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In March 1927, a bunch of well-heeled speed freaks organized the first Mille Miglia—a 1,000-mile road race showcasing that uniquely Italian blend of moneyed style and audacious machismo. Over about 22 hours, two-man teams hurled open-topped cars around the countryside and through small towns and cities from Brescia to Rome and back, enduring sand gusts, driving rain, and even snow. Needless to say, sturdy apparel was essential. In honor of the race's history, the Italian clothier C.P. Company created the Mille Miglia ("Thousand Mile") jacket, a sleek number that would've served well the practical needs and the high-style demands of the racers. This year's Mille Miglia has a synthetic exterior that's water-resistant (essential when swigging Pellegrino on bumpy roads). A wool and natural sheepskin lining keeps the core warm while an ergonomic cut is handy for racers needing to hurriedly change a roadside flat. The hood is even equipped with built-in goggles, though the look is still sharp enough for the streets of Milan.
The Mille Miglia epitomizes C.P. Company's approach to outfitting: pragmatic functionality coupled with Italy's great tailoring traditions. While the company's current lines are much evolved from the T-shirts that launched the brand back in 1974, the thoughtful production techniques used by founder Massimo Osti are still a cornerstone of any garment's creation. Osti, a graphic artist, colored his tees by applying dyes and waxes by hand after each shirt was sewn, a fashion innovation at the time. Today, designers in C.P.'s experimental dye lab labor exhaustively over new colors, tones, and application techniques, ultimately yielding coats and outerwear with a uniquely weathered and worn look. In pursuit of fully functional design, C.P. Company also gleans ideas from the uniforms of the working class and military—a factory archive of more than 40,000 vintage garments provides plenty of historical reference. Surface materials protect from nature's harshest elements. Most internal waistcoats and insulating linings are quickly detachable when temperatures rise. Hoods can be unzipped, and pockets reside where you need them most.
The garment as functional device is taken to its conceptual extremes in C.P. Company's experimental and not-for-sale line of Transformables, wherein coats convert, by means of straps and zippers, into backpacks, and a piece called the Metropolis features an optional antismog mask. Another item, a bright blue rain parka, is made of polyurethane and can be inflated into an air mattress and sheltered inside the embedded nylon tent. Consider it the perfect bivouac for those unexpected pit stops along the way.
