Geoffrey B. Small

[Mojo1990]

Glad to hear you are doing well! I'm looking forward to your posts. Wish you all a safe end to the year and hopefully a far better beginning.

[Geoffrey B. Small]

Dear Mojo1990,

Sorry for the long delay again... I hope you and everyone reading here are all very well. I don't have to tell you that we are still living and working in a very special time. Things have changed in a big way for all of us and are continuing to do so. Most of fashion has failed to adapt to these changes and until things get back to "normal" - fashion as a business remains at great risk.

But the question of when getting back to "normal" will happen and even if it will, is still a big one- and being greatly debated by experts all over the world. In the meantime, any serious master in the field knows that we must deal with the reality we are still in, and it is far from over. Since the pandemic first started to break out here in Europe we have been in a long, tough fight for our lives... and a race to completely transform our company to not only be able to survive during the pandemic but to prepare itself to grow in a post-Covid 19 world where much is at stake- including the very survival of the fine Art of making real handmade clothes. So after much thought and discussion with our clients, we started our revolutionary Geoffrey B. Small Evolution Concept Program for 2021. Some of you who follow us as clients or on our Instagram pages may already have heard something about it, but I would like to begin discuss it in more depth here on SZ.

The concept of GBS Evolution was to adapt to these changes, survive them, and build into a new level of growth not by doing what so many other brands and designers have been doing--going to e-commerce and selling directly to the public and competing directly with their wholesale clients, or desperately trying to force buyers to come to showrooms and fashion weeks at a time when nothing could be more stupid, irresponsible or dangerous- and then loading their stores up with far too much of the wrong merchandise simply to keep their factories going at the expense of the stores. But instead, working more closely than ever with the best multimark designer retailers in the world, in a manner that resembles a working relationship that is more like a single-brand store, design and manufacturing system than an independent Paris designer collection and multi-label retailer relationship. Rather than cannibalize, we aim to grow the market overall allowing our partners to benefit and prosper with us.

After having an amazing year in 2020 inspite of the terrible challenges being faced, we knew more than ever that we could do this because of our totally unique position and capability in the industry which gives us 100% control of all aspects of design, production and wholesale distribution in-house, combined with over 40 years of hands-on industry experience, and the best workoom tailoring team and organization and material and component suppliers in the world today. Our ability to change, innovate, create and produce short-volume product at unparalled levels of value and quality are unmatched by any other brand or designer or production firm in the industry. And our ability to help and support our best dealers to adapt and cultivate a new growing clientele and business at retail is absolutely unique as well.

Evolution is exactly what the word means. A step by step development of just-in-time, close to season, quick delivery, design-order-production system that provides our best and most loyal and committed dealers with a regular program of deliveries that both refresh and enhance their offerings to their customers on a super-timely basis. The idea is to have the right pieces, in the right store, at the right time--to minimize waste at all corners, and to work tightly between designer and retailer to constantly evolve the product offering in a way that keeps the GBS customer loyal to the store... always coming back... and bringing new GBS customers into the same store, because it is always exciting, fresh, timely and a sure and trusted long-term value no matter what GBS piece he or she decides to buy. Excellence, value and trust will prevail, and the customers will recognize it during these difficult and challenging times and grow their business with us a result.


More sales across less dealers

Make no mistake about it, GBS Evolution marked a new level of brand commitment and investment in service to our dealers that is unprecedented in the history of the fashion industry. Imagine having the most advanced design and tailoring organization working in the world today backing up and supplying a store with exactly what its best clients need at every moment of the year for their wardrobes and their loved ones, no more and no less--and you can begin to get an idea of the power of what is possible. It does not come for free however, in addition to the sheer skill technical, artistic and operational capability to pull it off-- it also requires investment, commitment and focus... and to do that we did 2 things that need to be noted well. First, we reduced the number of GBS dealers in the world based upon their performances, behavior and strategic buying decisions during the pandemic last year. Stores that panicked and degraded their image and quality by either cancelling their orders with us, or loading up on lower level GBS Copy-cat artisan and/or brainless corporate luxury and streetwear brands- clearly failed to adequately pay attention and serve the growing GBS customer interest and demand at a critical time, and by necessity and in the interests of our customers and performing dealers, were and are being dropped. With the explosion of online purchasing being driven by the pandemic - these dealer cuts will directly benefit all remaining dealer partners dramatically--and GBS customers will be assured of better selection, product knowledge, follow-through and service when they need to find, acquire or service their GBS pieces. Simply put, less will be more.


The new GBS Superworkrooms: a massive new investment
to support our dealers better than ever before




The new GBS superworkrooms represent well over a 6-figure euro investment in state-of-the-art new plant & equipment
to support our customers better than ever before and cultivate the continued growth & development of our people and
our extreme handmade clothing technologies, design & excellence.


This principle is being further augmented with the incredible and historic investment our firm has been making during the pandemic crisis. On 6 November 2020 after more than 8 months of research, our firm signed leasehold contracts on a new 400 square meter (4000 square feet) facility, soon to be expanded to 700 square meters (7000 square feet) on the outskirts of Cavarzere Venezia where we are building the most advanced handmade clothing workroom superfactory in the history of tailoring. With signed options to expand in 2021, 2022, and beyond, to a maximum of 1500 square meters (15000 square feet), GBS has invested well into the six figures in euros to build a new state-of-the-art design and production center dedicated to bringing our extreme handmade clothing and sustainable design technologies and capacities to an entirely new level. The new facility is allowing us to support and serve our dealers in way that has never been done before from Evolution, to expanded VIP Special Order services, to improved capacities and turnarounds--all designed to provide more and more service, quality, innovation and satisfaction for the growing number of GBS customers worldwide. Since November, construction and plant and equipment teams worked diligently on the site to get it ready and operational. In the meantime, the Evolution program still moved ahead from our old workrooms at Via Spalato where we began our launches for China and Japan in January, to our new superfactory in February where we began to introduce the revolutionary new concept and service to Europe, North America and Hong Kong, and the results have been nothing less than remarkable.

Now, as we approach the midpoint of this year 2021, I will try to catch up SZ readers more on this amazing new story with a new series of posts in the days and weeks ahead that I am finally able to begin to prepare. In the meantime, feel free to PM me with anyquestions you might have with many thanks to Faust and Ahimsa for keeping it all going on their side.

Thank you so much for reading.



Best wishes,


Geoffrey
& the entire GBS team

[Geoffrey B. Small]

The real inspiration for Evolution was quite personal and involved a colleague who passed away recently- however, I do not want to get into that at this time- and will be focusing on other aspects instead.

Designing for Covid has been nothing less than a battle to survive and keep sustaining the myriad of people depending on our firm and its work for their own financial survival, from our employees to our suppliers and their families. Creativity depends first on being able to practice your work at all. That means any serious designer out there has had to sell during Covid, and that is no easy task. Witness how many are out. As Philip Johnson stated..."the first job of the architect is not to design the building. the first job of the architect is to get the job." With some 35 employees, 100 suppliers, more taxes than you can possibly imagine, and the future of our metier on the line.... the pressure back in March of 2020 was immense. We couldn't save everyone. After about a month in total lockdown and isolation our young international team resigned to go back home to their families, and our insufficiently developed PR/communications department was closed. Among them were some really great talented people, and we miss them. But you need more than talent to get through a crisis like this one. And it got worse, safety and operating laws changed overnight. A workplace that previously could have 30+ persons suddenly was limited to ten, and if you didn't comply--the authorities would shut you down. So as we were trying to find a way to keep working for our customers, every single aspect of our company, workspace, and the way we were allowed to even work at all was being turned upside down. And while idiots began and continued to complain that it was all fake or a hoax, in our town real people were getting sick and starting to die. With less than 12000, Cavarzere has lost well over 60. In a town that small, it gets hard to avoid reality like that. So inspite of the costs, delays and problems I made sure we did everything to follow the safety protocols and the science... we studied and developed masks, medical clothing, ran lab-tests on our designs, performed hygiene and distancing procedures at every corner, and immediately implemented full sterilization processes of all of our production pieces prior to shipping them to our clients. Everything took longer and longer to get done, and 2/3rds of us couldn't even come to work in our facility.

Only the veterans remained. Apart from Nicholas Giannelli, the remaining 25 staff were all local Cavarzerani team members. And they proved to be an amazingly tough and capable lot. And I am forever indebted to each of them for sticking it out and doing what it takes to make it--they are the best tailoring team in the business right now. Then there was Diana and me. We'd been through a lot together over the past decades and with our young design & management team suddenly gone--we were back to running a mom and pop again. So be it. It's not always the end of the world when ownership has to go back in and do everything themselves--in fact, my experience is that it makes a business become stronger. Especially a designer business. And that's what happened. Without going into any more detail at this time, that's what we did. I personally took over and did all the work in 5 different departments that the international guys had been running before they left. Diana did the same with production and buying ops. We had had an incredibly successful AW2020 Paris campaign, and thanks to all the dealers who didn't cancel, we were able to get through almost the entire year on those orders alone. More importantly, many of the deliveries proved to be successful in the stores as well, helping our great dealers to survive truly tough times as well... and for that we need to thank each and every customer who stuck with us and supported us with their purchases. We were delivering when many of other brands were not. But that wasn't the whole story. Value was the other. We never cut back on any aspect of our extreme hyper-quality at every corner or detail of our work, and our customers could rely on it. So when they had to get some clothes, even though they could not come in to a shop anymore-- they knew that if they bought a GBS... they would get their money's worth and then some. Nothing does more to help a firm survive a crisis than giving your customer real value for money.

So all last year right up to now, inspite of constant pressure from Fashion Week organizers and industry players to get us to participate in an endless series of attempts to bring-back-fashion-weeks... online, digitally, or whatever desperate concept they would keep coming up with... they just do not seem to grasp the reality that it is still too soon to do "fashion week"- and that there are still far too many people in this world who have the virus and are dying from it, too many health care systems overwhelmed, too many people who are not vaccinated or even close to it, and too many new increasingly virulent variants coming up for any real international fashion market event to be carried out responsibly. I mean come on... India and every nation around it, almost all of central and South America, half of Africa, Japan, Korea, and yes the United Kingdom- and this week suddenly Moscow are all out of control and sprouting scarier variants.

