Italian Niche Brands to Know from Chicago Collective in August 2025

MILAN — The allure of Made in Italy continues to reverberate Stateside.

Even if recent tariff threats and negotiations have cast a gloomy outlook on the Italian fashion brands eyeing to grow their business in the U.S., this week’s edition of the Chicago Collective will see a number of players joining the fair in hopes of boosting their footprint.

Often niche and independent, the roster gets credit for updating Made in Italy credentials for a global, younger and digital-native audience.

Here WWD picked four names not to miss at the show.

Tagliatore

The brand’s history is marked by several pivots that followed business shifts and the founding family’s evolving passions.

The company was established in 1940 in Martina Franca, in Apulia, by Vito Lerario as a shoemaker. Lerario’s nickname, “tagliatore,” or “patternmaker” in English, would be picked up years later by his son Franco, who shifted to apparel by opening a tailoring workshop in 1984.

Initially an artisanal, micro-sized business, the company got a major boost — and international fame — in 1988 when costume designer Bob Ringwood asked the younger Lerario to curate the wardrobe for Tim Burton’s 1989 movie “Batman.”

Under the lead of Franco’s son Pino, the current creative director, the workshop’s business morphed into a full-fledged menswear brand in 1999 under the Tagliatore moniker.

Hinged on Made in Italy production with fabrics sourced across the country’s most renowned textile districts, as well as from suppliers in France and the U.K., the brand straddles Italian effortless sartorialwear and the Brit’s penchant for a dressed-up attitude.

In addition to its menswear line, Tagliatore currently offers a womenswear line under the Tagliatore 0205 label.

Boasting global distribution, including in the U.S. at specialty menswear stores such as Boyds, Gorsuch, Khakis of Carmel, Halberstadt’s and Kilgore Trout, among others, the brand is returning to the Chicago Collective for the third time to unveil its spring 2026 collection.

Inspired by Lerario’s personal trips, the lineup reinterprets menswear staples including unlined blazers in textured linen and crocheted knit, or field jackets and Mandarin-collared blazers styled with roomy pants and shorts for a modern take on summer suiting. And the broken suit pairing of seersucker blazers with light blue jeans adds urban sophistication.

Barba Napoli

Founded in 1965 in the outskirts of Naples by Antonio Barba, the sartorial label kicked off its fashion journey in shirtmaking with the opening of an artisanal workshop.

A niche, if-you-know-you-know label rooted in the Neapolitan tailoring heritage, it later expanded its offering to ties and progressively built a total look for men between 2004 and 2010, introducing a womenswear line in the latter year. The company is currently helmed by Antonio’s sons Mario and Raffaele.

Hinged on timeless designs with a sophisticated, laid-back allure, its collections are entirely Made in Italy via a range of local suppliers, using top-notch textiles from the likes of Loro Piana and Vitale Barberis Canonico.

Marking its 60th anniversary this year, the brand is joining the Chicago Collective’s roster of Italian brands for the first time, in hopes it can fuel its footprint in the U.S., which currently accounts for 10 percent of its business.

Barba Napoli generates 65 percent of its sales outside Italy, with Europe accounting for about 40 percent, and although wholesale represents the brand’s biggest revenue-generator, the brand boasts stores on Milan’s Via Gesù, in the Golden Triangle luxury shopping district, as well as in Rome, winter resort Cortina d’Ampezzo and London’s Jermyn Street. The latter, opened in 2019, cemented the brand’s reputation in the realm of high-end suit-makers.

The spring 2026 collection to be unveiled at the Chicago trade show reiterates Barba Napoli’s penchant for formalwear with a Neapolitan allure, in the broken suits with double-breasted blazers, safari-jacketed ensembles styled over camp-collared shirts with subtle tropical prints and rib-knit polo shirts over swimwear conjuring La Dolce Vita vibes.

Sciamāt

In 2002, lawyer Valentino Ricci, a sartorialwear enthusiast, sought to challenge the status quo in Italy’s tailoring tradition, launching a new atelier that would refresh the journey of customers purchasing suits in the four-digit price range.

With his wife Silvana, brother Nicola and others, he established Sciamāt in Bitonto, a small town in Italy’s southern region of Apulia, channeling his self-taught tailoring skills in the creation of a distinctive look, hinged on deconstructed, unlined blazers with prominent, concave shoulders, nipped waistlines and wide lapels.

Drawing its name from the Persian expression “shāh māt” which means “checkmate,” the company has been offering made to measure and bespoke tailoring since its inception and later introduced a ready-to-wear line called Vibe, in addition to a womenswear range under the Lady Sciamāt moniker. In addition to its original atelier in Apulia, it boasts a showroom in Milan.

A first timer at the Chicago Collective, Sciamāt is unveiling its Vibe ready-to-wear line at the fair. The spring 2026 collection expands the brand’s sartorial vocabulary with the introduction of shirt-jackets flanking its signature unlined double-breasted blazer, both often worn in broken suit combinations.

An urban undercurrent runs through the lineup, for example in the side-zippered, biker-inspired outerwear crafted from tactile linen and wool blends, nodding to American casualwear.

Henderson Baracco

Italy is home to family-run fashion companies which have grown their scope from small artisanal ateliers to full-fledged brands — and Henderson Baracco is no exception.

Originally established by Giuseppe Baracco in 1932 in the Riviera del Brenta footwear manufacturing district in Italy’s Veneto region as an handmade shoemaker, the brand grew under the lead of his nephew Gino and later by his sons Gianluigi and Enrico, the founding Baracco family’s fourth generation, who inherited a globally recognized company, whose international footprint has been expanding since the ‘80s.

Known for its Made in Italy manufacturing and traditional styles, the collections range from monk straps and polished derbies to ultraflat loafers and boat-inspired moccasins, in addition to a range of casual sneakers.

For its first participation at the Chicago Collective with the spring 2026 collection, the brand is zeroing in on its unlined shoe construction technique, with penny loafers and weaved slippers crafted from calfskin, deerskin and suede in an earthy-hued color palette ranging from dark brown and olive green to neutrals including sand beige and gray.