Buy This Pocket Square And Maybe You’ll Get Xenia Deli On Your Arm Too

Fashion heiress Margherita Missoni on what to learn from Italians and how pocket squares are like icebergs

Italian men are seen as the bastion of style. With impeccably tailored double breasted suits in the fall, light, wrinkled linens in the summer, they are year round arbiters of taste and that’s enviable. Don’t believe us? The guy above has Xenia Deli on his arm and is pretty well dressed. Who’s on your arm?


That’s where Margherita Missoni comes in.

Margherita Missoni at New York Fashion Week

“Italy is much more classic; men put a lot of thought into their looks compared to other countries,” Missoni told Maxim Tuesday night at the launch of her collaboration with the iconic Italian beer brand Peroni Nastro Azzurro. As a third generation fashion designer (her grandparents launched Missoni, the brand, in 1953), the mother of two has style running through her veins. “Italian men are famous for doing sun beds, which isn’t something that many men I know in the rest of the world do.”

Though Missoni doesn’t advise all men to go as far as embracing tanning, she does think there’s something to be learned from the Italian gentlemen who sometimes wear a three-piece suit on the day-to-day. “American men could learn that formal is not necessarily bad; it can be good,” Missoni said. “It’s nice to deconstruct bit it’s sometimes nice to be a little ‘uptight.’” In other words, go ahead and buy a double breasted blazer or two.

For her first foray into the men’s market, Missoni worked with Peroni on a pocket square based on the design of the “prettiest square in Rome.”

“I love pocket squares because it’s like an iceberg; what you see is only a little part of it. You never know what’s in there, it can be a secret message, it might be a lipstick kiss, it can be many different things.” The blue and white square would fit well with any color blazer.

But while you’re getting more formal, don’t go overboard. When asked what Italians could learn from Americans, Missoni replied: “It’s nice to be relaxed sometimes too!”

The square hits stores in October.