If you have ever been to Milan, you have undoubtedly done a double-take at the elegant women of all ages in full skirts and high heels who breeze along the city’s cobblestone streets aboard their old-school Rossignoli bicycles. That effortless and very distinctive Milanese look would not be complete without a heavily starched cotton poplin shirt by Aspesi, a high-end Italian equivalent of J. Crew that flies on a very low radar. Alberto Aspesi started his career in 1967 but began the Aspesi brand in 1981. He’s a mutineer entrepreneur who has repeatedly declared his disdain for the fashion system, as Aspesi could care less about fancy PR tricks or seasonal trends. His sportswear company points singularly at product; in particular, his famous shirting for both men and women that is crafted from Super 100 Japanese cotton, an extremely dense, finely woven fabric that gives these high-quality shirts their distinctive, glossy sheen.
“There’s a whole history of Italian culture that Mr. Aspesi brings into every detail,” says Lawrence Steele, a women’s wear designer at the company. “The shape and stiffness of the collar, the classic size of the mother-of-pearl buttons that have four holes and not two, the tiniest stitching possible, all of it is deeply studied.”
The perfection has made converts not only of Milan’s polished gentlemen, but also its most discerning women. Aspesi shirts (both the women’s versions with curved hems and the classic men’s versions) can be found in the closets of every Cool Sciura in town (including formidable retailers Pupi Solari and Rosy Biffi, Moschino muse Rosella Jardini, and journalist Donata Sartorio), not to mention the rest of us who want to look as beautifully turned as they do. Here, we bring you a selection of traditional Aspesi shirts layered with boatloads of vintage jewelry, worn with the kind of exuberance for which we worship our Italian fairy godmothers.
J.J. Martin
