At a cocktail party and an intimate dinner, the menswear line’s CEO celebrated the boutique’s architectural transformation and the brand’s storied tailoring
Words by ELIZABETH VARNELL
Photography by PRESLEY ANN/GETTY IMAGES
Third-generation CEO Stefano Canali joined C Magazine founder Jennifer Smith at the made-in-Italy line’s newly reimagined Rodeo Drive boutique on Tuesday, October 28, for cocktails before hosting a rooftop dinner on Wednesday, October 29, with a number of creatives. As Italy came to Hollywood to celebrate Canali’s lifestyle evolution inside the new space evoking a Milanese dwelling, complete with a lounge, a group of tastemakers emerged to join in. James Marsden, Regé-Jean Page, Chace Crawford, Paul W. Downs, Warren Alfie Baker, Law Roach, Jason Bolden, Karla Welch, Mark Holmes, Taylor Jacobson, Monty Jackson, and Nick Wooster were all on hand to share a meal, a DJ set by Ally O’Neil, and a live guitar performance by Sam Marsey.
Following founding brothers Giacomo and Giovanni and their sons — Giuseppe, Genesio, and Eugenio — Stefano Canali has steered the suit maker toward creating a variety of new wardrobe staples from his office in Milan, while ensuring that the enterprise never strays from the brand’s expert craftsmanship and the culture of its ancestral Sovico home. He sat down with us in the lounge of the new Beverly Hills boutique to talk about the push of modernity and the evolution of tailored menswear. Canali pointed to the bar and noted that time has become one of our biggest luxuries, explaining the importance of creating spaces that feel inviting, like a home, albeit one with very exacting details and a proper collection of Italian wines. “People need a place to relax, have some coffee, or a drink at the bar,” he said.
Dressed in a suit made to resemble indigo denim, Canali also wore the line’s ingenuity on his sleeve. “[Textile manufacturers and weavers] are basically able to pair yarns of different colors with a special technique that eventually delivers this effect,” he said. “Even though this is 100 percent wool, it totally looks like denim. I love that, the disbelief. That is my favorite thing about the ability to make things that look like something they’re not.” He called this one of Canali’s strong suits. “That’s the whole point of having expertise, right? That you feel sort of strongly in your abilities, right? And being able to do something new. Of course, we have skills transferred over decades, over centuries.”
Canali said the piece he loves, in terms of ingenuity, is the line’s Kei jacket, what he calls “the execution of a very light sportscoat.” He’s drawn to it because of the challenge it presented to create. “It was very difficult to conceive, even more difficult to craft, and at the end is the ultimate expression of our craftsmanship,” he said. “This was a challenge for us because with less it’s more difficult to construct. If you take off shoulder pads, if you take off material, it takes a lot of skill to craft it, to get it to have the right shape. Because at the end of the day, high quality sport is supposed to be clean and at the same time, it’s supposed to be very comfortable.”
He credited the cross-inspiration found in Italian museums, palaces, statues, and paintings as one of the ingredients fueling Canali’s inimitable design, from suits to sweaters to swim trunks. “At the end of the day, you’re absorbing the arts, the good taste,” he said. “We are one of the few companies that never decided to move production outside Italy. We have been 100 percent Italy ever since the company was established in 1933.” This responsibility, he added, was passed from his grandfather to his father and uncles, and now he shoulders it. “And of course we’re lucky enough to have wonderful ingredients and we can turn them into something unique,” Canali said. “So you must also come to Italy. What are you waiting for?”
November 18, 2025.
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