​​No, not the 1974 movie by esteemed Italian director Lucino Visconti, but a conversation piece nonetheless. At the Atelier Munro House in Toronto, our brand experience leader and style advisor Vincenzo Fazzari is joined by two of his clients to share with us their journey so far. What was their first experience like, how do they like to work together, and what have they learned along the way? Set against some of the memorable pieces they created together, the conversations offer not only insight into their unique collaborations, but more importantly, a fresh perspective on topics such as trust, personal service, luxury and community spirit, and the power of curating relationships over time.

In 2020, when Vince learned we were seriously considering going direct to consumers and opening our own stores, he didn’t hesitate. The proposal of a strong client-oriented focus was right up his alley, and he relished the idea of being able to do even more for his clients.

Could you touch on your first experience as a style advisor?

Vince: When I walked into a sales environment I had never sold anything before and I am not going to lie, I was nervous. I was like, how am I gonna do this, you know, when you walk into a luxury price point environment you start to think with your wallet and that’s the biggest mistake, you have to leave that at the door. You have to understand that to build a relationship with the guy in front of you, you just got to tell the truth. That was the first lesson I learned. Just leave your mind at the door, just work with the client, ask them about who they are, their lifestyle and then you’ll know. And that’s it, that’s how you start a relationship with them as well, and that’s how they get you to come back to them.

The clients you’ve built relationships with will refer you to their friends and acquaintances, at least that’s how it went for me. That it took off so fast – Joel and Brett helped me a lot with that…

Brett Starke built one of the most well-known real estate teams in Toronto. In the past five years Brett reached Diamond status and was ranked in the top 10 at The Starke Group, leading with 100 5-star Google Reviews on Starke Realty this year, and featured in Property Spark multiple times. All in all, a successful real estate agent with an upcoming television show on real estate called Luxe Listings Toronto. It will be featured on Amazon Prime next year, in 2024.

It started with a suit…

Brett: I met Vince by chance in 2016. I was looking for a suit when I was first moving to Toronto, and he was like: you ever go custom? And I said: No, I’m not rich like you. He said: No, it can be very close to the same price, and that’s how he sucked me in… (chuckles)

Brett: So it started with a suit. We did my first double breasted, I think that first one is my favorite. I always wanted a windowpane suit. That’s what I saw on TV when I was younger. So then I was able to get one and now I have four variations of the same thing now, you know, that kind of became like my signature style, a windowpane.

Vince: The first suit was a two-piece suit in a slate, grayish blue with baby blue window pattern. Then a light gray linen wool blend with a navy-blue window pattern.

Brett: I’m one of the agents on the show. Every suit that I wear on the show is from Vince. And I wear a different suit every episode. I had a stylist on the show and I brought her to this event and then they ordered up a bunch of stuff for me.

Vince: It was really great. We got the opportunity to do some stuff, maybe a little bit outside of Brett’s normal choice of color spectrum, which is blue… And then we did one in pistachio… And the last piece we did was double-breasted in tobacco copper…

Building communities

Brett: Now Vince is doing all the suits for the television show… And, like I said, I met Vince by chance in 2016. It just shows that if you curate relationships over time what can happen.

Vince: What are your three things in your business again?

Brett: Yeah, so we have three pillars in our business. So number one for us is charity, we throw a big charity event every year. Vince has always sponsored them. You never know how it’s gonna come back to you because when you send us lots of money and then all of a sudden a stylist walks in there and drops 10k, or more, I don’t know… Okay, and then the other one is accountability, we always do what we say we’re going to do, every week we go over our numbers. And the third is community and this relationship with Vince is an example of that. Don’t just help your own business, help other people run their business, help them get good clients and get the good clients yourself… For example, Vince was doing an event at my office for my clients, it was called How to Dress in the Modern Business Age. And I sent invites to all my clients and someone on my mailing list, who I didn’t even know, responded to it. They’re like, I’m gonna come and they came, they bought a suit and then they said, I want to list my condo.

Vince: That’s what it is, I think the word is… The cyclical relationship that Brett and I have built over time. We’ve always referred each other to people. Brett got me my condo that I still live in after I was robbed from my old place. We walked in and I’m like, I like it. Here’s the check. So when I’m ready to buy something, this is obviously who I’m gonna go to.