I am sorry, but I find putting together full-boat fashion show runway productions in front of only video cameras and calling it a digital fashion show calendar or whatever-- to be bogus. Forget about the money and lack of safety precautions involved in those huge productions involving dozens if not hundreds of people all together breathing on each other for hours. But the harder reality is that if you ask the world's buyers: how many are willing to leave where they are right now and spend 10-20 hours in a plane back and forth through airports, and then a week or two in hotels, taxis, showrooms, catwalk spaces, restaurants, cafes, bars- 95% of them will tell you NO. So if you show, you will be showing to a fraction of the market. And most of them are buying less than pre-Covid. So for me, it's just stupid to be trying to show in the same manner as before as long as this pandemic remains unresolved--and that means the whole world, not just one country. GBS is tiny, but we can easily spend 100k on a Paris sales campaign and show. Do 4 times a year for men and women and it's half a million. Our competitors spend far more. But they are selling far less in that channel now (the real money for them is in e-com). Economically it makes no sense to be pushing and spending money in a back to normal effort that simply isn't ready to be happening yet. In fact, it could be suicidal.

So I had to avoid them and focus on the orders we had in hand and the customers who were keeping us alive. And it worked enough to get us to the end of 2020 with a surprisingly large turnover given the situation which allowed us to invest in an entirely new workspace and company infrastructure for Covid times and beyond, that we had been working on since the crisis began. By then, we were also facing a whole new year without Paris where we typically generated up to 90% of all of our business. The idea for Evolution began after talking extensively with our clients,... and by early February, we began to introduce it with a small Instagram and email campaign which I copy here below.


















We started quietly in China, then Germany, followed by Japan and then other markets, and soon began
to see some very positive if not downright amazing results...

(to be continued)

[Geoffrey B. Small]

(continued from above)



Evolution I : the first step


Back in December, we decided to begin immediately with our newest exclusive superlux Como silk fabric prints for shirts, one of our best and most successful transitional categories. Since their first introduction 8 years ago, the GBS Como silk handmade supershirts have been building a remarkable following, and a reputation for being the very best. Better than any other luxury maison's equivalent by a longshot- point by point: from fabric to print design to buttons, components and construction and build. They are also priced extremely competitively with any other luxury brand's alternative. The room to grow across all of our dealers is huge, and even more so during the Coronavirus pandemic. In fact--we found that a major factor among non-performing dealers during Covid-19 lockdowns was inadequate stocks of GBS silk supershirts in their inventories. Stores that didn't have enough, simply missed a ton of sales. And the reasons were obvious. GBS silk supershirts are selling to a growing number of entry-level e-commerce consumers now discovering our brand for the first time and are ideal luxury wear products for people to wear at home in during lockdown in sublime comfort and elegance. They also go perfectly with streetwear, and are being sold more and more as gifts to be given to others, plus we are seeing more and more collectors- customers who are buying our silk pieces more than once and forming actual wardrobes of silk shirts.

Working closely with our top dealers, we decided that the first move towards making 2021 a record year was to immediately enhance and energize our silk shirt offerings in store to provide a new base for many more sales to come either by single pieces, or in outfit purchases combined with pieces that would come later in Evolution II and III.

Priority One was to get exciting and beautiful new silk shirts into our dealers stores asap. With the legendary Brenna family in Como, inspite of the Italian holidays and Covid-19 lockdowns, we were able to develop a stunning new group of impeccable 16-momme raso satin prints from which we could make a wide variety of handmade silk supershirt designs for February and March deliveries.

For more than a century, Como has been the world’s leading region for the creation and production of the finest silks on the planet. And for almost a decade, we have been working ever more closely with the legendary Brenna family in that region to create the most exclusive and the most beautiful new printed silk shirts in the entire world...



Above: The late Giannino Brenna, legendary patriarch of one of Como's leading silk printing
families & founder of the area's top all in-house production operation, a technical powerhouse
and key supplier of the incredible silk prints that go into our GBS supershirts...







I quickly shot some of the new Como silk prints specially developed with the Brenna
family for Evolution I for our dealers to start to work with...





"Black Locusts"...

.



"Tintoretto autoritratti" (famous self-portraits done when the artist was young and old)...








"Tintoretto drawings of heads"...










"White Locusts"...







I have always believed that just like fresh, natural ingredients from fruits, vegetables, grains, fish, poultry, and meats etc.- for making great food to put into your mouth... beautifully made, all natural fiber fabrics like silk, linen, cotton, wool and cashmeres etc.- are fundamental to making great clothes to put on your skin and body. Fabric always comes first. And with these first new prints we were on our way to being able to create some awesome new work. Both Jacopo Tintoretto's amazing human emotional pathos and Nicholas Giannelli's compelling locust designs perfectly reflected the times we were in- between lockdown isolation and inner reflection, and the plague-like nature of the pandemic surrounding and affecting all of us- and yes, the very idea of evolution itself. We would be able to make just about any shirt, skirt or dress style our clients were familiar with, as well as develop our own new proposals, and we were getting excited. But there was still more on the way from our legendary masters in Como...



(to be continued)

[Geoffrey B. Small]

(continued from above)


A lot happened to this industry since I came here over twenty years ago. Italy was the world powerhouse of designer clothing production in the 80's and 90's. By production, I mean they actually made it here. Except for Comme and Yohji, every single major designer, no matter where they originated from, all ended up producing their clothes here, even the Belgians, British and French. Italy's textile industry paid for all of its oil and energy imports and much of the country's rise to being the 4th biggest economy in Europe and the 9th biggest in the world--were built on the back of its incredibly talented and innovative textile and fashion industry. But when I arrived, a corrupted philosophy fueled by a new generation of industrial leaders who had trained at US-style MBA schools, was aggressively copying and implementing my country's globalization approach to industry that put short-term profit over long-term durability and human value. So, just as Levi's jeans were no longer being made in a U.S. factory let alone San Francisco, or an Apple or IBM computer were no longer being made in the US either... Dolce & Gabbana, Giorgio Armani, Diesel, Benetton and many other iconic "Made in Italy" megabrands were being produced in dramaticallly growing percentages at "offshore" production subcontractors following the American-business model. Those of you who know a little about me, know that I can say this because I have been in the middle of this story for decades at a personal level. You can read some of my earlier posts on this thread over the years to get more of an idea of the monumental degradation and toll this short-term industrial approach has taken on the Italian textile and fashion industry. No doubt, many of those brands are still big today, and other more recently famous brands have followed in their footsteps including Moncler, and the people behind labels like Owenscorp, Maison Martin Margiela, Off-White, Uma Wang, Alix, Palm Angels, Heron Preston and others. The brands' oversight operations and distribution companies are based in Italy, but a growing-if not already total amount of their production is not. And with the exploding dependence of the majority of luxury brands owned by LVMH, Kering and Hermes on Italian system "production companies" to make their products as well- using the same manner and methods, the situation is being amplified more than ever. While it has wiped out easily more than 85 percent of clothing manufacturing factories and employment in Italy since I got here, it has also wrecked the fabric-making sector. Today, you can almost count on your fingers the number of competent fabric mills in the country who are still able to make a decent roll of cloth that is not full of plastic, and that still exemplifies the knowledge, heritage and culture of one of the greatest fabric making civilizations in the history of mankind. It has been my personal mission to support that handful of Italian mills and work with them to build and create the best clothing in the world today and show this current generation of humanity what is still possible.

And without Gianni Gobbetto, our phenomenal Como silk story would never have happened. Gianni does not own or run a fabric mill, but his role was a crucial and a historic one. Gianni is from another age, he is one of the last of old-time "rappresentante." That's Italian for a regional sales rep who works on the road, going out to visit his clients and write his orders for the firm he works for. At a critical time in our development, Gobbetto introduced us to the legendary Brenna family in Como with whom he had worked for almost 40 years. The Brenna family own and operate one of the biggest and most complete in-house silk fabric printing operations in the world--and in my mind, the very best for making top level silk print cloth. With Gianni and the Brenna's operations we have been able to build an amazing story and capability that enable us to beat any rival luxury designer brand on multiple levels--but most importantly allows our firm to be able to focus on the art of the print itself--because once you get into the print game in a serious way, the single most important part of it all is the artwork of the print. And while our esteemed colleagues and competitors are busy scurrying in every new collection to copy our print stories from the season before them (just take a look at Instagram for 15 minutes to get an idea), they are always poorly executed copies on far lesser quality fabrics. And that is something that we feel are a lie to the customer who buys them. Prints are not just a "look." We feel that they must be much, much more. Nothing looks worse than someone wearing a cheap or wannabe looking print. There is no quick and easy way to create a great print nor the appropriate garment design that uses it. It requires nothing less than total control of every aspect of the materials and processes of creation and only the best of fabric, artistic and technological competence to make it right. And until one of our rivals puts in the time, money and total investment to achieve that, they are only fooling themselves... and their customers.

So when the exquisite Tintoretto and Locust tests arrived to us late last year, we knew we are on to something that would make our competition work even harder to copy and follow us. First, we weren't going to do pretty little florals or birds, or ad-infinitum-now-becoming-brainless-looking fake 18th-19th century renderings. Nor were we going to do numbers and handwriting like we introduced with "Radical Numbers" over 5 seasons ago that suddenly are everywhere in the "artisanal brand" sector. No, this time we were mirroring our times living in a pandemic, these print designs though beautiful, are not pretty--once you start to really look at them. And then the 2nd group from the Brenna family arrived filling in and completing this new reality story applied to luxury silk prints. And we got even more excited...




Squali - "A Pixelated World of Sharks"










Geometrics - "visions of mRNA and the connectivity of virulent transmission"








Trees - "on reverse background, as if almost a forgotten memory..."





