Antonio Guabello and his brother founded their lanificio in the Biella district of Piedmont in 1815, and the family had been in textiles there since the previous century. It has been part of the Marzotto Group since 1991, weaving around 1.1 million linear metres a year at the mill at Mongrando with about 200 people. What Guabello is known for above everything else is flannel for men, and we are going to be straight with you about that: flannel is not a Chennai cloth. There is still a real reason to have Guabello in the room, and a couple of situations where the flannel is exactly right.
Founded 1815, and still weaving in the same valley
Lanificio Guabello Antonio e Fratello was founded in 1815 in the Biella textile district, by Antonio Guabello and his brother. The family had been making cloth in the area through the eighteenth century before that, so the 1815 date marks the formal start of the named mill rather than the start of the craft.
Ownership has moved twice in the modern era. The mill was sold to the Bertrand group in the late 1970s, and in 1991 it was acquired by the Marzotto Group, one of the largest textile organisations in Italy. It trades today as a division of Biella Manifatture Tessili within that group, keeping its own name and its own book.
Production stays at the Mongrando factory, and the mill carries the Biella guaranteed-origin mark, which certifies that the significant stages of manufacture happened in the Biella district rather than being finished there after being woven elsewhere. In a market with a lot of loose talk about Italian cloth, that is a claim with teeth behind it.
The flannel, and the honest Chennai conversation about it
Flannel is a milled cloth. After weaving, the fabric is worked so the surface fibres lift slightly, which gives it a soft matte face with no hard sheen and a weight and drape that most worsteds cannot touch. A flannel suit hangs like nothing else, forgives a lot in the cutting, and looks quietly expensive without any pattern doing the work. Guabello are among the best in the world at it.
We are not going to pretend it is an everyday choice here. Flannel is a cold-weather cloth. Wearing one through a Chennai afternoon in April would be an act of self-harm, and any tailor who sells you a full flannel suit as your first commission in this city is not thinking about you.
There are three situations where it is right. If you travel for work to Europe, North America or North India in winter, a flannel suit is the correct thing to own and you will be glad of it. If you want one suit for the December and January window here, flannel in a lighter weight works. And a pair of grey flannel trousers under a lighter jacket is one of the best things you can wear in an office kept at 20 degrees, which describes a lot of Chennai offices.
The rest of the book, which is where most Chennai customers land
Guabello is not a one-cloth mill. The collections run across superfine wool, silk, cashmere and linen, on their own and in blends, in constructions from suiting weights down to lighter summer cloths.
Their fine worsteds are the part of the range we open most often. You get the same Biellese finishing discipline that makes the flannel so good, applied to a cloth you can wear in July. The mill supplies large Italian and international clothing houses, which is why the quality holds so evenly from piece to piece.
For a customer who likes the look of flannel but has to live here, the honest substitute is a fine worsted in a soft mid-grey with a slightly matte finish. It is not the same cloth. It gets you most of the way to the same suit.
Guabello at Sellers
We keep Guabello on the shelf for two kinds of customer. The first travels, and needs a cold-weather suit made properly rather than bought in a hurry at an airport. The second wants the Biellese finish in a lighter cloth and does not need the name on the label to be one everybody recognises.
Guabello cloth is available to order through us across the suiting and jacketing collections. When you come in, tell us where the suit is going to be worn and in what month, because with this mill more than most, that answer decides everything.