Interview With Jake Grantham Of Anglo-Italian
Our latest addition are ready-to-wear sport jackets made with Anglo-Italian fabrics — two unique pieces in winter wool hopsack and brown tonal glen check.
These fabrics follows their mantra of wearable but classic, produced with an emphasis on texture, drape and finished with the process for a matte and marled appearance. Read our interview with Jake Grantham, Co-founder of Anglo-Italian, to know more about the fabrics we used.
What does heritage mean for you? Your inspiration comes from both Italy and England, in which way?
I take the majority of my influence from the era in which Italians were looking to the English for their inspiration, worshipping the weight and body of British wool and design whilst de-constructing the jackets and approaching a garment's drape and proportions in a more convivial way. By working with small independent weavers throughout the UK and Italy we are able to achieve finishing and weaving processes suited to our style of garment whilst bringing a sensibility and palette that is a decidedly English look.
Tell us about your house style and its details, especially in your recent project – Anglo-Italian Bespoke?
Across our tailoring offering, we offer the same distinct house style, with the round shapes of a natural shoulder and low hanging drape making for a softly constructed piece of tailoring. This roundness is offset by the straight lines of the extended front darts, lapel shape and deep V that is given by our low-button position. I've been fortunate to work in bespoke tailoring throughout my career, with both Italian and English makers. I want the ecosystem and art of bespoke tailoring to survive in London. This is a small way of contributing to that.
How do your own fabrics fit into your house style in terms of design and function for contemporary men?
Our aesthetic relies on a soft construction, supported by cloth with heft. I like open fabric that is heavily milled to give texture, and really buries the colours in the weave. It produces muddy tones and removes any shine from the cloth - giving versatility and a contemporary feeling to classic patterns and tones.
Anglo-Italian is young but already well-known in terms of its aesthetics. Which products are you looking into now, and what can we expect from Anglo-Italian in near future?
The challenge is how to grow our aesthetic across other categories. We've worked hard on our outerwear, which I'm particularly proud of this season - developing pieces in a range of heavy wools, suedes and technical fabrics that are rugged, classic yet relevant to our wider offering. We are putting the final touches together for spring and summer, further de-constructing, developing and reworking our roster of pieces whilst using custom-developed, lighter weight materials to evolve the look further.
At Lund & Lund, we just made a single-breasted midnight blue club blazer with brass buttons and a brown glen plaid sport coat, in your wonderful fabrics. How would you pair them/wear them with other items of your choice?
Firstly, thank you. I'm extremely flattered to see our brew of cloth being utilized in Sweden, home to many of our customers whilst sadly a place I've never been. Both cloths are milled and matte enough to be worn either way, dressed up with flannels or cords or down with denim and chinos. The great thing about putting our cloth out in the wild is how it is received and interpreted by others. So thank you again.
