When the gentrifying onrush of creative industry Brooklyn incomers started appropriating workwear staples like Carhartt at the turn of this century, they were following a blueprint first laid out by Le Corbusier. Back in 1947 the OG brutalist asked his Left Bank tailor, Arnys, to run him up a pragmatic jacket to draft his Machines For Living In in. The house’s Léon Grimbert duly delivered, serving up an unstructured, round-necked, patch-pocket workwear jacket in purple corduroy that featured olive piping and gray elbow patches.
Christened Le Forestiere, it was modeled on those worn by gamekeepers in the Val-de-Loire. Back in 2012, when it was creatively directed by Alessandro Sartori and directly overseen by Antoine Arnault, Berluti purchased Arnys. As well as its impeccable tailoring archive and savoir faire—I once leafed through its swatch books containing Arnys orders from Pierre Bergé and Yves Saint Laurent (who by coincidence was responsible for first introducing Andy Warhol to Berluti)—that sale brought Berluti the heritage of Le Forestiere.
At this season’s Berluti presentation that heritage was unearthed for the first time in way too long. As well as a recreation of Le Corbusier’s original commission, there were new versions in suede, cashmere (the nicest), and velvet, plus a longer version (which I don’t think can truly be counted Forestiere) in a gray herringbone wool. Every workwear bro who got into Bitcoin or Nvidia early should get into a Forestie.
