The day we landed at the City Palace in Jaipur, the sky was overcast, foreign tourists were still hanging out by the pink walls, the imposing chandeliers of Sukh Niwas, the royal family's living room, had partially lit up the black and white photo frames on marble tables, and loud music blasted from the terrace outside as Padmanabh Singh, the 20-year-old Maharaja of Jaipur, posed for photographs in a dinner jacket. With two horses.
As soon as the shoot was done, the Maharaja returned a ring he was sporting to John Vizzone, the Creative Director of Cifonelli, a Paris-based bespoke tailoring company that started in 1880. The Maharaja is endorsing the brand, his first major assignment since he became the unofficial King of Jaipur upon the death of his grandfather, the former Maharaja Bhawani Singh, in 2011.
Vizzone has a thing or two for royals. The brand's Fall Winter collection of 2016/17 was inspired by the Royal Palace of Madrid where the creative director, who earlier spent 24 years at Ralph Lauren, "revisited this palatial world of timeless opulence with tailored pieces of history recut for the Modern Prince". Today, working with a real king, he had spring in his feet. He wanted Padmanabh Singh to wear his ring during the shoots. And for a reason.
"Years ago, regal families had a crest on their rings. They would put that in hot wax and seal envelopes. The inspiration for this season's ready-to-wear collection (Spring Summer 19) has been the young regal guy. The Maharaja epitomises that guy. He is tall, good looking, and in good shape," Vizzone says. "He has a history but he represents today. We took all the vintage elements and combined them with modern elements to create a story."
Dressing the Maharaja appears a big deal but isn't tough. Like Vizzone says, he represents today. The King is on Instagram - the photos he posts give away a sense of style - there are those where he poses with swords, striped black suits, white and blue jackets, a Dolce & Gabbana tailored suit. He walked the ramp in Milan recently wearing a jacket fashioned like the Japanese kimono. Then there are holiday pictures, where he is more informally dressed, from the Lost City of Machu Picchu (where he wears a local head gear) to a beach town in Brazil (in tees and shorts).
Padmanabh Singh studied in boarding schools in India and then in England. It was in England that he started playing polo, and now represents the Indian team. It was also in England where a taste for fine tailoring blossomed.
"Growing up, I saw my grandfather, who had a particular taste for bespoke tailoring," the Maharaja says. "It has always been an important part of my dressing sense. It is very important for a gentleman to pay attention to these things and I want to get the message across to the youth of our country. It doesn't matter how old you are; a well-made suit is the most precious thing a gentleman can have in his wardrobe."
"A suit can be for all ages," he continues. "If you wear it with a nice scarf on the neck, it makes you look younger. For my age, I can wear a suit with a nice bow tie and go for a gala evening. Then take the bow tie off and go see some friends." The royal family, the Maharaja says, has been careful with endorsements. Cifonelli made the cut because, like the royals, they represent history.
"This is an old brand with a rich history. They have mastered the art. I always wanted nice, well-made stuff but something that represents my age. With Cifonelli, everything is super classy. Yet, it has that aspect of youth," he says.
The CEO of Cifonelli, Erwan Camphius, is a soft-spoken man. He was at the endorsement shoot in Jaipur too, quietly observing Singh. "We have mastered three major tailoring cultures - the French, the Italian, and the British ones. We took the best of each of these cultures," he says.
When the first Cifonelli atelier opened in 1880, it was Italian, founded by a gentleman called Giuseppe. His son, Arturo, moved to London to receive training at the Minister's Cutting Academy where he graduated in 1911. The company's website says that "this unique combination of Italian and English style laid out the bases of an unprecedented technicality" and that Arturo decided "to create a new Cut by merging the precision of the English tailoring with the softness and comfort of the Italian sartoria". In 1926, Arturo settled down in Paris.
Cifonelli remains famous for 'shoulder cut', which offers more freedom of movement and refines a man's figure when he wears the suit. The brand markets both bespoke and ready-to-wear. A basic bespoke suit, one done entirely by hand requiring 85 hours of manual work, starts at Euro 7,500.
"In bespoke, we are just over a 1,000 suits a year. But that makes us the biggest private atelier in bespoke, worldwide," the CEO says. "We run an atelier in Paris with 46 tailors and a factory in Italy that makes about 5000 suits a year, between ready-to-wear and made-to-measure."
What is Cifonelli making for the Maharaja? It ought to be 'what are they fitting for the Maharaja', because both Camphius and Vizzone seem obsessed with the art and philosophy of a nice fit. "Good tailoring empowers a man. Our job is not to make a suit. Our job is not to do fashion. Our job is to fit," Camphius explains. "Everybody has a different body. A different shape, a default on the body. No one is perfect. The job of a tailor, throughout a suit and a jacket, is to empower this person and to make him better."
Cifonelli decided to do the Maharaja's entire wardrobe, for the current season and the next.
"We are taking back some of his uniforms and garments he wants us to adapt. It is more a question of getting his confidence and fitting him properly," Camphius repeats. That wardrobe would include shirts, pants and suits.
The Maharaja likes Italy. The comfort of the Italian sartoria sits well, particularly because he is headed to Rome for a year. "I will be studying the history of art and architecture with special focus on preservation of cultural heritage," he tells us.
Well cut suits would both be empowering and help make a statement.