Eleventy, for those who know what they buy

There is a kind of luxury that does not want to be recognised. No logos, no big buckles, no name on the label. If you know, you know. And if you do not, the clothes will not explain it to you.

This autumn marks one year since Eleventy, the Italian house that does exactly that, opened its first own store in Portugal. It is at number 266 of Avenida da Liberdade, inside the old Diário de Notícias building. It is worth a visit even if you buy nothing. Mostly, you will look up.

A shop under Almada Negreiros

The building was designed by Porfírio Pardal Monteiro, who won the Valmor Prize for it, and it was the home of the Diário de Notícias for decades. When the newspaper left, the ground floor was closed for almost ten years.

Inside the old atrium are murals by Almada Negreiros, painted on site between 1939 and 1940. On the main wall is the great world map, the "Grande Planisfério", with real and imaginary animals, mythological figures and icons scattered across the continents. There is a map of Portugal, rural and seasonal. And above the entrance, the full life of a newspaper in twenty four hours, from the arrival of the news to the printing press.

Eleventy kept all of it. The Milan studio Parisotto + Formenton, which designs all the brand's stores, measured the interiors to the centimetre so that nothing would cover the paintings. The rest is travertine, light oak and stone.

I collect Almada. I have stood in front of his work in museums many times. Standing in front of it while someone adjusts the sleeve of a jacket is a completely different experience, and I think he would have liked it.

The house

Eleventy was founded in Milan in 2007 by Marco Baldassari and Paolo Zuntini. Andrea Scuderi joined two years later. Everything is made in Italy. The idea from the start was a contemporary, discreet luxury: tailoring, cashmere, perfect shirts, soft leather, and very little black.

The Lisbon store is a franchise run by Lurdes Cabral and Luca Nani. She is Portuguese, he is Italian. They have said publicly that the brand also looked at Madrid and Barcelona, and chose Lisbon for personal reasons. Eleventy opened here before it had its own store in Spain.

The Loro Piana question

Whenever I talk about quiet luxury, someone mentions Loro Piana, and they are right to. Loro Piana was founded in 1924 in Quarona, in Piedmont, by Pietro Loro Piana, and it built its name on fibres most people have never touched. Since 1994 the house has worked with communities in Peru on vicuña, a wool so rare its trade is regulated by international agreement. Every year it also selects the finest merino of the season, which it calls "The Gift of Kings".

What Loro Piana taught the world is that the material is the brand. Eleventy speaks the same language. At the opening, the store showed pieces in cashmere and even vicuña, almost all in beige, grey, white and navy.

Curious facts

• The Almada murals were painted on site, in 1939 and 1940, for the newspaper itself.
• The store has a café, led by the Italian chef Andrea Berton, and a foosball table between the rails.
• At opening, the Lisbon offer was around 70 percent menswear and 30 percent womenswear.
• There is a made to measure service: measurements are taken in Lisbon and the pieces are made in Italy.
• Eleventy is also present in Lisbon with a corner at El Corte Inglés, which opened about a year before the Avenida store.

Where to find it

Eleventy Lisboa, Avenida da Liberdade 266, Edifício Diário de Notícias, near Marquês de Pombal. Open Monday to Saturday. You do not need to buy anything to see the murals. The café is open to everyone.

My take

I have nothing against logos. I own pieces that carry them. But the older I get, the more I value things that do not need to announce themselves, in watches, in wine and in clothes.

What Eleventy has done in Lisbon is rare. It has taken one of the most important rooms of Portuguese modernism, closed for almost a decade, and opened it to anyone who walks in. The clothes are excellent. The room is better.

Go for the Almada. Stay for a coffee. And if you leave with a jacket, you will know exactly what you bought.