.






With these powerful new exclusive prints to work with, it was now time to begin preparing prototypes ....


(to be continued)

[Geoffrey B. Small]

(continued from above)

I have always tried to be a serious student of the game, and I have had a lot of great teachers throughout my career. One of them is Armand Hadida, the founder of Leclaireur in Paris. When I first moved to Italy, I had to go through a major crisis in both my life and career, and learn about a whole new level of things as a designer- if I was going to have any chance of staying alive. One of these was the concept of [FONT=times new roman]concentration./FONT] Being in the heart of the production powerhouse of the fashion world--you got this message real straight and quick from any producer in the game. And honestly no creative designer really wants to hear it because it means dumping almost all of your ideas into the trash. During that time many years ago, I remember Armand Hadida telling me the story about the launch of Commes des Garcons SHIRT in the late 1980's. Needless to say, Rei Kawakubo is the mother of most of us all in the avant-garde metier, but back then CDC was rocking on all fronts and SHIRT had become a commercial legend among the best avant-garde retailers at that time... and a full blown collection on its own that along with CDC TRICOT had served as the incubator for Junya Watanabe to develop and then be given his own label by CDC in 1992. Kawakubo had started in the 70's in Japan and then with Yohji broke the Japan independent avant-gardist barrier in Paris in 1981. Her approach inspired 3 generations of independent Paris collection practitioners including her own followed in 1986 by Helmut Lang and the Belgians (Margiela, Demeulemeester, Van Noten, Bikkembergs and Walter), and then throughout the 90's an expanded wave that included ever more Belgians(Simons, Branqinho, Vandervoorst etc), and serious designers from other countries too including Ennio Capasa at Costume National, Carol Christian Poell, Maurizio Altieri, Marc Le Bihan, Rick Owens, and this writer among others. So when Mr. Hadida started telling me about the first CDC SHIRT presentation I was blown away, because he was actually there and saw it, and he was one of Kawakubo's most important clients in the world for a very long time. You see, CDC Shirt started with only 3 models. That's right 3 prototypes in the showroom for buyers to choose from. Period. No collection. No season really. Just 3 bang-ass popping shirt designs. It wrote a truckload, and the rest is history. What's really important though about that story is that avant-garde could be concentrated. And we all learned from it. Leclaireur. Carpe Diem. CCP. When you start something new, think about concentration. So as we set out to do our first introductory step for Evolution, we knew we were taking a shot at defying all current industry design, creation, and delivery practice. It was a revolutionary concept with a ton of risks... so the first thing that came to my mind to launch it was a concentration strategy, right out of the classic playbook. We talked carefully about fit, details and fabric, with our best people running stores and distribution and we started Evolution I with three GBS Como silk supershirt designs and no Paris show or showroom presentation whatsoever for the first time in over 2 decades...

And make no mistake about it, we were designing for Covid. Excellence, Value, and Function all the way. We didn't give a shit about all the fashion system media people's premature boredom and itch to go wild and crazy on the runway thinking- and complete lack and willingness to deal with the reality of what the pandemic meant for real people with money who still needed and wanted to buy clothes (if you would just give them something that was worth the money they were being asked to fork over). The CVS03, CVS06 and CVS07 were each designed to be superb pieces for transitional wear and relaxed at home working and living in superb comfort and elegance (because that is where people were living their lives), created from our long sleeve relaxed-cut longer length shirt pattern from our extensive tailoring research, and cut using the special new pure Como silk exclusive print 16-momme raso satin fabrics made exclusively for us by the legendary Brenna family in Como then specially dyed, treated or washed by hand in our workrooms. The designs all featured beautiful clean-finished all french-seamed interior construction, incredible buttons made for us in Parma, Brescia and Padova Italy by the greatest living buttonmakers in the world today, and our signature real hand-stitched buttonholes (that require 8-10 minutes to cut and sew each one,in pure silk Bozzolo Reale Seta Milan thread. The pieces also featured our world leading pure silk label created exclusively for us by Mion SpA in Torreglia which is the first label in the luxury industry to completely eliminate plastic polyester yarns in it featuring an all-new white and handstitch red silk color combination for 2021, along with a matching deluxe pure silk GBS handmade triple filtration tailor's respiratory community mask as standard equipment for ongoing Covid-19 pandemic protection wear. Solid, money in the bank investment value pieces, no bullshit. After four decades surviving a myriad of crises from 9/11 to 2008 to today's Coronavirus, that's how I aimed to play it. Drop the fantasies and take care of your customer by making the best and most beautiful clothes you possibly can...





Evolution I prototype proposals:

the CVS03 geometric supershirt...









the CVS06 Tintoretto "autoritratti" self-portrait supershirt...













the CVS07 "Trees" supershirt...














We began to propose each design one by one as we could complete their development. And then suddenly, a new idea came up from research and work that we had been doing throughout 2020 on our sustainable respiratory masks and medical protective clothing. And I felt that while it was great to follow the playbooks of great masters--we were not in 1988 anymore. We were in 2021, in the middle of a wild moment in world history, and it was a time to break rules in fashion if it made sense to do so. So I pushed to get one more new idea done, as fast as possible, that was going to be included as part of Evolution I, even though it wasn't going to be a shirt at all...



(to be continued)

[Geoffrey B. Small]

(continued from above)


In March 2020, Italy went into a full national lockdown which- except for China was to be the toughest and strictest of its kind in the world. It was the 2nd country on the planet and the first in Europe to get really hit by the pandemic. And while I had voluntarily closed our operations a week before to help ensure the safety of my team, suddenly every company in the country was ordered to close down to try to slow the rampant spread of the Covid-19 virus which was on its way to killing over 125,000 in Italy alone.




Following the Italian Government's measures to close all companies, GBS on 22 March continued its own voluntary closure of operations at the Via Spalato workrooms that would last all the way until mid May.


The new law allowed only "essential companies" to keep operating and only under extremely rigid safety protocols and procedures. Like everyone in the world who has gone through lock-down, it was a time for serious reflection about where everything was going. With 35 employees, 100 suppliers, 20 dealer and distribution firms, local community and government with some of the highest tax rates of anywhere in the world-- all depending on the successful operation of our business--suddenly I was faced with the spectre of not being able to operate for days, weeks or even months into the future.

Very quickly, anybody who was serious with a company in Italy had to find a way to meet the criteria to become listed as an essential business. Fashion and clothing firms were not included, but companies that could make certified medical protection equipment (masks) and clothing were. Giorgio Armani, turned several of his GA Operations Spa factories on a dime into producing work uniforms for medical workers. A life member of the Italian Senate, he had the connections, contacts and political power to get the materials and certifications to make it happen in only a few weeks. I was blown away by this brilliant move that literally saved thousands of jobs - and determined to try to do something similar with GBS. It wasn't easy trying to explain the need to do this to some of our team who were "in" to do design and work in a more traditional fashion sense. But this was no time for fashion. It was a time for immediate solutions to huge problems-not just the exploding epidemic - but also the complete unpreparedness of the world's health care system to deal with it, starting with supplies of basic protection gear and having a public evenly remotely aware about basic hygiene. I believed as tailors could help to resolve this problem, at least locally. Everywhere around us there were no masks to be had--and the hospitals were already filling up. You couldn't see your doctor, ambulance sirens were blaring 24/7---and we were all breathing on each other. The few surgical masks that could be scavenged were being used and reused as much as possible.

In New York, Zam Barrett was going through similar issues and began to produce and promote cloth masks of his design. I was inspired by his initiative and began to show his posts to my team telling them that we needed to follow his example. We were all tailors and we needed to serve the community around us, by developing the best possible mask and producing it immediately. I also decided that we would not sell this product but donate it to anyone who needed it, and use it to begin to try to earn an Italian "essential business" certification that might allow us, like Armani, to keep our workrooms open and our employees working.

We soon learned that the PPE industry was dominated by the same petrochemical interests that had taken over the world's fashion and textile industries. All of the certified medical industry was plastic-based. By mid-March, Wuhan was already witnessing a second disaster rapidly building from the virus contagion. An unprecedented volume of virus-contaminated plastic based PPE materials were being dumped by container loads into a waste management system completely under capacity to handle it. And what was happening in Wuhan was going to be repeated everywhere in the world.

Even worse, everybody wanted to know about the contamination risks of the virus on material surfaces from bathroom door knobs to textiles. As an Italian company in the Veneto at the epicenter, we had to make absolutely sure that we would not be contaminating or infecting others with our shipments of textile products being made in Italy. Lab studies began to come out in the Lancet and New England Journal of Medicine. Amazingly, cloth with the virus in it not only reduced transmission risk especially if fibres were more porous, but if washed in hot water with detergents and exposed to 100+ centigrade high pressurized steam and heat could be sterilized and made safe from transmission. Metal and plastic were different, their lack of porosity and chemical makeup forced the virus to sit on top waiting to be swiped up by a finger or hand and transmitted into the person. Most importantly, was the length of time the virus remained on or in the material and presented risk of transmission. Of all the materials tested, certified medical surgical masks showed the longest lasting risk of viral transmission--you could never wash them, or reuse them, and if you touched one even a week after it had been used only once, you could be infected by it. No wonder so many front-line health workers who were forced to reuse surgical masks due to the shortages were so angry about it. Who knows how many of them died from reusing PPE certified masks. I won't even get into the front-liners in Wuhan and Italy who had to deal with the shortage of PPE tyvec suits and died as a result. Bottom line was that we had discovered a massive new problem of unsustainable product that was required to confront the pandemic, with no end in sight.

