Massaua is a new menswear label designed and made in Italy, and launched in early 2012. The brainchild of Nicola Bardelle, creative director of the brand Jacob Cohen and fashion designer Maurizio Zaupa, the label got its name from the Eritrean town of Massaua, the important commercial and industrial port where Zimbabwe cotton traded hands before being used to make Italian colonial uniforms.
The inaugural collection comprises essential staples for men’s wardrobes, namely trousers, jackets, vests, shirts and ties. The fabrics are sourced from the Bonotto mills and the garments are handmade from Berber wool and Zimbabwe cotton (worked in Japan and dyed with indigo). The production respects the notion of ‘slow making’ whereby traditional manufacturing techniques and attention to detail are adopted in order to create high-quality clothes.
