In 2019, Alessandro Squarzi, and his brand Fortela, came at Manteco with an ambitious project: they wanted to create a fashion tribute to Sir Winston Churchill and his iconic WWII greatcoat, an authentic model of inspiration in the history of outerwear.

At that time, our designers and Alessandro Squarzi sat down in Archivio Manteco and started studying a fabric that could reflect as closely as possible the “rigid” cloth of that military garment. Research for excellence and quality is a really time-consuming process that requires both a rich – and extensive – source of inspiration and a great expertise in customization.

We carefully went through all the historical materials in our archive to find the perfect recipe for durability, exclusivity and timelessness; our mission was to bring back to life a fabric that could both measure up to WWII military greatcoats and meet Fortela’s great standards.

Once the design was done, we started working on the customization. All of our yarns, constructions, finishing processes, labels and hangtags were put at the disposal of Alessandro Squarzi and Fortela, in order for them to take care of the smallest details and turn into reality their dream.

We took our time, but eventually we did it. We managed to dance through time and let something special stem from this great collaboration, creating a story by drawing from the past, Because as Alessandro Squarzi has it: “an iconic garment always has a story to tell”.