As long-time leaders in sustainable design and manufacture--we had a whole new horizon of work and I immediately tried to focus almost all of our resources and people on developing new sustainable PPE concepts. Perhaps this work could earn us an essential business certification from the government (particularly once they saw the massive economic impact it could have), and if not, for sure we would be able to gain from new technologies that would further allow us to provide GBS customers with ever more protection, safety and value in their wardrobes. Key development work on our early masks was performed by Diana Pernice, Lois Dionisio, and David Wild, while Nicholas Giannelli focused on medical protective gear and clothing. At the same time, I worked on material research and development which started with examination of existing medically certified textiles, and led us into a special project with Luigi Parisotto in Sarcedo who created a special high-count weave pure cotton textile with a certified anti-liquid, anti-microbial and bacterial treatment applied to its surface that would provide external protection and first layer filtration. The same fabric without treatment would be used as a lining fabric to rest against skin, and following earlier french military issue designs, an inside layer of special wool-blend 3-mm thick felted fabric would serve to achieve a triple-flitration design that could still be washable, sterilizable and reusable for maximum sustainablity. The first GBS Community Tailor's Respiratory Masks were lab-tested for safety, then introduced and steadily increased in our production for donation to the local community, eventually being used by hundreds of residents, local police, city workers, and companies including our own. Unlike disposable single-use masks, they featured high quality advanced sustainable and environmental design for improved comfort and long-term use, and used over 95 percent natural fibre materials to minimize the rapidly growing problem of Covid19 contaminated medical waste from plastic-based products. We also began to donate them to our dealers or make matching versions in our luxury fabrics to use as gifts with purchases of our clothing shipments last year to help each of them survive the devasting hit the pandemic was having on retailers in general. And for 2021, we have been providing them as standard equipment with all new GBS Evolution pieces for ongoing Covid-19 pandemic protection wear.




GBS handmade masks have been built and donated to local community persons and organizations and as standard equipment with GBS clothing. By using them, a single person can reduce the use of hundreds of disposable masks per year per person, avoid the high safety risks of reusing disposable masks and reduce damaging environmental contamination impacts and astronomical economic costs.


During our research of filtration materials I was introduced to a firm in Bergamo which proposed a pure silk batting which was very light and soft and unlike the wool blend felt which contained 3% synthetic percentage in it- was 100% natural fibres. I was able during the lockdown to get the firm to send us some for testing. Unfortunately for virus protection filtration, we found it to be insufficient. However, I felt strongly that we could use the material in the future to make some wonderful soft, light and comfortable quilted garments. So nine months later, as we were working on the revolutionary new Evolution concept , and our first proposals using the incredible new array of Como silk prints, I asked Nicholas Giannelli and Liana Cisotto to try to develop our first pure silk padded quilting idea in its simplest form. The result was the beginning of a whole new GBS product category...


(to be continued)

[Geoffrey B. Small]

(continued from above)

As soon as the first CVJ10 prototype was completed, we had that great feeling of knowing we were on the verge of something new and exciting. Using single-piece, individual, single-stitch diagonal diamond quilting detail work carefully and arduously performed by Liana Cisotto, the special new pure Como silk original black locust print 16-momme raso satin cloth developed in-house by Nicholas Giannelli and made for us exclusively by the legendary Brenna family in Como Italy was combined with the new superlux feather light all natural (no poly or synthetic fiber fillers) Italian pure silk batting interior developed in Bergamo, and finished inside with a dramatic lining story in floral jacquard loomed luxury viscosa lining fabric made for us by Ezio Ghiringhelli in Varese, then all specially treated and washed by hand in our workrooms for extra aging, textural draping and softness. This resulted in a wonderful new composite material that was light, soft and comfortable with endless aesthetic and design possibilities. A modified 5-button vintage workwear waistcoat pattern with diagonal pockets and varsity collar from our extensive tailoring research was combined with the new quilted material technique to create a beautiful, genderless, layering piece for timeless all-season relaxed at-home working and living. The extreme handmade waistcoat design could also be worn outside with spectacular effect for dress and casual occasions...








The new CVJ10 was created from a modified 5-button vintage workwear waistcoat pattern with diagonal pockets and varsity collar from our extensive tailoring research, and proposed a beautiful, genderless layering piece for timeless all-season relaxed at-home working and living. The extreme handmade waistcoat design could also be worn outside with spectacular effect for dress and casual occasions...








It was cut using the special new pure Como silk original black locust print 16-momme raso satin cloth developed in-house and made for us exclusively by the legendary Brenna family in Como Italy, combined with the new superlux feather light all natural (no poly or synthetic fiber fillers) Italian pure silk batting interior developed in Bergamo during the early months of the pandemic crisis. Originally, the special silk material was originally hoped to be used as a filtration element in our Covid-19 community mask development, but was found to be insufficient in its particle breathing and filtration tests. However, it proved to be an amazing new batting material to make padded and quilted superlux design pieces with. The new CVJ10 marked the first use of this amazing new all-natural certified interior filling material to date...








The extreme handmade piece included elegant impeccably hand-cut diagonal besom well pockets and a stunning new advanced leather and lacquered horn button masterpiece produced specially for us by the world’s greatest living button-makers- Cinzia and Claudio Fontana in Parma, Italy... even during the Covid pandemic they continued to prove their undisputable creativity, excellence and total dominance of their metier...








The interior was of course, beautifully finished with a dramatic lining story in a floral jacquard loomed luxury viscosa lining fabric made for us by Ezio Ghiringhelli in Varese, the leading master in the world at making jacquard weave lining fabrics in viscosa for luxury clothing pieces. The piece was then specially washed and treated by hand in our workrooms for extra aging and unbelievable softness...









Below: 2 masks as standard equipment. Each CVJ10 piece would come with both a matching deluxe pure silk GBS handmade triple filtration tailor's respiratory community mask and advanced side-vented mask designs in the matching silk fabric as standard equipment for ongoing Covid-19 pandemic protection wear...








But there was even more. The CVJ10 was designed to go perfectly together with the special pure silk supershirts being created also for evolution I. Here the CVJ10 is pictured over the CMS07 with each of the incredible fabrics combining in perfect harmony- providing its potential owner with amazing comfort, value and quality of life during ongoing pandemic times. By offering the best solutions of design and quality, we aimed to earn our customer's loyalty and support more than ever before...


















A work in process:


these historic photos were taken only moments after the completion of the CVJ10 prototype in our old via Spalato workrooms. As we were pioneering Evolution as the precise solution to our current pandemic situation worldwide, we suddenly realized that we were on the verge of an entirely new potential in creative power, innovation and excellence that we could share with our clients everywhere. The absence of the need to create large, wasteful prototype collections and harried fashion week presentations that involved trekking everyone and every thing thousands of kilometers back and forth from Italy to Paris at that moment, suddenly allowed us to work in an amazingly new focused and concentrated manner of creation, presentation and delivery. And on top of all that, what we didn't even know yet, was that some of our best dealers would also soon be bringing in another additional powerful creative element from their stores at the field level to the program that would push the energy, innovation and exclusivity even further through the roof...


(to be continued)

[Geoffrey B. Small]

(continued from above)

Within only a few months, since its introduction of Evolution was already showing itself to have been remarkably successful. Far exceeding our expectations, it created an all-time company record of orders ever generated without having a Paris fashion week collection presentation. Evidence that our fundamental concepts of hyper-quality, artistic excellence and putting real human values back into every single piece of our clothes, was continuing to work even during the toughest of times, and even without being able to show during major fashion weeks.

The orders were being produced and delivered to GBS Evolution dealers around the world with amazing complexity, exclusivity, and a newfound increased efficiency in our new GBS superworkrooms at Cavarzere Venezia in Italy... which were beginning to prove the worth of their huge investment as a major advancement in our extreme handmade technologies and artisanal production capability. A capability that is becoming more and more unlike any other designer, artisanal, or luxury clothing brand in the world.

Evolution was also not about our proposals being dictated to store buyers, but being a point of inspiration to collaborate at a level never before attempted by an independent design firm working with independent multi-brand retailers. And while some had difficulty getting their heads around this revolutionary new idea of having the world’s most advanced design and tailoring house able to customize pieces for a store’s precise clientele and situation, many of our most experienced dealers jumped on it—and brought in an additional level of creativity that enabled Evolution to achieve levels of exclusivity and design innovation to a new dimension in the luxury market. And so while Evolution I was launched with only 4 prototypes- its eventual arrival into stores offered an exponentially larger offering that differed completely from one GBS Evolution dealer to the next. Stores and their customers could be assured that each ultra-limited edition piece was totally limited and unique. As one of our top dealers in the world stated to me over the phone one night from Asia ”I am beginning to really like these quick and special drops. It’s similar to Supreme… except it’s real.” Another defined it as "bespoke for retail stores".

But this enormous complexity, attention to detail and artistic mastery was only rendered possible by an approach to design and craft that has been unique to our firm in building and developing over the past 4 decades. This approach is alone in the industry. And while generally ignored by what can be labeled today as "fashion" - it is well on its way to profoundly changing it. After tenacioulsy surviving the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, Evolution I marked a historical combination of what can happen when the best living tailoring organization in the world today combines with a revolutionary new state-of-the-art production factory facility solely designed to making the best clothes by hand in the world today--and then, in collaboration with the best living fabric and component creators in the world today- is allowed to break a long-running monopoly of organized fashion market weeks around the world which have utterly failed to be able to safely operate during the ongoing crisis for 15 months and running, by using the internet which has become the biggest and most used commodity of the pandemic. Like zoom, amazon and so many others, our new growth was found in the ability to perform key parts of our practice online while the virus raged outside. Below we provide a glimpse of a few of the special versions of designs that have been created and delivered as part of Evolution I…






To adapt more to European market bodies and tastes, a different more fitted tailored european shape and pattern than the larger more relaxed cut CVS03, 6 & 7 prototypes that we proposed (see posts above) was performed for the new GBS Como Silk supershirts for Darklands in Berlin, The more relaxed body cut in the prototypes had been developed particularly for Japan in collaboration with our distribution partners Nobuhiko Akiyoshi and Yusuke Shiike at Le Berger in Tokyo.








Above & below: Yasutaka Hamada, owner at Souterrain in Roppongi Tokyo went all-out with a Tintoretto self portrait print head to toe concept fo full relaxed living design request including handmade t-shirts. It was a prescient order, Japan and particularly Tokyo remain in Covid lockdown today even as the Olympics are about to begin. We delivered the concept in March and they sold out...







