Where should I buy fabric in Italy?

[EvanTA]

My wife and I will be going to Italy in a few weeks for vacation. A few days in Rome, a few days in Florence, and a few days driving a rental car around Umbria and Tuscany.

I figure while I'm there I should take advantage of the opportunity to do some in-person fabric shopping, does anyone have any specific locations they'd recommend where I could buy in small quantities?

Or more broadly, shopping in general? I won't be there long enough to have anything bespoke made, but if there's small tailors who have limited RTW offerings, or some good thrift shops and maybe I can get lucky. I have no expectation of getting an exhaustive list of places to go, nor will I likely go everywhere I want to, but I do like to pre-populate a google map with options and when I find myself close to an option, I'll pop in to check it out. So, anything that comes to mind, please tell me so I can fill up my map! Thanks much in advance. 

[posaune]

Try bassetti tessuti in rome. Or Look online into the Pagine gialle.it. Search for tessuti in the cities you are visiting. Or Go to the Marktes many fabric Stands and cheaper. Have Fun. Lg Posaune

[Schneiderfrei]

https://www.paginegialle.it/ = Yellow pages



G

[EvanTA]

Hah yea one of my ideas was to just poke my head into stores with "tessuti" in the name and hope I find a gem at some point. Lots pop up on Google maps, just didn't know if there were particular gems people knew of that I should prioritize.

[Steelmillal]

All that came to mind when read Tuscany
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g635634-d7094034-Reviews-Mate_Winery-Montalcino_Tuscany.html
https://www.alibris.com/search/books/author/Ferenc-Mate
https://www.alibris.com/A-Vineyard-in-Tuscany-A-Wine-Lovers-Dream-Ferenc-Mate/book/10395406?matches=31
The last one is a must read, but all his writings are good and genuine, IMHO.
Plot your intended jaunt and search the local towns via Web to winnow the chaff. Reach out to locals that your browsing hands gravitate to and ask them b'email It's like asking cab drivers for the best eateries before hitting the town.
Also may help: https://www.permanentstyle.com/search?phrase=florence&layout=layout-thumbnail&view=25
Have fun.

[EvanTA]

Thank you all, good recs.

I posted a comment on one of the Permanent Style articles (the one on italian mills) and Simon responded pointing me towards Casa Dei Tessuti, which looks gorgeous.

[Steelmillal]

Remember, DHL ships everyday. Don't weight yourself down. If from the USA, mailing to "c/o general delivery" and your name puts it at your local PO (direct address) and ID required to retrieve.

I do that with antique shears. Immediate notice of shipping damage and zero losses(stoledn from porch) so far, with one mis-delivery to miswritten PO zip code. Works great and learned from Maltese Falcon movie. Cheers.

[Gerry]

Remember, DHL ships everyday. Don't weight yourself down. If from the USA, mailing to "c/o general delivery" and your name puts it at your local PO (direct address) and ID required to retrieve.

I do that with antique shears. Immediate notice of shipping damage and zero losses(stoledn from porch) so far, with one mis-delivery to miswritten PO zip code. Works great and learned from Maltese Falcon movie. Cheers.

This simply isn't an issue for us in the UK. Not if Royal Mail are involved at some stage. In which case I can send stuff while on holiday, come home, have a couple of intervening holidays and if I'm lucky (and that's a big 'if'), it may get delivered to my doorstep (or a neighbour's depending on how literate the postie is).

Seriously, some shirting fabric I ordered a little over a year ago just dropped on my mat. And I thought the usual 4-6 weeks was bad!

Needless to say, these days I only order stuff online if private couriers are used.

[EvanTA]

Success in Italy. I got two pieces in Rome at the Bassetti Tessuti store, and one in Florence from Casa Dei Tessuti. I really had no business being in the latter store, really nice selection, but I asked the clerk if he had anything he'd want to cut a deal on, an odd remaining amount or something that just didn't move like he thought, and he did! In order of the pics, there are the two from Bassetti, one a light, crisp, dark blue cotton for spring/summer, then a dark green moleskin for fall/winter, and from Casa a really nice green/brown wool/cashmere blend, doublefaced, from Zegna. I will not be rushing into using any of these.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/12CvZj3VZzmI7IY69IBGO1GC3uNK0ohIr/view?usp=drive_link
https://drive.google.com/file/d/16uPbN5KFBAC5Iclvo0gddeGDYyfbErEe/view?usp=drive_link
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MXEbcOsqFOOFCLlOA4J2I__ur2VoCG8U/view?usp=drive_link

Coming from woodworking I know there is a lot of variation in qualities of wood and therefore how you should handle them. Is there a good resource for understanding the same for fabrics, i.e., how these different materials will behave and how I should adjust my approach? Or is it somewhat straightforward for this sort of cotton and wool? Get the tension right on my machine and that's about it?

[Gerry]

Evan, your links are protected (can't be viewed), not public. 

[EvanTA]

Oops - fixed

[Gerry]

Well done for getting some bargains. You're probably wise to hold back a while on using it. I have a stash of really nice cloth that I'm saving for when my skills are a little better. I'm confident/experienced in some areas of tailoring, but still have a long way to go in others. In the meantime, I simply grab bargains when I come across them.

All cloth presents challenges. If you're working with a certain type a lot, you get used to it and know what to expect. But on occasions when you switch to something else, and things go pear-shaped pretty quickly, you need to have knowledge of other ways of tackling the task. What works for one cloth doesn't necessarily work for another. And unless you have someone mentoring you, you only find this out the hard way, unfortunately. If you can, always buy a little more cloth so that you have some spare for samples.

[Schneiderfrei]

Same, I still have some tweeds that I dare not touch until I have the mental space to do the best by it.

[Steelmillal]

https://www.paulrand.design/work/Apparel-Arts.html#images-233

good sunday morning site...