AJ: If you didn’t do what you do now, what would you have liked to do instead? Valentina: I have always been fascinated in a political or governmental career; so perhaps, Italian ambassador to Monaco would have been good. Or working for the United Nations, or something completely different, a war journalist, this is what I used to tell my mum when I was 15 years old. If it had been up to them I would have become a notary or a lawyer. Silvia: Is Princess a line of work? Guess not… and even if it were, I’d probably grow bored of it! To be more serious, I think I would have liked to be an actress. But honestly, I think I would have ended up doing what I am doing now, because I love it! AJ:What is the best part of your work you love the most? Valentina: The satisfaction of when you have realised a project from beginning to end and you don’t know how it turned out to be perfect. The compliment from a CEO of a prestigious company, good networking, good press, this makes us feel great and gives you the positive approach. And of course the freedom to work everywhere in the world with a Wi-Fi connection! Silvia: Diversity: the diversity of issues we are here to solve, the diversity of the people we work with, the diversity of the businesses we deal with, and the diversity of the locations we work in. AJ: What are the differences for you living and working in Monaco? Valentina: I would say that being raised in Italy not so far from Monaco doesn’t alter much. It changes more when you live in London from 18 to your early 30s, like myself, then you become a citizen of the world. You have a different approach on work life as well as personal life, you become ambitious more realistic. You are open minded and more relaxed than some of the people in Monaco, you are not pretentious and you are open to everything and always available for everybody. I don’t know if this is something of my generation, we are not afraid to work and work hard. Being able to live between Monaco and London and travel all the time both for work and for pleasure is a great gift. Silvia: Well, we are fundamentally from the Mediterranean so I guess it’s not that different. That said our business roots lye in London and
I can say there is a very big difference between London and the South of France! We first had to learn how to operate successfully in London, and now we have to re-learn how to operate successfully in the South of France! Ironic… The main differences between the two places are the speed at which agreements are reached (much quicker/easier in London), the way networking is taking place and meetings are arranged (much more personal in the South of France). In terms of life, well in London you don’t sleep a lot because you’re always out and about, and in the South of France you don’t move a lot because it’s just too hot in the summer! The bottom line is that the combination between the two places is simply amazing. AJ: Who would be the ultimate client to work for and why? Valentina: It would have to be Ferrari or Chanel. Then I would love to work and develop a project with Richard Branson whom I admire a lot. Or work for a developing country and create some non-profit organization for young women who want to make business. Silvia: Chanel, for sure, because it is the ultimate lifestyle and luxury brand within the fashion industry. As Coco said, “Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. It is in the sky, in the street. Fashion has to do with ideas, with the way we live.” In terms of a client where there is a lot of potential and a lot to be done (despite being highly successful and renowned), I would say Hennessy. In terms of a client with an extreme amount of diversity where many integrated projects could be done, I would go for LVMH (the group, not only Louis Vuitton). More information: www.the-style-lab.com
Images Valeria Maselli
Riviera Ligure. AJ: What was your main influence behind starting Style Lab? Valentina: A lot stemmed from our previous commercial business which was based on promotion as well as being able to develop a story and a network around any kind of brand in the luxury market. I felt there was a need to have a unique reality that could help brands develop their awareness asset, plus our background in consulting and ability to network and promote genuinely. Silvia: Having been ourselves on the retail side of
food, yachting etc. Therefore I would say that we do not have many competitors on this. Silvia: As I’m sure you’re aware, people from the industry we operate within tend to go to the South of France and notably Monaco over the summer period. This provided for us an interesting opportunity to be able to follow our clients to a destination they were often and regularly going to. In addition, Monaco has its set of luxury & lifestyle brands that simply cannot be overlooked. Finally, Monaco in itself is perhaps the perfect example of luxury & lifestyle, and with our family close, there could simply be no more compelling reason to start operating there. AJ: Where do you see the company in say five years time? Valentina: I always like to answer and make fun of the fact that I want to retire at 35. But I don’t think this will happen mainly because we will never stop conceptualizing ideas and bringing them to reality where possible. Realistically in five years I see Style Lab with a market and base in London, Monaco and perhaps New York or the Far East. Or why not Brazil where Silvia worked for a year in the fashion industry, plus we both speak fluent Portuguese. Silvia: I would like to see us with presence and ability to serve clients in and across the major cities, such as New York, Sao Paolo, Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore. Then I’d also love to see the business grow enough to have the capability to serve more than a couple of clients at the same time. Right now, we are still a small (although successful) business, so unfortunately we have to prioritize projects and clients. I’d like for us to parallelize further, yet for Valentina and I to remain involved in all aspects.
Words Andie Jones Interview Andie Jones
Valentina and Silvia Cangiano are two sisters from Napoli, Italy, who have setup and conceptualised The Style Lab, a boutique management consulting agency, specializing in the fashion and lifestyle sectors. I recently met with the girls in Monaco and posed a few questions to the multilingual duo. AJ: Where are you both from originally? We are of South Italian origin. To be more precise, our family comes from Napoli, the land known for its food and emotion. However, we were born in the North of Italy, ironically only 10 kilometers from Monaco, in the so called
the industry we wanted to provide the learning and knowledge we had acquired to other companies, independent of them being small start-ups or well-established brands. We were and still are very much attracted to providing such a service because it would enable us to leverage the network we developed and broaden our exposure to different businesses within the luxury & lifestyle segment. AJ: What is your experience to run a company like Style Lab? Valentina: On a daily basis, we are 100 percent involved with client projects yet we are able to delegate to other members of our team. However, we require feedback wherever we are, let s just say we rarely disconnect ourselves from work even if we take holidays, but we are still small company and young and we cannot lose our focus. This also happens with clients: we look for a close collaboration and a relationship which is like a partnership, that’s why we like to define ourselves as an agency partner even if we do charge an annual fee or a project fee but our main aim is long term collaborations. Silvia: As mentioned above, we’ve had our business before which has its excellent track record. In less than two years, it became very well known.We’ve now been running Style Lab for over two years, and we’re on a similar path to success, with the opening of our Monaco office. I guess the bottom-line is that we are self-built entrepreneurial businesswomen, with a strong focus on client service. AJ: What made you setup in Monaco? Valentina: Our professions were born in London but we were always attached to the south of France and Monaco.This was a market that we lived and breathed since we were little but never experienced as entrepreneur even though our first jobs were based in Monaco. In the beginning we didn’t have much interest on setting up business in Monaco, it was mainly to be close to our family and have a place where we could operate, be more relaxed and be close to London, however, we missed the sea and the Mediterranean climate. Then it happened quite casually. A brand based in Monaco approached us through recommendation and we thought it could be interesting to be focused as an International consultancy, an agency with assets within Monaco and London, two of the main World economy centers for real estate, luxury and