Luxury, posture, and respect

Brett: Luxury is not something you can just have in an instant, and if you do, people can tell, right? I think that it is something you have to build over time and I think that goes for any sort of luxury, whether it is luxury vehicles, luxury clothing, luxury real estate…

Vince: Luxury cigars…

Brett: In each different area you need an advisor or a coach…

Vince: You need to have a guy, you know. The person who looks after your hair, the person that looks after your clothes, the person that looks after your real estate, the person that looks after your money. These things are gonna be super experiential and super niche. But it’s gonna become more normal. Everybody wants to have the person they can rely on. Only certain people are going to be able to do it properly and people are gonna look for the experts in the field. And they’ll be able to tell an expert from someone who’s phony. Which is gonna make people stay on their game.

Brett: To add on Vince’s point, if you’re dressed in a certain way, most of the time, you’re doing it for someone else, it’s respectful to someone else. It’s not about you… And if you work in the line of service, when you’re dressed up…Then when you go to a Michelin restaurant, the servers are dressed up. Then when you go to buy with Vince, Vince’s dressed up, then if you go by a luxury car, they’re dressed up, by luxury real estate… It’s showing your respect to your client… And so for me, if I’m wearing a suit jacket to work it makes me interact with the world differently, it’s your posture…

Vince: Your chest is up, your head is up… Because it’s all very conducive to each other, you know, when your posture is up…

Brett: For me, my rule is very simple, in real estate. I like to dress one level above my clients. That’s it. I don’t want to do two or three levels, just one level above. If they’re wearing a suit without a tie, I’m wearing a suit with a tie. If they’re wearing jeans and a blazer, I’m wearing a suit, no tie. If they’re wearing a golf shirt, I’m wearing jeans and a blazer. Right? If they’re wearing a t-shirt, I’m wearing a polo. Just one level above. It’s respect, and not like “Look at me!”

Of Italian-Jewish origin, thirty-two years old, married and living in Toronto, Joel Zien calls himself a family man. Not in the least because his profession has him dealing with a variety of different dress codes daily, Joel describes his personal clothing style as “flex”. But actually, he tells us frankly, he had no idea. It was not until he? met Vince that he began to appreciate customization and the experience of working together. They met for the first time in 2017 and quickly developed a friendship. Now, six years later, the friendship has grown into a close bond.

How did your journey begin, could you share something about it?

Joel: I was in my twenties when I met my wife. In that same period my career started to take off and a close friend referred me to Vince. We both have Italian roots, so our interaction felt familiar from the start. In fact, I felt there was an immediate mutual trust. I shared things about my daily life… I don’t know, it clicked somehow, and after several conversations I began to understand why he was showing me some clothes that I would never have considered myself. I realized that he knew me somehow, I felt understood, and really that feeling of trust formed the basis of our friendship, and it only grew stronger.

What was the first significant garment you created together?

Joel: My wedding suit, my first wedding suit to be exact. Once it was finished, oh boy, I immediately said to Vince, after the wedding I’m never wearing it again. I wanted it in a glass case in my house, you know, like Batman’s suit, boom, forever behind glass. We talked about it for quite some time, and we tried all kinds of colors. Of course, we don’t always agree with each other. We talked for hours before finally making a decision. And for my second wedding suit, in fact I got married twice, you know… (laughs) to the same woman, because of the pandemic we got married twice.

Joel: For my second wedding suit, Vince and I talked for three years! We finally settled on mélange black and green fabric. And I haven’t put that suit on since then either. But really, during that period I learned so much about color schemes, materials, you name it…. Vince and I have really grown closer during that period, he has become family, so to speak, he was a guest at both weddings, also at the second one at Lake Como in Italy. So he got to know many of my friends, and all of them are now regulars at AM too.

Other than your relationship with Vince, to what extent do you feel motivated to go one step further each time in terms of clothing?

Joel: That’s all Vince, he challenges me, somehow the garments we create together give me a sense of comfort I haven’t experienced before, and each time it’s great to see it doesn’t go unnoticed… He knows exactly what could qualify for me, what I could feel comfortable in and what would look good on me. When you’ve experienced and tried it a few times, and then also get enthusiastic reactions, yes, confidence grows. You know, one of my best friends also went to work with Vince on my recommendation, so to speak. He’s a lawyer and so he dresses much more formally than I do. Every time he creates a new suit with Vince, he says “I’m not sure, though, with this suit” but then after a week he says, “This is absolutely the best suit I have, “and he has so many by now that I can’t count them on two hands! (laughs)

Joel: I’ll never go back to the old days, you know, to just walk into a store and believe a random store employee, you understand? I mean, he doesn’t know me, and so I don’t know why he shows me the things that he shows me, I don’t trust him… But with Vince , the power of a personal relationship for me is that there is mutual trust, it’s really all a matter of trust. For me at least. In a way quite magical, I mean, that over the years through such a trusting relationship you learn more and more about yourself and discover possibilities that you couldn’t have imagined before – really an adventure….