"Behind the perfection of a man's style, must lie the passion of a man's soul."
So mused Oscar Wilde. His words easily fit the Italian gentleman, synonymous with bespoke elegance and unconstrained class; applauded at all latitudes and longitudes, his styling secrets proudly passed down from father to son as in the best formal or casual tradition.

A cultural approach to style incarnated by Gianni Agnelli and Marcello Mastroianni, icons of the past, or embodied by a gaggle of handsome international actors such as John Malkovich, Alessandro Gassman and Colin Firth. Their secret? Adding an eccentric dash and a whiff of irreverence to the classic rules of thumb. So contemporary chic. So irresistibly Bella Figura.

A wardrobe built on suits, butter-soft knitwear, crisp shirts and dapper pants, executed with painstaking love and care by the hands of expert craftsmen with centuries old traditions.

Italian men make it look easy. We know it isn't, which is why we're slipping you a primer on dressing, Italian style. Shh!