'It's where the texture is': Menswear expert Kirby Allison discusses Italian travel series

Menswear content creator and businessman Kirby Allison took a trip through Italy that could turn a clotheshorse's tie green with envy and produced an in-depth look at Italian quality, craftsmanship and tradition.

Allison traveled the peninsula for three weeks in the summer of 2023, documenting the ins and outs of "La Dolce Vita" through menswear, fine dining and high-end hospitality. The result is an over 20-part series called "Kirby's Grand Italian Tour" with episodes releasing on his eponymous YouTube channel throughout the summer.

Allison sat down with USA TODAY to discuss the "Grand Italian Tour," pushing the limits of YouTube and what one can learn from Italian style.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

Three weeks, brevemente

You are in the middle of releasing the "Kirby's Grand Italian Tour" series. Just off the top, can you summarize the tour before we get into the details?

Allison: My channel on YouTube, Kirby Allison, explores the world of quality craftsmanship and tradition around the world of the well-dressed and our traditional focus has really always been on that world in London. When one thinks of classic menswear, they think of the traditional English gentleman and the capital of that for men without question is London.

Savile Row, Jermyn Street, the Piccadilly Arcade. These are the places that the elite gentlemen of the last two centuries went to shop and get clothed. But as we've grown the channel, we've really been encouraged by our viewers to branch out and to explore where else in the world one can find quality craftsmanship and tradition thriving.

Outside of London, Italy is par excellence. It's really on the same level.  It's a different inflection but ultimately, fundamentally, that tradition of craft is very rich and very vibrant.

The grand tour of Italy was a two-week trip, three weeks through Italy, exploring the world of quality, craftsmanship, and tradition, predominantly through menswear companies like Stefano Bemer and Rubinacci. Also through lesser-known ones like Paolo Penko, which is a goldsmith in Florence.

We toured a Tuscan castle that is an Airbnb that hosts guests. We went to a winery in Tuscany, Biondi Santi. and just tried to explore as many different facets of Italian craft and culture to really kind of understand how is it different, where is it thriving, and what does the future look like?

YouTube videos as craft

USA TODAY: We'll get to the clothes of it all in a minute, but I want to pick up on that idea of craft. You ask someone off the street about YouTube and they don't think of "craft video."

The first frame in every episode of the “Grand Italian Tour,” reads “Kirby Allison Productions.” This is a major production. What went into making this series so cinematic and really trying to push a bit more quality on the platform?

Allison: It's always been my opinion that if we're going to be filming the stories of some of the world's greatest heritage brands, people that have dedicated not just their lives but generations of their family's legacy towards craft, that we had to practice our craft as a kind of a production at that same level. We bootstrapped our way through this journey.

I have no background in videography or in production, but I'm obsessive by nature. It was always my ambition to continue to push the quality of our craft as high as possible.

I think the quality of the footage that we captured in Italy is amongst the best that we've had. Blending that together with some travel has allowed us to create a much more dynamic and interesting series than just us having suits made on Savile Row, which could be quite linear. I mean, interesting, insightful, but linear.

The e-commerce business, kirbyallison.com, ultimately is what writes the check for all of the production. Italy is a great example where, if it hadn't been for the financial support of our Patreon community we wouldn't have been able to afford to have done it at that level.

Three weeks traveling around Italy with the production crew of five is not inexpensive and that's really the minimum threshold of what it takes to produce something like what you've seen in the series.

Patreon funding fuels ambitions

USA TODAY: How important is having (online) community support? You've been able to create the Patreon community and if anyone goes to look underneath the comments — which if you're a writer, you're generally advised not to do — but you have a very positive group of people in the comments and in your YouTube community. How important is that in order to put something, even as comparatively straightforward as the stuff you do in London or something as complex as this grand tour across Italy?

Allison: I think at the end of the day is what makes it all worthwhile, right? It's one of the things I love most about YouTube is the fact that we're able to build this community.

A lot of the people that you see commenting on videos, comment on all of our videos. Although many of us have never met in person, though I have met many of the people that watch the YouTube in person, the majority of us have not. There's still this sense that, somehow, we still know one another.

That helps really encourage me to continue to push the boundaries of what it is that we're doing in video production.

The Patreon community is important from a financial support perspective because in many ways Mr. Beast, I think, has kind of ruined the perception that just because you've got three quarters of a million subscribers and you're publishing videos on YouTube that you're making millions of dollars.

The reality is that our YouTube monetization has decreased over the years, despite our audience growing.

For the quality of videos that we're producing, it would be impossible to finance that just by virtue of the ad revenue share that we get from YouTube. It probably covers less than 20 percent of the overall production costs of the YouTube channel.

Now, the e-commerce site probably carries the lion's share of that. Our commitment to our patrons was that we would use 100 percent of those patron funds exclusively to support our ability to travel.

With a trip like Italy we're taking all those funds, what was probably a year's worth of financial support, and really put it into this one trip to be able to do something that was grand.

