High Summer 26 - Illusione Perfetta
“A deliberate withdrawal from noise, performance, and social choreography, into solitude, taste, memory, and chosen rhythm. The ‘perfect escape’ is not geographical. It is a reclaiming of inner authorship.
Illusione Perfetta came from Piero Piccioni’s scores. It is emblematic of the dream world we want to live in. A mishmash of reality and fiction, this is a story of Nino, who lives life between glamour, but deep down his choice is his own artistic world, and a world that is on pause.
Wiem is a Tunisian name we came across almost by accident. It means affection—plain, unembellished, without excess. Perhaps that is why it stayed with me. And no, don’t misread it. There was nothing romantic to claim. Just a brief, gentle encounter with a stranger while I was dining alone. Enough to linger, nothing more.
How did I get there? Well, earlier that day, stretched out on a sun lounger, I found myself surrounded by a scene that never quite belonged to me: booming speakers blasting le temps est bon, centre-staged a parade of grown men overdressed in confidence yet underdressed in taste, accompanied by women whose elegance felt borrowed for the occasion. No thank you, that is a pass.
I drove back.
The late afternoon softened as I dropped the needle onto Piccioni’s vinyl picked up from a small record store from a while back, then let Hareton Salvanini follow. My pulse, frantic moments before, slowed from a hummingbird’s tremor to something deeper, darker, still. Calm returned. The ocean stretched out before me. Music and nature folded into one another. Blue upon blue. This was enough.
That evening, I took the narrow trail down to a restaurant perched above the coast. I sat quietly, watching the light fade. Across the water lay Monaco—close enough to touch, distant enough to refuse. So near, yet entirely elsewhere. I knew then: I belonged here, not there.
For me, this was the perfect escape.”
High Summer 26 is a collection shaped by memory and instinct, a distillation of the colours, moods, and materials we return to every summer. Some designs trace back to our earliest days, familiar yet newly awakened. We also took this season to explore the metaphorical ideal of ‘the bridge’. Somehow, it’s like how our favourite genre Bossa Nova came to rise. At its core, the collection continues our ongoing dialogue between the old and the new, the formal and the relaxed. Some individual garments may echo the golden-era elegance of Art Deco, while the collection as a whole leans into the Riviera glamour of the 1950s and 60s. Yet, the execution is unmistakably ours, and we are comfortably lingering in this ‘new wave’, a space that isn’t so bound by history, but our interpretation, with colours, silhouettes and the fictional settings that we dream of.
A couple of key pieces we want to throw the spotlight on. They mark the return and evolution of our key house signatures. The Cream linen suit, gradually transitioning from our CORE collection into our iconic sueded linen series. Up till today, we are still taken away by that patina look that makes linen tailoring far more at ease. Alongside it, The Honey Jacket returns after eight years of patient refinement, the result of ongoing collaboration with weavers to achieve the balance we envisioned.
Encapsulated by the idea of “high vintage,” excess detailing isn’t something we usually do, but a good staple you can wear for as long as you like, that’s our jam. Some new Henleys are crafted from a fine honeycomb weave with a beautifully neat reinforced collar that we spent some time developing. They are remarkably smooth, breathable, and light. We’ve also revisited the Siesta Overshirt with subtle adjustments, refining proportions and ease without losing their character.
Shirting takes centre stage this season. Inspired by the colours of Cabana stripes seen on awnings and deckchairs, we continued the spirits with a curation of contrasted stripes with fine-tuned range. There are also a lot of use of silk and linen blends, also with technical excellence by adding pineapple fibres, giving that light feel to the cloth. In this current moment where lots of heavier, casual American-style work shirts flooding out, this type of Mediterranean lux, breezy shirtings that was once popularised isn’t so easy to encounter these days. Rest assured, they are making a return. With the stylistic update on colours and pattern curation, these are incredibly chic to wear. The palette leans fully into summer—sunlit, expressive, and calm. Within Artefacts, a full silk shirt in sandwashed silk stands out in its quiet elegance, a piece defined by texture as much as tone. That might just be a guilty pleasure, if not simply a great pleasure.
The Concours Gilet returns in a summer interpretation, playful and far more versatile than one can imagine, tried and tested. Elsewhere, familiar forms are reimagined and gently deconstructed. The Betterman Jacket, cousin of the Goodman, once rooted in eveningwear with all the stylistic hallmarks of 50s smoking jackets, is transformed into a garment that is chore-like, unstructured,drape-only. Fluid, relaxed, and resolutely modern.
There’s something about this collection that’s so nostalgic, but it’s also continuity. You can tell it’s the evolution of what we do. It is about carrying ideas forward, refining them through time. To continue to live life with quality and joy. Enjoy.