Fab 40: Sealup Rainwear

Italy

The real engine of Italian fashion is not the huge marketing machine of the major brands but the string of high quality manufacturers and makers whose skills and materials they depend on. Sealup, founded in Milan in 1935, produces rainwear for a number of our favourite brands but its own collections – Sealup for covetable classics and Filippo Chiesa for a more contemporary edge – are increasingly desirable in their own right.

See more from Sealup

Padova-based Belvest, meanwhile, is where the big brands turn for luxurious fabrics – including Mongolian cashmere, vicuna as well as cashmere/mink and cashmere/chinchilla blends – and tailoring. Its own line is an exercise in understated class. Aida Barni-Annapurna is the place to turn for the finest cashmere knits, produced in the company’s factory in Prato, near Florence.

www.sealup.net

www.belvest.com

16 October 2009 | Fashion