The passion for elegance
Ign.Joseph is the collection created by Ignatious Joseph since 1997. The company was founded in Düsseldorf, Germany’s fashion centre and home to many renowned design houses and trade fairs since 1949.
Ign.Joseph Suits, Shirts,Cufflinks, blouses and neckwear are manufactured in Europe— and always will be. Using the finest of all natural fabrics: silks or Egyptian cotton, woven in Italy and sewn by Italian craftsmen, each season embodies a statement drawn from the heritage of classic European style. Hand-sewn, non-fused collars, opulent buttons and subtle details have become the hallmarks of the Ign.Joseph collection.
This exclusive collection is only available through the finest selected retailers in each country and on each continent.
Style, quality, and energy are reflected in the choice of fabrics and dessins giving the Ign.Joseph collection an unmistakeable and yet understated character. Modern precision is married to tradition to deliver ready-to-wear elegance for dynamic people who value a personal expression or a complement to bespoke in today’s highly mobile world.
NOT the creation of a BRAND but Ign.Joseph: a creation in the service of elegance.
My philosophy:
„I have designed the Ign.Joseph collection for men and women who also express their personality through their choice of attire.
My collection is inspired by passion, loyalty, and integrity:
• Passion for style and comfort
• Loyalty to the tradition of the best in European clothing culture
• Integrity delivered in the highest quality of fabrics, craftsmanship and value for money.
Elegance is the marriage of style with seemingly effortless precision.”
Sartorial Vision
Price and branding are not everything in the top end men’s clothing market: at least not for the discriminating customer. After years in which the luxury conglomerates have bought and consolidated traditional names, everything from watches to cashmere stockings would appear to be made in the same factory but, in the manner of the old vertically integrated US carmakers—just stamped with a different label to capture naive clientele.
Even those classic manufacturers whose quality was also complemented by exclusivity have increased their herds with the creation of product sub-segments available in a full range of department stores. This inflationary availability of previously exclusive products may ultimately lead to „overgrazing“ and even to the destruction of traditional product lines whose new branding and positioning in the consumer market is simply not strong enough to stand alone.
Ign. Joseph has deliberately avoided this strategy and the complementary attempt to generate higher revenues by selling mass-market shirts. Whereas many noble shirtmakers have outsourced their ready-to-wear production to lower-wage Eastern Europe or low-wage Asia to raise output and lower costs, this has also „cheapened“ the brands. Moreover in some cases, this has also meant that the goods simply lose the character of the original houses since the traditional craft skills and personal touch have been sacrificed to efficiency. Ign. Joseph shirts are still made by hand in European, primarily Italian, workshops by people who were raised in the shirtmaking tradition and hence are able to produce such details as sewn collars—instead of the fused collars prevalent even in most up-market shirts and blouses.
The luxury men’s shirt is an aesthetic product and the result of careful engineering. An Ign. Joseph ready-to-wear shirt is built on the basis of those qualities, which make the most relaxed clothing article—the men’s tee shirt—comfortable and effortless to wear. The materials are selected not only for their feel against the skin combined with their capacity to delight the eye. Then they are constructed so as to fit the movement of the wearer—not the efficiency of the sewing machine. Discretion is not only the better part of valour but also the better part of detail. An Ign. Joseph shirt does not need a label or signet on the cuff or breast (there are no pockets) since it is the attention to peculiar details like the non-fused collar or the generous buttons and longer sleeves or tails that allow both the wearer and the observer to recognise an Ign. Joseph shirt—even in the surroundings of older renowned brands. Ign. Joseph shirts are not only produced using the traditional skills of classic shirtmaking—they are part of preserving the skills and talents from which this traditional craft lives.
Ultimately a luxury article lives through the pleasure it gives the connoisseur, the person whose discriminating taste and clearly defined expectations motivate him to seek manufacturers with „like minds“. That is why Ign. Joseph has only one line of men’s shirts and women’s blouses and accessories and this line is reserved for retailers who are exclusive not only in their clientele but in their professional expertise in caring for discriminating customers. The Ign. Joseph shirt is designed for normal everyday wear since even today’s connoisseur, whether a businessman or member of the classical professions, is a mobile, working person who needs clothing that will bear the demands of daily life. Ign. Joseph produces everyday luxury for men and women of extraordinary taste.