Some customization was very subtle, for example our CVS03 prototype was changed to accommodate a more classic point-collar instead of the pyjama-style original and less pocketing and sleeve tab details for the venerable Hirshleifers designer emporium in Manhassett, New York. The 100-year old family-owned retailer is a powerhouse in the luxury market and is the only new client we have added to our remarkable GBS dealer network since the beginning of the pandemic...

”It’s like Supreme… except it’s real.”

Osamu Kiyotake, founder of Hues in Fukuoka revised the CVJ10 by using one of our archive silk prints from the Brenna family, aTintoretto garden interpretration from our AW2020 collection development resulting in a stunningly beautiful example of pure classicism and excellence. In this age of instant ugly being passed off as creativity based on unprecedented general incompetence, I would dare to say right now "why not?"...







Trudi Goetz and Theo Grigoriadis at Trois Pommes then pulled everything way out there with a determined focus on bright colors for women for their flagship store in Zurich based upon our "locusts, sharks and vegetables." Most SZ readers will have no idea about this legendary swiss retail firm and its founder, but anyone who knows the real game does. One of the greatest living luxury market practioners today- they know their customers and they have worked with all the greats over the years at a very personal level. So it was only natural that they singularly could see the huge potential of GBS Evolution for their store and their clients, and they brought a new level of collaboration and input to it that is only beginning...









At the same time James Brown, Christie Fels, Alex Wysman and Richard Myles at Blue Mountain School in London had converted a full floor in their stunning new reconstructed design building to launch the GBS Maison last year- a private dedicated area for our new works, archive pieces and a steadily growing special made to order service that I have been building within our company. GBS Special Order has exploded during Covid-19 and is becoming a formidable new part of our business and creative operations. Based upon my fundamental formation 30 years ago as a bespoke tailor in Boston, we are steadily opening up these unique and rare services to a few of our most competent and loyal dealers, allowing them to serve the widening needs of GBS customers in search of design, sizing, fabrics and special features for their wardrobes not available in existing dealer inventories. BMS in London (formerly Hostem) is one of our longest standing retail partners going back over 12 years. Their broad knowledge of our work and methods along with their flawless independent presentation which has led the entire London market for over a decade has steadily built a phenomenal clientele of discerning customers who in our view are completely and decisively changing the definition of the real luxury market today. So it was logical that Evolution I for them would first and foremost enhance their special order business, with a focus on key big-time heavy hitter tailoring pieces, our forte for more than a decade and a half. That was fine with us, and a special story of handbuilt jackets and waistcoats using the great Fratelli Piacenza 1733 mill's latest "Alashan Breath" the lightest pure cashmere suiting cloth in the world for the Dolomiti jet-set version and "Sublime" super 140's birdseye weave luxury transitional wool suiting for a special internet introductory level version was created only for them...






By March of 2021, we were overwhelmed and all of our 25 team members had to prioritize and focus on working on deliveries, including myself. I could tell the diversity and range of work we were doing was unprecedented but I didn't have time to reflect or measure it. I only knew that something big might be happening. By the end of April we were amazed to hear from our accounting people that Evolution I order totals had matched the historical Paris sales campaign numbers for an entire spring/summer season. Wow. We had to stop and think. An entire Paris collection's business generated only from our new superworkrooms at Cavarzere without doing Paris at all. It seemed impossible. But there it was. There was no time to tell anyone, especially the industry media. And with Evolution now up and clearly running, it was suddenly time for the next step. It was time for GBS Evolution II...


(to be continued)

[zamb]

Great read, enjoyed every bit of it.
hope you and the team are welll

[Geoffrey B. Small]

Great read, enjoyed every bit of it.
hope you and the team are welll

Thank you so much for the kind words Zam, hope you are also very well. I am admiring your patternmaking teaching work recently (Z Factorie Educate) and ardently support it from our side. It is so important now to pass on the craft to others who wish to learn how to make things, the current glut of bad design and lowered standards across the entire fashion industry at all price points is a direct result of its own growing ignorance and lack of education which it is passing off to consumers at their own expense. Dumb supports dumb. And then gets even dumber. Also the Z/Market project is a very good idea. I encourage any SZ readers out there to check out what Zam is doing recently...

best wishes, Geoffrey




------------



On to the next step...

(continued from previous post)








GBS Evolution II would expand our offering and proposals beyond the concentrated pure Como silk supershirt program we introduced in Evolution I. An important new selection of tailored ideas were carefully designed for a critical moment during the global pandemic to bridge warm weather, the start of vaccination programs in certain countries, and the ongoing issues of prolonged lockdowns, Covid spread and new mutations of the virus in many other areas of the world. All of the pieces developed and designed using feedback from dealers to also go with the new silk shirts being delivered into our dealer stores from Evolution I, as well as existing GBS pieces in the stores, further enhancing existing GBS inventory in each of our dealer's stores to maximize GBS customer selection and satisfaction when working with each dealer. This would be critical as material shortages and supply chain problems were rising from the pandemic's effect on the world economies, and many of our customers were writing to us constantly looking for pieces available to acquire.

They also incorporated our extensive research into the pandemic situation on many levels and featured our ongoing strict safety protocols and procedures in all of our production operations including individual product sterilization of every piece before final packing and shipment to the store and matching GBS tailor's community respiratory masks now being provided as standard equipment with almost every design piece for ongoing Covid pandemic protection wear.

We started sending dealers our new proposals for evolution II targeted for projected May and June deliveries. The first one, like the masks, has already proved to be rather prescient as the Delta variant from India now surges everywhere despite the progress being made with vaccines...







(to be continued)...

[Geoffrey B. Small]

(continued from above)

BACK in April, inspite of all the exciting news about vaccine campaigns and the reopening of travel for some countries... we felt serious travellers knew that the media hype was one thing, the reality and risks were another. At that time, only 3.9 percent of the entire world population had been fully vaccinated. That was only 300 million out of almost 8 billion hosts. None of the vaccines were 100 percent effective against the virus, and new more virulent mutations from the UK, Brazil, South Africa and India and neighboring countries like Nepal and Sri Lanka were showing themselves increasingly resistant to them.


Nothing concentrates infection and global spread from COVID risks more than going through mass transportation terminals and spending long periods in airplanes, trains, and cruise ships in close proximity to others breathing stagnant or recycled air for hours on end. In fact, there have been fewer bigger global superspreader factors of the pandemic itself than mass international passenger travel. So as vaccine hubris allowed many politicians to begin to risk reopening the flood gates of tourism and travel this summer, more than 95 percent of the world was still unvaccinated- and daily new cases worldwide remained at all time high levels. More travellers this summer would mean far more risks of yet another new wave of infections and mutations spreading. So we felt smart people needed to ask themselves if they could really risk getting a new mutation variant and or having to get quarantined for weeks on either or both ends of a journey. Nicholas Giannelli had been working for almost a year on advanced sustainable design medical gear and I felt it was time we made some of our research on this available to our dealers and customers for Evolution II...







Designed for the GBS customer who does not want to travel, but has to, the new CVO02 pandemic travel protection system set provided extensive protection, comfort and environmental reusable sustainability. It was created from our advanced medical design wear research from our extensive COVID-19 pandemic experience in the Veneto region of Northern Italy to provide a washable, long-term use, sustainable natural fibre overall protection system for extensive traveling or high risk communal event wear and service, as an alternative to extremely uncomfortable and environmentally devastating single-use Tyvek petrchemical plastic-based medical wear products and systems… using a special supertightly woven lab-tested anti-microbial anti-liquid bacterial treated pure cotton fabric specially developed and made for us by the world's leading research fabric maker, Luigi Parisotto in Sarcedo Vicenza.





The design features special self closing zipperless flight pockets for docs and valuables, a superb cut that allows for maximum movement, and comes with our tailor made full face cover visor with handmade Toscano vegetable tanned leather belt and Fontana metal closure buckle for secure and elegant fit adjustment, and matching deluxe GBS handmade triple filtration tailor's respiratory community mask in the same special medically treated fabric as standard equipment for Covid-19 pandemic protection wear.















Above left: pure titanium Monocoque Zeiss lens handmade sunglass by Rigards for GBS with triple-filtration GBS Tailor's Community mask. Above Right: GBS Evolution II "Alienatore" handmade dress sport shoe in Toscana Vegetable tanned leather.






A complete system of protection, comfort and functional performance for those who don't just “want” to travel- but have to. Also designed for concerts, discoteques, night clubs, large events and frontline service professionals.












IN hindsight the CVO02 Pandemic Travel Protection Set was prescient. At this posting date only a few months after its introduction to our dealers, still only 13.0 percent of the entire world population has been fully vaccinated. Even though that is about 3 times more than back in April, it's still only about 1 billion out of almost 8 billion human hosts. And that leaves 7 billion still to go widely susceptible to the now raging Delta variant which is now surging everywhere… especially among the unvaccinated, and thanks to the opening up of travel and almost of the western economies for the summer--numbers are now going back up just about everywhere.

Given that situation, we continue to feel that this design is as pertinent as ever as a key wardrobe tool for anyone who is serious about traveling professionally. For instance, it should be standard equipment for all Olympic team personnel traveling to Japan for the 2020 games or persons working the newly reopened rock concerts, clubs and large events. Alas, the Olympics is not to be... but our customers are picking them up at Hues in Fukuoka and Darklands in Berlin where they are now currently available.

Personally, I felt most of our dealers were being too scared of controversy not to stock the new design asap. I wouldn't think of going on any long haul flight with out one. And if anyone out there has ever had to endure the horrible bodily experience of wearing a tyvec suit overall -- let me tell you this one is like a whole different world. Like so many other things with this pandemic, it will probably require another huge wave for people to get the idea and its superb execution and practicality, and then we won't be able to keep up with the demand for them. Well, so be it for now. Less controversial Pandemic designs would be proposed next....


