In 1945, tailor Nazareno Fonticolo opened a small boutique on Via Barberini in Rome. It is named after the luxurious Brionian Islands (then part of Italy, now Croatia), in the northern Adriatic Sea off the coast of Italy. Like many Italian tailors at the time, they relied heavily on British tailoring, the sovereign style of the day. While the tailors of Savile Row made heavily structured, military-inspired suits with strong shoulders and stiff fabrics, their Italian counterparts discovered that this was not suitable for the Mediterranean lifestyle. Cesare Attolini made unstructured lightweight suits in Naples. In Rome, where Brioni was born, the style evolved more subtly. The English style was made comfortable, without losing too much of the British design.