I’ve been familiar with Gianluca Migliarotti’s work ever since I first saw his brilliant documentary film on the tailors of Naples, “O’Mast”. I thought it was such an incredibly good film because it was beautifully shot and edited, but particularly because Gianluca allowed these artists to speak for themselves. And as it turned out, they are as eloquent in speech as they are in their art.

Now this gifted film maker has turned his eye to the North, and to one tailor in Florence, Antonio Liverano. And this choice, I would hazard to guess, is not because there are no other fine tailors in that city, but because there is something special about this gifted artist. It is the uniqueness of Antonio Liverano that is being presented here.

First, it must be said that Liverano is a master craftsman who loves his workshop. You watch him roam with seeming casualness from workbench to workbench, patting one of the tailors on the back, offering a word of advice, admiring the fall of a sleeve. But of course there’s nothing casual about it, and you can see it in his eyes. They gaze, they penetrate, they examine and scrutinize. Because of course Liverano is a perfectionist, and every stitch and seam, every button and button hole are of great interest and importance to him. The watchful eye, loving, encouraging, but always critical.

The other important aspect of the film is that beauty of the subject is portrayed with equal beauty. Mr. Liverano is by nature a conservative man, but within the confines of tradition, he is himself molto chic. He understands how an elegant gentleman should dress and look because he is one himself. So, whether we see him in his atelier, or at The Armoury in Hong Kong, or in Tokyo, we see a man confident within himself, in the way he comports himself, in his speech, in his twinkling eye within his serious face.

It takes longer to become a master tailor than to become a surgeon, and with just as much dedication. And perhaps it is this dedication that the film shows more than anything, this commitment to beautifying the male form through the tailor’s art. By concentrating on this sense of commitment, the film makes us realize the relationship between the man and his work, between the artist and his art.  We feel the truth behind the adage that “the style is the man”, because we come to understand that in order to create these works of great artistry in cloth, the man who makes them must have that beauty within him. We see all that in this film, we see all that in Antonio Liverano.