Local knowledge goes a long way

USA TODAY: As we talk today the series has gotten through the first day in Florence and with Tommaso Melani, the CEO of Stefano Bemer. How important was it from both a pre-production and then from being able to see those opportunities that come up to have someone like Tommaso that just have that little bit of local knowledge that maybe someone who is just going there on their own might not have?

Allison: I don't have the luxury of a full-time production team to kind of help do pre-production research and so a lot of these series really rely on a person helping anchor the piece in terms of giving local access and knowledge.

Tommaso at Stefano Bemer has grown up in Florence, his family has been there for several generations. What we did in Florence would have not been possible without Tommaso's support and is one of the reasons he's featured so heavily in that first part of the series in Florence.

There’s places that we were able to film in Florence that we never would have even known about had it not been for Tommaso.

Scuola del Cuoio, which is a leather-making school, is associated with his family but it's so off the beaten path that even researching it, we probably never would have known it was there.

Last week we published a video at one of the Michelin starred restaurants in Florence. The chef, Vito, is a friend of Tommaso's, he welcomed us at the bar and then gave us a tour of the kitchen and the dining room and told us the story and vision behind what he's doing.  

Places like that, even with a channel as large as mine, you generally would still have trouble getting access to unless you have an introduction by someone that is able to get you through that door.

Especially in this world of craft where these are not large companies with marketing and social media departments, people are generally so focused on what it is they're doing. Most aren't all that interested in kind of having some random person show up with a camera crew to disrupt their day.

That's where having someone that can speak for the quality of your work and make that personal introduction goes so far. Another great example is that I had a good friend of mine from Paris, he's a fellow member of one of the clubs I belong to in Paris who is Italian. He comes in a little bit later in Florence, but then basically was my traveling companion through Siena, Naples and Rome. We drive around in his 1988 Mercedes SL convertible.

And then again, the castle that we stayed at in Siena was a friend of his. We went to Bondi Santi, which is one of the most prestigious winemakers in all of Tuscany, was a friend of his.

These are places we never would have gained access to if it weren't for someone to really open those doors. That is so much a part of what I think makes the videos that we film exciting, at least for me, is the ability to gain access to something that one wouldn't ever be able to gain access to otherwise.

All of the places that we filmed with are open to the public. The access is really more about, one, knowing that they exist and then having the introduction to then allow us to go into film, which is a different commitment than just walking in as a tourist.

The road to style is the one less traveled

USA TODAY: We'll get to the clothes shortly but I think one of the things that your videos — whether they're in London or the "Grand Italian Tour" or even in Cuba — there's an inherent argument for getting off the beaten path, getting away from the high street or getting away from the luxury brands. How would you make the argument to people to get off of Park Ave. or Hollywood Blvd. and see the rest of a city or region they are in?

Allison: It is where the texture exists.

The texture is in these small, independent craftspeople that are really dedicating their entire lives to what it is they're doing, that's where the humanity exists.

The large fashion brands and luxury houses, the global ones, are great but at the end of the day, what they're selling is a fashion brand that that takes the people actually doing the work and makes them anonymous.

If you walk into a Chanel store they're never talking or speaking about the craftspeople actually making the bags and the way they're employing traditional techniques and the traditions that they're using in order to create those fantastic pieces. It's about a luxury brand.

What I find interesting is really the human story behind the product. That's where I think the true meaning of luxury exists, is in the humanity behind it.

The idea that you can purchase something from someone made by someone for you that's dedicated their entire life to doing it and learning it, and that is a continuation of a tradition that could span back hundreds of years. It takes something that could be otherwise ordinary and makes it all that much special.

Scuola del Cuoio is a great example: it's not a name or a brand that someone is ever going to recognize on the streets of New York because it's not a fashion brand, they don't have a global marketing budget. But, you can go into this workshop and see these craftspeople making bags at the same if not, honestly, an even higher quality level than what you would find from a global brand at a fraction of the price of what you would get at a high street vendor. I think this is where value exists. This is where it gets exciting and fun.

It's an opportunity for someone to really create kind of a personalized experience where they go in and commission a bag or have something monogrammed, they saw it being made or they saw where it was being made. And then, all of a sudden, that product is more than just a product, it's a memory. And that to me, like with bespoke clothing or bespoke shoe making, is really the most meaningful part of the experience.

How did Italian style rub off on Allison?

USA TODAY: I'll jump off of that because anyone who's followed you associates you with London. They associate you with a particular way of dressing, which I believe someone once compared you to a funeral director.

Allison: That's right. I filmed a video on that.

USA TODAY: Italian dressing is very, I loathe to use this word because it's overused...

Allison: Sprezzatura?

USA TODAY: Yes, but that's an argument for another day. People understand sprezzatura, maybe they've seen images from Pitti Uomo. It's not the way most everyday Italians dress, but it's definitely the sartorial inclination over there is a bit more out there than what you see on Savile Row. What of that rubbed off on you, if any, as you're going through the tour?