(to be continued)

[Geoffrey B. Small]

(continued from above)









THAT'S a photo of me working back in April in our amazing new GBS Tintoria hand dye room at the GBS superworkrooms on a great fabric that formed the foundation in our newest Evolution II proposal. Without a doubt the new Geoffrey B. Small Salla Tintoria (dyeing room) is the most advanced and sustainable artisanal hand dyeing facility in the world right now. It represents an investment of close to six figures with equipment and systems never before utilized in this manner in the history of fabric treatment, and it establishes a new benchmark for employee and environmental safety as well. While other brands talk about sustainability, I will continue to emphasize that no company in the world is actually doing it more than we are... and at an ever increasingly advanced level. This is only one example of many, and the Tintoria is a part of the major role our new GBS Superworkrooms are playing in our ability to carry out our revolutionary Evolution creation, production and distribution programs for 2021...


But before I get to all that in later posts, I need to explain that designing the best wardrobe solutions for the GBS customer in 2021 has been a real challenge. By April, we were still right in the middle of the biggest pandemic to hit the world in over a century. And while vaccines had started in some places in the world (mainly the U.S and UK), most of the world was far from being successfully vaccinated. Major surges and new variants were being seen that were maintaining daily new case numbers globally at record levels and a new study had just come out from MIT's CSAIL labs that had found that this virus mutates right where it needs to to avoid vaccines and antibodies. The Covid-19 virus continued to show that it is a real smart fellow and we still did not have it marked out completely yet....So the cycle of lockdowns, reopenings and more lockdowns were still part of our life even in the most vaccinated countries to date. And as the saying goes, "nobody is really vaccinated until all of us are vaccinated"... but right then in April even in the US (which had a surplus of the best available vaccines) and Europe (which had a crazy shortage) there were large numbers of the population who were refusing to get the vaccine even if it was available to them. Add to all that the new economic and market volatility and uncertainties resulting from the beginnings of the recovery like inflation and supply chain disruptions and shortages.. and it it was pretty clear to me that we were not out of this yet. And anybody that thought so was thinking wishfully. Most of our clients knew better. They have to, and our design strategy for our client wardrobes needed to reflect and deal successfully with the realities of today that they must face. So we felt versatility, value and flexibility was key. Great hyper-quality pieces that could bridge lockdown situations and reopenings with the classic long-term design value that we are uniquely able to provide... were to us what the real "avantgarde" direction of design was all about in 2021. And we still do. Witness this new advanced 3 piece combination proposal that allows our extreme handmade technologies to dress our client from relaxing or working at home, to engaging in sport and movement activities, to getting back to the workplace, meetings or social gatherings when needed or appropriate and always supplied with our most efficient triple filtration respiratory mask as standard equipment for these times. All in superb warm weather taste, style and impeccable elegance.


































Redefining the tailored ''suit'' for Covid times: Dress up, relax at home and/or even go and do some light sport activities... who says you can't have it all? Introducing the CVJ02, CVP05 and CVP04 suit-relax-and sport combination system. You can find the pieces now at Hirshleifer’s in Manhassett New York, Darklands in Berlin, Joyce in Hong Kong, Eth0s in Shanghai, Cathedral in Osaka and Ginza, Void in Shenzhen and Dongliang in Beijing. Read on to take a look at more details on each key design in this total concept for Covid times and beyond...




(to be continued)

[Geoffrey B. Small]

(continued from above)


The CVJ02 superjacket





The super limited edition CVJ02 4-button special hand made jacket design is made by hand from our original slim-body single-breasted peaked lapel pattern, and cut in a special "Superleggero" superlight silk and linen seersucker textured weave fabric woven for us by the world’s leading research fabric maker- Luigi Parisotto in Sarcedo Vicenza, then specially dyed by hand in our studios using a process that required 8 hours to achieve its special color, patina effects and softness...





The piece features handcut besom welt pockets all around, each pocket requires about a half an hour to fully construct, almost unheard of in the entire industry today where luxury and designer brands use fully automated pocket making machinery in their so-called tailored clothing. Fully handmade pockets simply work, look, and feel so much better. For us their is no other way...





The piece has no less than 9 of our signature real hand stitched buttonholes (each one requires 8-10 minutes to cut and sew) in luxurious pure silk Bozzolo Reale Milano Seta thread along with extensive hand stitch detailing and*remarkable real artisan made classic form horn buttons from Italy's greatest living button-makers Claudio and Cinzia Fontana in Parma...





Its real working buttonhole surgeon’s cuff sleeves with handmade buttonholes are unique in the designer market and represent the highest skill and artistic value anywhere. And the beautifully clean finished interior work with Italian satin tape seams and extensive handsewn bodice and sleeve hems (no machines)speak for themselves...





...combined with a beautiful triangular patchwork combination partial lining design story using exquisite geometric abstract jacquard and striped herringbone luxury viscosa lining fabrics by Ezio Ghiringhelli in Varese and Tessitura Mauri in Como, two of Italy's greatest lining fabric specialists...





The superbly crafted elegant side vents are also handcut and assembled by our top tailors in our superworkrooms at Cavarzere, each one requires some forty minutes of ultra-precise master work to achieve its beautiful and impeccable results and elegant soft feel and drape...





The design also features a versatile invisible lapel top button functional closure, ingeniously and elegantly achieved by applying our extreme handstitch technology work between the collar and lapel to create the buttonhole without being visible on the lapel itself, and providing its owner with additional options to wear the jacket fully buttoned up to the neck...





The new GBS CVJ02 is a beautiful lightweight versatile warm weather jacket that offers ultra cool avant garde styling balanced with impeccable classic handmade tradition and codes. A limited edition of only twenty examples in the world is currently being produced for 2021. Each one is handsigned and numbered by the designer and individually by created by hand in our world famous workrooms to offer excellent short and long term value for its owner.








Above: The CVJ02 also features our world leading natural pure silk created exclusively for us by Mion SpA in Torreglia which is the first label in the luxury industry to completely eliminate plastic polyester yarns in it, and also comes with matching GBS handmade triple filtration tailor's respiratory community mask as standard equipment for ongoing Covid-19 pandemic protection wear. For Evolution II, the CVJ02 is currently being created in a limited edition of only twenty examples for the worl, each one handsigned and numbered by the designer exclusively for Hirshleifer's in Manhassett (NY), Joyce in Hong Kong, Cathedral in Osaka & Ginza, Darklands in Berlin, Eth0s in Shanghai, Void in Shenzhen, and Common Place and Dongliang in Beijing.



coming up next the CVP05 supertrouser in detail...

(to be continued)

[Geoffrey B. Small]

(continued from above)



So while all the talk and idiot fashion media headlines in the past few days are obsessing about more and more buyouts, mergers and selling of luxury brands and designers to ever larger corporate owners to "shore up their finances as a result of the pandemic" or "expand their collaborations and market positioning potential", we quietly suggest a different approach. Try working on your product for once. Try investing in your people and your factory (that means your own factory with real employees, not your subcontractor's that you are subbing out all your production to)- because that is the only way you will ever come close to making clothes that are made like no other in the world and that provide customers with the real value that they are increasingly demanding once they realize how badly they are getting ripped off by all the fakers in this so-called designer and luxury business. For us it's just about totally focusing on going the other way than everybody else in this industry- and the new CVP05 is no exception. Nobody makes a classic tailored drawstring trouser as light or as superbly constructed and cut as this. Created for the world in only 36 examples exclusively for Cathedral in Osaka & Ginza, Darklands in Berlin, Gullam in Daikanyama (Tokyo), Souterrain in Roppongi (Tokyo), Hirshleifer's in Manhassett NY, Dongliang in Beijing, and Ink and Joyce in Hong Kong.





the CVP05 supertrouser























The CVP05 is being made by hand from our own exclusive relaxed dress drawstring waist leisure trouser pattern from our extensive tailoring research using a deluxe “superleggero” super light silk & linen seersucker stripe weave fabric developed for us by Luigi Parisotto- the world's leading research fabric maker in Sarcedo Vicenza, then specially hand dyed in our studios using a process which takes over 8 hours for each piece to achieve its special color, patina effects, and softness...

















A superb pure wool soft but substantial belting tape created by the reknowned Nastrificio Victor Spa tape specialists in Piove di Sacco Padova is used for the drawstring of the trouser all beautifully finished and constructed....

















The piece also features beautifully finished interior Italian satin taped seam finishing and tailoring work, and our world leading pure silk label created exclusively for us by Mion SpA in Torreglia which is the first label in the luxury industry to completely eliminate plastic polyester yarns in it...


















Super clean tailored in the seam side pockets and a slightly dropped position rear tailored patch pocket give the design a refined but relaxed styling and functionality...






















The CVP05 is an exceptional versatile wardrobe piece that bridges tailoring, relaxed wear and sport and also provides extra superb value with real hand sewn taped hemlines (not machined) which required over an hour of handstitching work, generous 2,5 centimeter seam allowances on major fitting seams that allow the trouser to be altered and let out or taken in, a full size larger than its original cut, and extra large hem allowance inside which lets you roll up the bottoms with an ultra clean finished look....


























The CVP05 also works flawlessly with our pure Como Silk Tintoretto print supershirt from Evolution I, and handmade all natural vegetable tanned Tuscan leather sustainable trainer shoe created for us exclusively by Giuseppe Rebesco.










coming up next the CVP04 supertrouser in detail...




