In an interview with Vogue.com, prior to the unveil of his debut Brioni collection, new creative director, Justin O’Shea delivered insight into what he sees for the future of the brand. A storied fashion house, known for its tailoring, O’Shea hopes to give the label a punch in the personality department. The former MyTheresa women’s buying director explains, “Basically it’s pretty simple. The first thing I wanted to do was to make the suit cool again.”
O’Shea alludes to the 50s and 70s when Hollywood legends such as John Wayne and Clark Gable wore Brioni. Honing in on the suit, he says, “They made it cool and made it fun. You didn’t wear Brioni because you had to, you wore it because you wanted to. And that is kind of what I want to really emphasize in all shows, especially in the first show, that the suit is a fashion item.”
While the suit may be on the decline, according to news from the Wall Street Journal, O’Shea has other thoughts. He conveys, “It is not only to go to work in or for the formality purposes. It’s just the way that a man should look.” Perhaps, this idea was tackled with Brioni’s newest advertising campaign, which features an unlikely champion for Brioni’s new Continental suit–the legendary rock band Metallica.
Talking more about the season’s theme and what he brings to the table, O’Shea continues, “I also want to be more fun. In the past [the rhetoric of tailoring] has probably been a little boring. A little dry. You know how geeky menswear can get? You know what it’s like! But it should be pimp! It should be fun! It should be fucking awesome! It should make guys be like ‘That’s so cool!’ [I want to] make people get emotional about it, which is what women do when they love shows—they go bananas!”
