Riccitelli Milano manufactures trousers, skirts and separates in Italy for fashion brands: tailored and casual trousers, wide leg and cropped shapes, pencil and pleated skirts, waistcoats, tops and the pieces that hold a collection together between its statement garments.
Separates are where a collection makes its money and where a producer is quietly judged, because a customer who buys one jacket will buy three trousers, and will notice immediately if the second pair does not fit like the first.
The waistband decides the trouser
Almost every trouser that fails, fails at the waist. The waistband is a small piece of engineering: a curtain, a stiffener, a closure and a seat seam that all have to work while the wearer sits, walks and moves.
The rise and the seat. A rise that is a centimetre short pulls the whole garment out of balance and the fault appears at the back, where it cannot be disguised. This is a pattern problem, not an alteration.
The curtain. A proper waistband curtain lets the trouser sit against the body without gripping, and it is what distinguishes a tailored trouser from a manufactured one.
Pleats. A single or double pleat has to open when the wearer sits and lie flat when standing. That behaviour comes from the depth of the pleat and where it falls against the hip, decided on the pattern rather than at the press.
The crease. On a tailored trouser the crease is set into the cloth by pressing, and cloth that will not hold a crease should not be used for that trouser, however well it looks on the roll.
Skirts
A skirt is judged on the hem. If the pattern is out of balance, the hem rises at the side or dips at the back and no amount of finishing will hide it. Straight and pencil skirts stand on suppression and vent construction. Pleated skirts stand on the pleat setting, which has to survive dry cleaning and be repeatable across a run rather than achieved once on a sample. Bias and circle skirts have to hang before they are cut, exactly as a bias dress does.
What we produce
Tailored trousers in wool, flannel and gabardine. Wide leg, straight, cropped and tapered shapes. Casual trousers in cotton and linen. Pencil, A line, pleated, wrap and bias skirts. Waistcoats, tops, shorts and co ord sets. Womenswear and menswear, cut on separate blocks.
Denim separates run through premium denim production, knitted pieces through knitwear, and matching jackets through blazer and jacket production.
Why separates need one producer
A trouser and a jacket sold as a suit have to match in cloth, in colour and in the way they age. Split across two suppliers, they will differ, and the difference shows on the rail rather than in the tech pack.
Producing separates alongside the tailoring, from the same cloth booking and against the same colour reference, is the only reliable way to keep them together. It also means the second season repeats correctly, because the blocks and the references are all in one place.
Cloth
Trouser cloth is chosen for recovery above appearance. A fabric that bags at the knee or the seat after one wearing is a failure whatever it cost, and that behaviour is only visible in a made up garment, which is why we sample before booking. We buy from the Italian houses that supply the best tailoring rooms in the world. See fabric sourcing in Italy.
How a separates project runs
Flats drawn to scale, first patterns drafted and cut, then made up and worn, because a trouser reveals its faults sitting down rather than standing on a stand. Corrections go into the pattern, a second sample confirms them, and the size set proves the grading across the range. The approved sample becomes the reference production is checked against. See pattern making and grading and sampling and prototyping.
Quantities
Minimums are set per product rather than per client. See low minimum order production and capsule collections.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do trousers fail more often than other garments?
Because almost every fault sits at the waist and the seat, and those are pattern problems rather than finishing ones. A rise that is a centimetre short pulls the whole garment out of balance, and the fault appears at the back where nothing can hide it. It has to be corrected on the pattern before grading.
What is a waistband curtain?
The finished inner facing of a tailored waistband. It lets the trouser sit against the body without gripping and it is one of the clearest differences between a tailored trouser and a manufactured one.
Can you match separates to a jacket?
Yes, and it is the main reason to produce them together. The trouser and the jacket are cut from the same cloth booking against the same colour reference, so they match on the rail and age the same way. Split across two suppliers they will not.
How do you make pleats repeatable in production?
By setting the pleat on the pattern rather than at the press, and by choosing cloth that holds the setting through cleaning. A pleat achieved once on a sample and not specified properly will not survive a production run.
What cloth works for tailored trousers?
Cloth chosen for recovery rather than appearance: it has to return to shape after sitting. Wool flannel and gabardine are the classics. A fabric that bags at the knee after one wearing is a failure whatever it cost, and that only shows in a made up garment, so we sample before booking.
Why does a skirt hem rise at the side?
Because the pattern is out of balance, usually through the hip. It is not a hemming fault and it cannot be fixed by finishing. The pattern has to be corrected and the garment rehung.
Can you produce separates in small quantities?
Yes. Minimums follow the product: a tailored trouser and a jersey top are made in different rooms with different constraints, and each is quoted against what it actually requires.
Produce your separates in Italy
Send a reference garment, a sketch or a finished tech pack and we tell you what it takes to build it. Contact our Milan studio, or see all fashion production services.
Start your production with Riccitelli Milano
Tell us about the collection you would like to create. Our team will get back to you to begin your production in Italy.