper cones
or ground into flour and turned into cake studded with pine nuts or crepes
filled with sweet ricotta cheese. Everyone will indulge in this
great seasonal bounty and then with the season
it ends. The same goes for things like olives,
grapes, asparagus, or strawberries. They can be bought
out of season in supermarkets, of course, but people will try to avoid this
and there isn't really the same sense of indulging in the food and
digging in with gusto as there is when things are in
peak season. But of course, with a few exceptions we're not really a food
channel. So how does this concept, specifically, relate to clothing?
Essentially, scorpacciata in menswear means really
savoring different types of clothes that are especially appropriate for a given
season. Now, for those who are new to menswear or
who don't really care much about style, the ideal garment is probably going to
be the all-season suit. Suits like these are typically made of a
mid-weight worsted wool and can be purchased and then worn all
year-long indiscriminately. And for the especially
casual, a pair of something like denim jeans might fall into the same
category. You can wear them year-round and they're
versatile enough to pair with almost any casual outfit so you don't have to
think about introducing a lot of variety. However, anyone who is seasonally
inclined will relish the chance to wear different
things in the winter, spring, summer, and fall seasons when the
weather starts getting cool. A menswear aficionado might look forward to wearing
flannels and tweed sport coats with cashmere ties in the same way that a
foodie looks forward to white truffle season
and conversely, when the weather warms up, he then gets excited about the
opportunity to wear linen loafers and Panama hats again.
This is reflected in his wardrobe as he'll have collections of clothes for
the warm season and the cold season as well as a number of transitional pieces
that can be worn equally well when things are in between.
In the broad strokes then, there are two main appeals to the concept of
scorpacciata within menswear. The first of these is that it's
temporary because each season has a start and an end, you
find the limited time in which you can wear
certain garments well to be more precious
and thus you can relish wearing certain garments for a few months at a time and
then put them away until next year. On the
opposite side of this coin though, the second big appeal to the concept is
that even though things are temporary, they're in a rigid cycle
so even though you have to appreciate wearing certain garments in a given
season, when you put them away, you can look
forward to that same season next year as well and get a same sense
of renewed pleasure year after year and season after season.
That's a bit of an overview on what the concept of seasonality
is in the world of classic menswear. So what
isn't it then? We should point out here that
dressing for the season doesn't mean following
fashions in this context. Oftentimes, when we hear the phrase
dressing for the season we think of the latest fashions that might have come
down runways but this is really something more within
the realm of cutting-edge or high-fashion which is somewhat opposite
to the more classically based world of menswear. So you can still follow the
philosophy of scorpacciata without following what's in, in any given
year. The key is remembering that you're
dressing for any summer or any winter and not being dictated by
fashion houses trying to sell you the latest trends.
With what seasonality is and isn't out of the way then,
let's now cover what seasonality looks like at different times throughout the
year. First, we'll cover warm weather dressing
for the spring and summer months means a focus on staying
cool and having maximum air circulation with your outfits.
This would involve things like changing the fabrics you're going to wear
to high twist or tropical walls, frescos and linens for pants and for jackets.
Warm weather typically calls for brighter colors too
so you might put more of an emphasis on wearing white like white pants or a
white dinner jacket, for example, or go for things like brighter blues and
put away your dark navies. It also means being more
casual. This is the time to abandon neckwear and
open up your shirt collar instead of wearing a full suit. You could wear a
combination of sport coat or blazer with odd trousers
and instead of a conventional button-up, you could opt for a polo shirt.
Moving on to cold-weather dressing, your priorities are just the opposite --
staying warm and often staying dry in the autumn and winter months.
Seasonality here is perhaps a little bit more obvious
and everybody is probably going to do it. Things like putting on
boots or an overcoat or gloves when it's cold out.
However, there are also more subtle changes to incorporate into your
wardrobe here that the connoisseur of scorpacciata will appreciate.
The colder seasons are your time to master the art of
layering with things like sweaters and vests
and of course, winter is great for textures as well.
Anything that looks particularly woolly is fair game.
There's no need to rely on the standard all season printed silk tie or
super 110s worsted wool suit. You could try a flannel suit or a tweed jacket
and a cashmere tie instead. And for the true expert, there are also
degrees of difference within a particular season.
For example, in late May, you might wear a navy blue wool
and linen blend sport coat but on a hot sunny day in August,
this would seem dark and uncomfortable so you might opt for a
cream linen sport coat instead. In May, you could wear a jacket with a lining
but in the dog days of August, you're probably going to want to go for an
unlined jacket that has an open weave. You could wear a
knitted vest under a suit in December but in February, you could go for a
cardigan sweater with sleeves. The true beauty of scorpacciata then is
not only do you get differences between seasons, but also
within seasons. So, we hope that alongside
sprezzatura and spezzato, we've added scorpacciata to your menswear
lexicon. Ultimately, just like dressing for any
given occasion, dressing for the season is about looking
correct in your surroundings. So, even though the old fashioned rule of
not wearing white after labor day doesn't
have to be observed anymore, wearing white linen in the winter or for
that matter, wearing a charcoal three-piece suit in August is
ultimately something akin to eating watermelon
in January. You can do it but if you adopt a bit more
patience, you can savor the given seasonality of things
just a bit more. So whenever someone happens to compliment your flannels in
the winter or linen in the summer, remember to spread
the word and tell them all about the joys of scorpacciata.
In today's video, I've attempted to introduce a bit of this specific
seasonality into my outfit. This is most readily apparent in my
summer sport coat which is in a tan color and in linen
in a herringbone weave. Most of the other elements in my
outfit are incorporating something of a warm color feel.
We can start here with my pastel pink shirt
which has a bit of warmth but also a light and breezy color
that's appropriate for summer when we are filming this video.
My trousers are plain brown but they do have a bit of a red
undertone and my shoes from Ace Marks which are
whole cut Oxfords have a bit of an oxblood color
with a hand-painted patina. As you can see, I've gone tieless today to be
comfortable in the warmer weather and the remaining
elements of my outfit are all from Fort Belvedere.
We can start here with my pocket square which is also in linen.
It's in a particularly open weave and features
burgundy and white threads and also has a hand-rolled white
x stitch. My cornflower boutonniere is in magenta and white
for a slightly bolder pop of color that I wanted to incorporate
because I'm not wearing a tie and I did want a bolder element of interest
up toward my face. My cufflinks are platinum plated sterling silver in an
eagle claw design featuring red carnelian as the stone to
harmonize with many of the other reddish elements throughout the outfit.
My shadow striped socks are in gray and burgundy red
and my belt is part of our new Fort Belvedere belt system.
The belt itself is in bordeaux burgundy calf leather and the buckle is the model
we're calling the Jasper which has a rounded shape.
It's in a silver color to harmonize with the metal in my cufflinks.
Of course, you can find all of these accessories including the
pocket square, boutonniere, belt and buckle, socks
and cufflinks in the Fort Belvedere shop
here.