The Inner Sanctum

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The entrance to the Mansion, the Stefano Ricci private club in Shanghai.

The Inner Sanctum At St e f a n o R i c c i ’s n e w b e s p o ke c l u b i n S h a n g h a i , V I P c u s t o m e r s g e t a n a l l - a c c e s s p a s s t o t h e c i t y a n d b ey o n d .

“WE DON’T DEAL in usual experiences,” Enrico Zhou told me one day in early September over steaks in a private room in a private dining area off a private elevator on the fourth floor of the Jing’an Shangri-La hotel, a matryoshka doll of a lunch spot. I had joined Zhou, head of Stefano Ricci China and a 50-year-old Shanghai native, for lunch as part of a brief

sojourn to experience the newest addition to Stefano Ricci’s ultra-luxury offerings: the Mansion. One part store, two parts heavily secured compound, and one part membership club, the Mansion is the first of its kind, an experiential hospitality venture that hinges on the kind of one-on-one haberdashery that’s been scuttled from so many other stores.

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The phone rang and it was given to me. “Enrico is my third son,” Stefano Ricci told me proudly over the phone from Italy. Stefano’s two biological sons currently serve as CEO and creative director of the company. Zhou manages all the Ricci stores in mainland China, Macau, and Hong Kong; he helped the Riccis open at the Ritz-Carlton here in 1994.

COURTESY STEFANO RICCI S.P.A.

by Jason Sheeler

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“That’s before other brands, such as Louis Vuitton, got to China,” Zhou said proudly.

There are four Stefano Ricci stores in Shanghai today. But the Mansion, which opened last year, is, as Stefano put it on the phone, “a very different thing.” It’s a store, yes. But upstairs from the bespoke clothing awaits an opportunity for equally bespoke privileges. It’s called the Stefano Ricci Club, catering to every need from private multicourse dinners and private shopping to airport VVIP services and Michelinstarred reservations. Need a jet or a massage or a guided tour of a closed art gallery or a new made-to-measure shirt? Want to host a cigar night or a caviar-and-wine tasting or just watch whatever game on crocodile wing chairs? Not a problem. How about a visit to the Stefano Ricci Poggio ai Segugi estate in Tuscany? “We sell the notion of ‘I am the only one who can do this,’ ” Zhou said.

The SR Club in Shanghai has been so successful that it will soon expand to other international cities like

Florence, Milan, New York, Miami, Los Angeles, and Dubai, according to the company’s CEO, Niccolò Ricci. In addition to concierge-style services and unique experiences, members will have first pick at limited-edition home and leathergoods items and exclusive fabrics, as well as priority booking of the limited-run gold-filigreed bottles of Stefano Ricci wines.

There’s no replicating Zhou, as of yet. In Shanghai, most of the VIP service is done right from Zhou’s phone—quickly outsourced to one of several assistants—because he knows the Shanghai scene like few others.

“Anything is possible,” he said, with a caveat: “It depends on the level of membership. There are three tiers, Gold, Platinum, and Caesar Black.”

The points earned (roughly one point per dollar) are based on how much has been spent at the store. Caesar Black status requires a yearly buy of about $420,000. “Everyone here wants to live like Caesar.”

The brand Stefano Ricci was founded in Florence in 1972 by the

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Clockwise from top left: A Stefano Ricci bag with dragon embroidery; the Mansion’s dining room has the brand’s signature orange crocodile chairs; a Stefano Ricci sterling silver caviar tureen.

man Stefano Ricci, something of a Caesar himself. A couple of laws of the brand: Yes, always made entirely in Italy. No, there are no factory outlets. Nothing will ever go on sale.

No problem. The Ricci customer, particularly in China, has always been willing to pay for the best, the finest, the rarest, the most exotic, the very top in bulletproof luxury.

Nonetheless, luxury loyalty is harder to come by these days and the brand has adapted with the times.

“When we started here, tie sets were $150, suits $3,000. They had never seen anything like it and we were the only ones to offer it,” Zhou said. “The notion of Made in Italy meant something. Now there is more knowledge here. And they expect more from us.” The club idea has evolved into a robust program today. “Our customer wants privacy and exclusivity

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From top: The Stefano Ricci Club Caesar Black card; the wine cellar at the Mansion stocks bottles from Italian vineyards.

T he R ICCI CUST OMER , PA RTICU L A R LY in CHINA , ha s A LWAYS BEEN W ILLING to PAY for the BEST, the FINEST, the R A R EST, the MOST E XO TIC , the V ERY T OP in BU LLE T PROOF LU X URY. The Stefano Ricci Club, as it turns out, is a state of mind. Yes, there are chairs covered in exotic hides and an espresso machine that looks like the engine of a 1966 Corvette. There is an expansive wine room, a cigar room, a dining room, and a state-of-the-art kitchen capable of turning out South African abalone, Japanese Wagyu beef, and Shanghainese smoked cod, along with pork buns, almond tea with egg white, and Stefano Ricci– branded caviar—all on the same night on my visit. But what’s really for sale is a sense of belonging.

A client told me that he recently used the club space for an afternoon

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tea, which was followed by cigars and a wine tasting. The experience was made all the sweeter for him and his guests “because the club is not purchasable on the market.”

He could only use his points for the rental and the food. The client, who has also held business meetings on site, feels Stefano Ricci well beyond the crystal buttons of his shirt and the soles of his exotic-skin shoes. “It’s social status,” he said. “I experience Stefano Ricci spiritually rather than materially.”

For a luxury brand today, that is very real money in the bank. stefanoricci.com

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because those things did not exist in China before.” He smiled. “Some things cannot be bought with money.”

The Mansion is behind fortified gates on a busy shopping stretch of Nanjing Road, across from Brunello Cucinelli, Miu Miu, and the very RitzCarlton that still holds the city’s first Stefano Ricci store. Seen through the gates at night, the Mansion looks like a cozy little Italian chapel. Customers who are members of the Stefano Ricci Club pull up to a guardhouse and, after a credential check, go up the circular driveway, where attendants greet and herald and slightly genuflect. Next, the doors open to a crocodile-lined Valhalla.

The Mansion offers much of the same merchandise as the other 70 Ricci stores around the world and the one across the street. But here the services are more wondrous, from made-tomeasure suiting to custom bags and special leather-cleaning services for ostrich or crocodile products.

The floors, as in all the stores, are travertine. The wood, as always, is walnut shined to summon a reflection.

There are the mannequins dressed like Zhou, in monochromatic suit-tieshoe ensembles, save for their golden eagle heads. Large silver elephant tusks guard a wall of bags. “Crocodile skin is good feng shui,” I was told.

We walked across the floor and then Zhou looked up. Hanging above was a white Murano glass chandelier that looked like a wedding cake. We headed to the elevator. As we stepped in, I inhaled the sweetest fragrance.

At Zhou’s crocodile-shod feet, three fresh pineapples. He smiled. “It means money.”