(to be continued)

[Geoffrey B. Small]

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CVP04 supertrouser


IN earlier times, when clothes were made by tailors for people who relied on them make absolutely sure that their garments would take care of and protect them during their lives... when it was expected to invest at least a week's wages in a good suit that would last as long as possible and deliver its very best value for money... it was customary to get 2 pair of trousers for 1 jacket. The trousers you see, would get the toughest wear and if not rotated with another pair--would wear out in the seat, pockets and knees well before the jacket would reach a similar condition. So good tailors and smart customers would double up on the trouser in the same cloth as the jacket and thus get the maximum wearing life for the suit. In the long run, the extra pair of trousers would save you a ton of money and keep your favorite suit usable for many years throughout your life. For us, nothing has changed since then. Smart customers and competent tailors are still getting the best return on investment whenever they can get a 2nd matching trouser to go with a great jacket. That's why our Evolution II suit-relax and sport combination has 3 pieces in it. And what's really cool about it is that the 2 trousers are slightly different. One is a sporty drawstring tailored trouser the CVP05, the other is a more classic dress work trouser, that's the impeccably built superlight CVP04 shown here below...










The CVP04 trouser design is being made by hand from a modified 1940’s button fly front reproduction work trouser pattern from our extensive tailoring research and cut in a deluxe “superleggero” super light silk & linen seersucker stripe weave fabric developed for us by Luigi Parisotto- the world's leading research fabric maker in Sarcedo Vicenza, then specially hand dyed in our studios using a process which takes over 8 hours for each piece to achieve its special color, patina effects, and softness...






The design features a relaxed leg cut, special coin pocket (above), hand built concealed button-fly front construction with real horn buttons made for us in Parma, Italy by the world's greatest living buttonmakers-Claudio and Cinzia Fontana, and our signature hand stitched buttonholes (each one requires 8-10 minutes to cut and sew) in luxurious pure silk Bozzolo Reale Milano Seta threads...







and impeccable clean-finished interior construction with Italian satin tape finishing...








The piece also features our world leading natural pure silk label created exclusively for us by Mion SpA in Torreglia which is the first label in the luxury industry to completely eliminate plastic polyester yarns in it entirely attached by hand with silk Bozzolo threads, and all handcut and tailored besom back and curved slash front pockets...











First class value all the way: all handsewn taped hemlines (not machined), generous 2.5 centimeter seam allowances on a all major fitting seams which allow the piece to be altered up to a full size up or down as its owner's body changes over time...






A super artisanal clothing investment, the CVP04 is an exceptional warm weather trouser available in either full length ( as shown on model form) or 8/10 advanced cropped length (as shown on hanger). Bespoke handmade clothing enthusiasts know that traditionally one would always have two trousers made to match one jacket as trousers always wore out faster than the jacket, and in this way- its owner would get maximum life and wear for a suit. We suggest the same idea for our dealers and their clients in this case, which not only provides a complete system of versatile wear combinations from office to home to a jog around the park - but also a phenomenal long term design value for looking and feeling great whenever the weather gets warm or hot...



















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[Geoffrey B. Small]

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CVS01 supershirt


THINK of it as the latest GeForce GPU card for your wardrobe. Anybody keeping up with computers these days knows that game PC technology is blowing the doors off of anything out there. Innovation at firms like Nvidia, MSI, Acer Nitro, AMD and Asus- and the creativity of the free-build design PC user community is achieving processing speeds and capacity of unprecedented levels to run bigger, more complex and more beautiful and realistic virtual experiences and applications.

In 21st century modern clothing design, the GBS Evolution community of (1) the world's most advanced tailoring organization at Cavarzere Venezia in Italy, (2) exclusive GBS Evolution dealers on 3 continents and (3) forward thinking aware customers and supporters around the planet... are leading a revolution in the technology of how human beings should be making clothes and dressing themselves- in a world now exploding with unchecked contamination, global warming, slavery, corruption, abuse, and waste. We're done with all the talkers. It's time for action. With its symbolic hand dyed black superlightweight organic silk and linen L. Parisotto seersucker punched up with completely hand sewn detailing in red pure silk Bozzolo Milano threads and superb real mother of pearl buttons, the CVS01 handmade supershirt throws a nod to sharp gamers who are into dressing well and also takes value and cool summer tailoring quality to a new level...









The CVS01 is being made by hand from a classic European cut tailored shirt pattern and french early twentieth century workwear details from our extensive tailoring research, and cut in a deluxe super light silk & linen seersucker stripe weave fabric developed for us by Luigi Parisotto- the world's leading research fabric maker in Sarcedo Vicenza, then specially hand dyed in our studios using a process which takes over 8 hours for each piece to achieve its special color, patina effects, and color softness...





The design features a very functional and useful special 1930's workwear double-breast pocket design combined with impeccable
classic European tailored men’s shirt cut and collar proportions...





...with special handstitch detail work in contrast pure silk threads and a beautiful amber color tinted real mother-of-pearl
button made for us in Brescia Italy by the Lanzanova family of master pearl button specialists...





The piece also features special handsewn embroidery detail work in contrast red silk threads with
all double back-handstitched pure silk thread label detailing work on front and back yoke panels...





The very time consuming expert detail work adds a touch of color to the darker black foundation patinas
and both enhances and affirms the design's ultra artisanal quality and character with a symbolic nod to gamer style...





...combined with the no less than 12 of our signature hand sewn buttonholes (each one requires 8-10 minutes to cut and sew,
over 3 hours of expert and painstaking work on buttonholes and buttons for a single shirt) in luxurious pure silk Bozzolo Reale
Milano Seta threads...





And like all of our GBS handmade supershirts- expert single-needle stitching throughout and beautifully finished all-french-seamed
interior construction that blows away anything else in the so-called luxury designer brand market today...





The CVS01 is a superb value, versatile, and impeccably handmade shirt designed to go with everything in our evolution II
and III programs for 2021- including the CVP06 Fratelli PIacenza super 140's Sublime trouser design shown here below
from our last proposal message...





The piece also features our world leading natural pure silk label created exclusively for us by Mion SpA
in Torreglia which is the first label in the luxury industry to completely eliminate plastic polyester yarns in
it, and comes with a matching undyed deluxe GBS handmade triple filtration tailor's respiratory community
mask as standard equipment for ongoing Covid-19 pandemic protection wear.



Extreme comfort, sustainability, and sharp style that will last and serve its owner well for a very long time. Experience the high technology of handmade clothing in your wardrobe with the new GBS Evolution II CVS01- only 16 made in the world- exclusively for Hirshleifer’s in Manhassett (NY), Provogue in Nagoya, Liberté in Kobe, Ink and Joyce in Hong Kong, Void in Shenzhen and Dongliang in Beijing.



(to be continued)

[Geoffrey B. Small]

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THAT place in the photo below is the home of the oldest still running woolen mill in the world today, now in its seventh generation of family direction and hands down the best fine wool fabric makers on the planet...





...the formidable Fratelli Piacenza 1733 SpA at Pollone in the provincia of Biella, is one of our most important partners as we continue to build on a 17-year collaborative journey of excellence with them. For Evolution II, a special new group of GBS superpieces was developed using their phenomenal dark mini-herringbone "spinato" weave pure Super 140's virgin wool "Sublime" luxury wool suiting that bridge classic tailoring value with a new relaxed comfort and styling. Much of the credit goes to our legendary dealer partners in Japan whose input requested this precise direction along with the fabric itself which was already extremely successful in our Paris AW2020 "Just another Boston guy" collection worldwide. A proven transitional cross-seasonal fabric, the Piacenza "Sublime" luxury wool suiting pieces offered long term money in the bank values and further enhanced AW2020 designs in the same cloth for extraordinary customer wardrobe building options.






Above : That's me and the great master Nobuhiko Akiyoshi, our commercial director and boss of the Le Berger Agency in Tokyo (and former buyer and manager at the legendary Minority-Rev stores in Fukuoka) during a visit to Pollone, Biella... home of the world-famous Lanificio Piacenza, founded in 1733 and the longest continually running woolen mill in the world (still run independently by the 7th generation of the Piacenza family) and makers of a superb value luxury wool cloth called*"Sublime"...





For Evolution II, a special new group of GBS superpieces was developed using their phenomenal dark mini-herringbone "spinato" weave pure Super 140's virgin wool "Sublime" luxury wool suiting that bridge classic tailoring value with a new relaxed comfort and styling. Much of the credit goes to our legendary dealer partners in Japan whose input requested this precise direction along with the fabric itself which was already extremely successful in our Paris AW2020 "Just another Boston guy" collection worldwide. A proven transitional cross-seasonal fabric, the Piacenza "Sublime" luxury wool suiting pieces offered long term money in the bank values and further enhanced AW2020 designs in the same cloth for extraordinary customer wardrobe building options.



CVS04 "Sublime" Piacenza super 140's supershirt












The CVS04 is created using our band collar classic longer-length, relaxed fit °old timers° tailored men’s shirt pattern, from our extensive tailoring research, which has been developed and perfected over many years in our collections and features a uniquely balanced cut, fit and design which can be worn tucked in or out with total style, elegance and really great comfort- in simplest terms this piece is really easy to wear and already has become a best-seller among our Japan Evolution II dealers...






...and cut using Super 140's "Sublime" mini-herringbone weave luxury wool suiting cloth woven in Pollone Biella by the oldest woolen mill still operating in the world today and the world most reknowned maker of fine wool fabrics- Fratelli Piacenza 1733... then rendered even better by specially washing and treating the fabric by hand in our studios at Cavarzere for extra aging and softness. (above bottom left): the elegant side slit vents and assymetrical longer back dimensions look great untucked and provide better security when tucked in. (above bottom right): beautiful classic back yoke and shoulder pleat construction enhance fit, comfort and movement.





Claudio and Cinzia Fontana's amazing new incision-cut horn button designs are just one more example of what makes them the world's greatest living buttonmakers and help render a beautifully elegant textural story of impeccably crafted all natural materials for the design...




Above: the square cut sleeve cuffs, impeccable clean-finished french-seam interior construction, and no less than eight of our signature real hand-stitched buttonholes (each one requires 8-10 minutes of rare and totally expert work to cut and sew) in luxurious pure silk Bozzolo Reale Milano Seta threads, further add to the uniqueness of the design and its impeccable quality and value. Below: Like all Evolution II designs, the CVS04 represents our industry-leading 40-year sustainable design and practice commitment, as well as our focus on providing maximum protection and safety for our customers with our designs during and after the Coronavirus global pandemic. As such, it features our world leading pure silk label created exclusively for us by Mion SpA in Torreglia which is the first label in the luxury industry to completely eliminate plastic polyester yarns in it, and comes with a matching Piacenza Sublime fabric deluxe GBS handmade triple filtration tailor's respiratory community mask as standard equipment for Covid-19 pandemic protection wear...













