We cut from 33 mills and merchants, 26 of them in Europe. Two mill books sit in our Shanghai stock, 162 Zegna styles and 40 Vitale Barberis Canonico Four Seasons styles, and almost everything else is a special order placed against a confirmed job.
Below is what we hold, what we order in and how the timing changes between the two.
Zegna and Vitale Barberis Canonico in Shanghai
The Zegna rack holds 99 Trofeo styles and 63 Traveller styles. Trofeo is for occasion suits, and Traveller is a high-twist merino for clients who travel. Other Zegna books, Cross Ply, Vicuña and Tropical among them, are not on our rack.
Our Vitale Barberis Canonico stock is 40 Four Seasons styles. That is the one VBC book we hold, all of it year-round business suiting.
Held cloth goes straight into production, with 14 days from the confirmed order, plus shipping.
Our own house book
Corsini LANA Four Seasons is our house book: 85 fabrics in a 280 g four-season Australian merino, 100% wool. It sits in Shanghai next to the two mill books and goes into the same 14 days in production.
Suiting names on special order
We order the houses below against a confirmed job, so the order goes in once your client commits.
| Name | Country | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Loro Piana | Italy | Sold first as a luxury brand and also a fabric name; no public bunch book |
| Dormeuil | France | Paris cloth house; none in our Shanghai stock |
| Holland & Sherry | United Kingdom | London house trading through Savile Row |
| Scabal | Belgium | Brussels merchant that also owns a weaving mill in Huddersfield |
| Drago | Italy | Mill in Lessona, Biella, that spins, weaves and finishes on one site |
| Reda | Italy | Biella mill, vertically integrated back to its own merino stations in New Zealand |
| Guabello | Italy | Single-site Biella mill in Mongrando, inside the Marzotto Group |
| Fratelli Tallia di Delfino | Italy | Biella wool mill at Strona |
| Piacenza | Italy | Biella mill for cashmere, camel hair and vicuña; noble fibre bunches carry the mill's own minimum |
| Lanificio F.lli Cerruti | Italy | The Biella wool mill; a Paris fashion label shares the name and is a separate business |
| Carnet | Italy | Weaves its own cloth, so the loom sits in the company whose name is on the selvedge |
| Stylbiella | Italy | Biella name, ordered directly from its current bunch |
| Ariston | Italy | Naples merchant known for linen, silk-linen and printed cloth; ordered by the cut length |
| Caccioppoli | Italy | Naples merchant that buys finished cloth, largely from Biella mills, and adds its own selvedge mark |
| Dugdale Bros & Co | United Kingdom | Independently owned Huddersfield cloth merchant; the selvedge says Made in Huddersfield |
| Huddersfield Fine Worsteds | United Kingdom | Several historic Yorkshire cloth houses under one name; ask which house a bunch comes from |
| Marling & Evans | United Kingdom | English mill known for undyed natural-colour wool; an identical repeat of a shade is not guaranteed |
| Gladson | USA | New York merchant buying from mills including Vitale Barberis Canonico and Reda |
| Officine Paladino | Italy | Young merchant sourcing treated wool from mills in Italy and England |
Shirting and other cloth
Solbiati (Italy) supplies linen, and Brisbane Moss (United Kingdom) weaves corduroy and moleskin.
Shirting is ordered by the metre against a confirmed order. The names are Thomas Mason, from Italy's Albini Group; Alumo in Switzerland; Söktaş in Turkey; and USW-Shirtex, a Montreal wholesaler of Italian shirting cloth.
Linings come from Distinctive Linings, which sells them as individual designs. Den Vi, Dino Filarte, Jorge Carli, Marzoni and Shivas are on our list as well.
Mill or merchant?
A mill spins, weaves and finishes its own cloth. A merchant buys finished cloth and sells it under its own name, often with its own selvedge mark, and some merchants rebind mill cloth into their own books: Gladson, for example, sells a "Best of Vitale Barberis Canonico" collection bound into a Gladson volume.
Both kinds of cloth are genuine. What matters is knowing which one you are selling, so the answer you give your client holds up if he checks it. How to tell real mill cloth from a copy goes through the checks one by one.
How special-order timing works
The mill or merchant ships the cloth to Shanghai on its own schedule. Our 14 days in production start once it arrives, and shipping to you comes after that.
If a reference cannot be had, we tell you. The delivery page sets out timing for held and special-order cloth side by side.
Where we stand with the mills
We buy cloth as a customer of each mill and merchant, the same as any tailoring house, and we are not an authorised dealer, licensee or representative of any of them. Italian Mill Suits is not a mill. The suits are made in our own workshop in Shanghai, China, and the label states the country of origin.
Your order documents carry the bunch and reference number of the cloth.
What to do next
The minimum order is one piece. Ask on WhatsApp for swatches of the held books, or send the bunch and reference your client wants and we will quote it.
The full cloth list is on the cloth page, pricing has the CMT and full package rates (CMT is the one to use if you hold your own cloth), and you can get in touch from the contact page.