Allison: That's an interesting question.

At the end of the day, the way that a culture dresses, or the way that people dress is a reflection of their culture, right? Italians in Italy is a fundamentally different country and culture and an environment than what you find in London.

As a result of that, the way that they dress has evolved to be very different. And I think the Italians have a much more casual dressing culture, even whenever they're dressing up, compared to what you would find in Britain, especially in London.

One of the things that I took was just inspiration about how you can still wear a jacket or a pair of trousers, a beautiful pair of Goodyear welted leather dress shoes, but it doesn't have to look like you're going to the office. And that's something that the Italians do brilliantly.

They've got softer tailoring that is easier to move in more. I don't say more comfortable because the stuff from London is exceptionally comfortable. But it's just much better suited for the warmer climate, for being outside and just that Italian lifestyle.

There's an ease and an elegance to it that is so situationally appropriate that I think in the Italy series, in some episodes, I was accused of looking slightly out of place, having worn some of my wardrobe, which maybe would be arguably better suited for Britain in the summertime than Italy in the summertime.

How Italian style can be incorporated into your wardrobe

USA TODAY: it's interesting you bring up dressing in a way not to go not to look like you're going in the office, we talked with Derek Guy about this survey that showed that the plurality of people are wearing business casual to the office. What do you think that a new viewer to the channel or a person starting a sartorial journey can pull from this series to kind of, maybe not emulate the Italians, but to draw some inspiration from them.

Allison: I think that if you were to juxtapose what we film in London versus what we film in Italy, they represent two different kinds of ends of the spectrum of being well-dressed.

I think that being well dressed can remove some of the constraints that many people associate with dressing up, if you will. The Italians do that really well. They are very well dressed, but it's within their lifestyle.

If you're someone that isn't going into the office but instead someone that is, out and about in town, maybe on the weekend or after work, you can still be well dressed without looking dressed up.

Most of the well-dressed Italians, are wearing a jacket, right, but it's a lighter weight jacket. It's an odd jacket that's not a part of a suit. Maybe they're wearing a nice pair of shoes, but not wearing socks; maybe they've got a button up dress shirt, but they don't have a tie on and the dress shirt is open.

Playing around with those elements allows one to, again, be well-dressed, have an individual style, but not risk feeling so dressed up that they're uncomfortable.

The reality is that being well-dressed doesn't mean you should be uncomfortable ever. That's where matching how it is you're dressing and what it is you're wearing for your particular lifestyle really has to work together. There's no one solution for everyone.

I would always advocate people to dress up, wear a suit and tie. I think you feel better, you've got greater confidence, you look better. But there's some situations where showing up in a suit and tie would be overdressed. It doesn't mean that you have to then just wear a pair of blue jeans and a t-shirt.

It’s a spectrum: finding something that works for you, but also having the confidence to put on a jacket. Maybe relative to the guy in blue jeans and a T-shirt, you might look overdressed or dressed up. But the reality is, is that you're just well-dressed.

What to watch for in "Kirby's Grand Italian Tour"

USA TODAY: What is ahead in the series to look forward to?

Allison: Of all of the episodes that we filmed, the one that I think I'm probably most excited about was the one that we filmed in Rome at Gammarelli, which is the ecclesiastical tailor to the Catholic church.

They make all of the Pope's garments. You want to talk about an obscure, very obscure niche of tailoring and of craft. What Gammarelli is doing in Rome is probably something that few people have ever seen because it is just so obscure kind of in the modern world.

And this is a firm that was founded in the 18th century, right? I mean, 1792 or something like that, right? And they've been controlled by the same family since then. It's an over 200-year uninterrupted tradition that this family is practicing within their trade of doing ecclesiastical garments for the Catholic Church.

What we saw there in terms of historical sketches of vestments and just the story of what it is that they do really was just mesmerizing to me. It was just one of those moments of just disbelief.

We weren't able to film this right because of, you know, the obvious reasons, but they took me upstairs and actually showed me some of the garments that they had just completed for the Pope.

It's like seeing the King of England's garments. What's interesting about it is everyone's seen a suit. What King Charles is wearing is not all that different from the suit that you or anyone else could put on.

But if you look at the cassock that the Pope is wearing, this is something that's completely different.

What's amazing to me is if you look at one of the Papal cassocks it's all white, it's absolutely pristine and beautiful. I think there's something like 28 or 32 buttonholes one representing each year of the life of Jesus and each one of those is done by hand.

If you look at the suit I've got what three, eight, 12 handmade buttonholes on a suit, this cassock has 32 of them.

It's just one of those obscure details. When you look at all that being done by hand, I think it takes someone two days, to do all the buttonholes on one cassock.

It's mind blowing and it's amazing to me that this is still being done today the way that it has been done for so long. That commitment not only to the craft but the tradition of the way it has been practiced to me in this day and age is really inspiring.