Handmade wingtip vegetable tanned toscana leather dress mountain shoe by Giuseppe Rebesco for GBS.
The CVS04 was made exclusively this season for Cathedral in Osaka and Ginza (Tokyo), Ripe Ark in Utsunomiya,
Carrefour in Jiyugaoka (Tokyo), Hues in Fukuoka, Ink in Hong Kong and Hirshleifer's in Manhassett New York.
Coming up next: the Piacenza Sublime supertrouser.




(to be continued)

[Geoffrey B. Small]

(continued from above)



A FEW years ago somebody on SZ commented on this thread, that "GBS was all about process and not about creative design."
Our view is that process is design, you cannot separate the two. And without total control and knowledge of your process you cannot innovate or control your art. Like Picasso stated "an artist is only as good as what he (or she) knows."

Further to that, if you have great process you will have great design with substance. Without it, you are creating mediocrity- no matter how pretty you can try to dress it up. It's like those super expensive celebrity chef restaurants that serve you plate presentations that look great... but once you put their "work" or "product" into your mouth- it's nothing worth the 250-300 bucks you are being asked to pay for it. That's what Marco Pierre White calls "The Big Lie" in fine restaurant dining these days. And you know what? Fashion and clothing is no better (indeed this writer would say it is worse).

The majority of "designers" have virtually no control over their processes--let alone know anything about them. Put 99 percent of the current DJ-fashion-designer-artistic-director-artisan-whatever-they-want-to-call-themselves in front of a 5000 stitch per minute industrial sewing machine or on a cutting table with a 20-inch steel pair of real cutting scissors and they will be lucky if they don't maim themselves within the first 3 minutes of trying make their "brilliant ideas" in real life. Yes dear readers, this industry is full and bloated with fakers posing as geniuses. And Covid is giving them a good run for the money.

I argue that process is everything in art. Anybody who knows art history will tell you so. Just look at the story of DaVinci and the Flemish when they started to use oil instead of water to paint their pictures. Or Cimabue and Giotto when they started to use perspective. Did the impressionists think about their processes? Hell yes they did. Real artists are always obsessed with process.

But in an age of hype, some circles think that such things don't matter anymore--or that nobody can tell the difference. We beg to differ. If we ask ourselves where are going? What do we want our art to envision and emulate: Da Vinci or Jeff Koons? I think most human beings after looking over the life works of both will see and appreciate the difference.

So yeah, we are committed to expanding, developing and perfecting our processes. It's an obsession.

Because that is the heart and soul of our art and our creativity. And at this time in the world and this metier, no designer or firm other than ours has invested more time, money and human organizational effort across 4 decades into the focused building of making clothing by hand better and better than GBS. So our designs work because of our obsession, they have substance and value- in addition to creativity and beautiful aesthetics- they perform when you wear them. They are not a lie and the pandemic brings out the best in them- because during real crises people's clothing becomes far more important than before. Just look around the world today. As designers and more importantly as tailors, we have a responsibility to provide the best clothing in the world for our customers. an our community. The CVP06 supertrouser is no exception and its process, provenance and resulting aesthetics are exceptional for an industry today focused on hype, lack (or downright skipping ) of process, ugly (as a concept), and overpriced lies. May we suggest a better solution...





CVP06 Sublime Piacenza super 140's supertrouser








The super limited edition CVP06 trouser design was made by hand from our classic button-fly front,
relaxed leg military trouser pattern developed from our extensive tailoring research using a Super 140s
"Sublime" mini-herringbone weave luxury wool suiting cloth woven in Pollone Biella by the oldest
woolen mill still operating in the world today and the world most reknowned maker of fine wool fabrics
Fratelli Piacenza 1733... then individually washed and treated by hand in our studios for extra aging,
softness and drape...






The design features an all hand tailored concealed button fly-front, impeccable clean-finished French-seamed
interior construction, and uniquely balanced cut, fit and design, exquisite horn and leather buttons created
exclusively for us by Claudio and Cinzia Fontana in Parma Italy, and our signature real hand sewn buttonholes
in luxurious pure silk Bozzolo Milano Seta Reale threads (which required at least 8-10 minutes to create
each one)...






A sumptous, beautifully finished interior like no other and designed to last- so well thought out and executed, you might
want to wear them inside out- all the way down to the contrast Fratelli Piacenza 1733 Sublime super 140's birsdeye weave
luxury wool used to line the waistband interior...






Quality and performance at every corner- handcut pockets all reinforced and cut in the precious self fabric for both comfort
and durability, and generous large belt loops to accomodate any size belt...





More serious wardrobe collector's quality and performance: generous 2.5 centimeter seam allowances on all
major fitting seams for plenty of alteration capability to take in or let out (which allows its owner to wear them
over many years), exquisite striped jacquard weave taped hems made by specialists in Brescia all completely
sewn by hand requiring over an hour and half to masterfully execute...













Worn together, the CVS04 and CVP06 offer your client a multitude of elegant,
relaxedlooks and options and a world of comfortable style...






The piece also features our world leading pure silk label created exclusively for us by Mion SpA in Torreglia
which is the first label in the luxury industry to completely eliminate plastic polyester yarns in it, and comes
with a deluxe matching Piacenza "Sublime" super 140's luxury wool cloth GBS handmade triple filtration
tailor's respiratory community mask as standard equipment for ongoing Covid-19 pandemic protection wear.




Items were photographed with our ultra-
classic vegetable tanned Tuscan leather
RNZ04 wingtip brogue shoe handmade
by Giuseppe Rebesco in San Zenone di
Ezzelino for GBS.




For Evolution II, the CVP06 Piacenza super 140's supertrouser was made in a super limited series of only 9 pieces for the world- in Japan at Carrefour, Jiyugaoka; Cathedral Osaka & Ginza; Hues Fukuoka, and Ripe Ark Utsunomiya, in China at Void in Shenzhen, and in all of the Americas exclusively at Hirshleifer's in Manhassett New York.



(to be continued)

.

[Geoffrey B. Small]

(continued from above)




AND now for the jacket.

It was made in the same Fratelli Piacenza "Sublime" super 140's luxury wool suiting as the CVS04 supershirt and CVP06 supertrouser pieces from above and it truly is a remarkable example of classic workwear design executed at a new level of sartorial excellence and superlux artisanal materials, details and technologies. If you appreciate work clothing be assured that virtually every aspect of this classic chore coat design is firmly respected and adhered to--what's totally different though is its impeccable fabrics, finishing and pure noble substance and sophistication as a garment that only GBS can do. It's impossible to tell where the work coat ends and the super luxury jacket begins...











The CVJ07 superworkjacket


The GBS Evolution II super limited edition CVJ07 handmade work jacket design is created from our original single-breasted 5-button, 4- pocket front “chore coat” pattern developed from our extensive tailoring research, and cut using Super 140's "Sublime" mini-herringbone weave luxury wool suiting cloth woven in Pollone Biella by the oldest woolen mill still operating in the world today and the world most reknowned maker of fine wool fabrics- Fratelli Piacenza 1733, combined with exquisite new jacquard weave design luxury viscosa linings by Ezio Ghiringhelli in Varese, then specially washed and treated by hand in our workrooms for extra aging and softness. The design features expert single-needle double- stitched tailored construction with a special Piacenza Super 140's "Sublime" birdseye weave luxury wool front interior placket, pocket fully lined interior, incredible real horn and leather buttons made for us in Parma, Italy by Italy’s greatest living button-makers, Claudio and Cinzia Fontana, and no less than 8 of our spectacular real hand-stitched buttonholes (that require at least 8-10 minutes to create each one) in luxurious pure silk Bozzolo Reale Milano Seta threads. The piece also features our world leading pure silk natural hand dyed label created exclusively for us by Mion SpA in Torreglia which is the first label in the luxury industry to completely eliminate plastic polyester yarns in it, and comes with a matching Piacenza "Sublime" fabric GBS triple-filtration tailor's mask as standard equipment for ongoing Covid-19 pandemic protection wear.






The GBS Evolution II super limited edition CVJ07 handmade work jacket design is created from our original single-breasted 5-button, 4- pocket front “chore coat” pattern developed from our extensive tailoring research, and cut using Super 140's "Sublime" mini-herringbone weave luxury wool suiting cloth woven in Pollone Biella by the oldest woolen mill still operating in the world today and the world most reknowned maker of fine wool fabrics- Fratelli Piacenza 1733, then specially washed and treated by hand in our workrooms for extra aging and softness...







The design features expert single-needle double- stitched tailored construction with a special Piacenza Super 140's "Sublime" birdseye
weave luxury wool front interior placket and details...







-incredible real horn and leather buttons made for us in Parma, Italy by Italy’s greatest living button-makers, Claudio and Cinzia Fontana...





and no less than 8 of our spectacular real hand-stitched buttonholes (that require at least 8-10 minutes to create each one) in luxurious pure silk Bozzolo Reale Milano Seta threads...











-combined with exquisite new jacquard weave luxury viscosa linings by Ezio Ghiringhelli in Varese.











The piece also features our world leading pure silk label created exclusively for us by Mion SpA in Torreglia which is the first label in the luxury industry to completely eliminate plastic polyester yarns in it, and comes*with a deluxe matching Piacenza Sublime cloth GBS handmade triple filtration tailor's respiratory community mask as standard equipment for ongoing Covid-19 pandemic protection wear. Discover new dimensions in handmade elegant workwear design interpretations that are like no other. Only three examples of the CVJ07 have been made in the entire world, each exclusively for Hirshleifer's in Manhassett New York.


(next up: a key factor in what made the revolutionary GBS Evolution program possible...)