Carnet

Jacketing and fancy cloth from Como

Carnet works out of Guanzate, near Como, the northern Italian district that has handled silk and fancy cloth for generations. The house is a division of the Ratti group, a Como textile name founded in 1945, and it runs a working library rather than a museum: more than 4,000 fabrics in the catalogue, held in stock and cut to order from as little as half a metre.

That structure matters more than it sounds. Because Carnet cuts short lengths from stock, the book stays current. Seasonal jacketings and ceremony cloth come in, sell through, and the collection moves on, so what you see at a fitting is what the house believes in right now.

The menswear range runs from wool, cashmere and linen through to Harris Tweed and seersucker, but the centre of gravity is jacketing and occasion cloth: texture and pattern you choose when the brief is anything but plain.

We reach for Carnet when the garment is for an event rather than an office. A dinner jacket with a figured face, or a wedding suit that photographs as well as it wears. Ask to see the current book at your fitting; the right length tends to announce itself.