soul of solomeo
Soul of
solomeo Far from the chaos of style centres like New York and Paris, Brunello Cucinelli creates a cashmere empire that’s brought dignity to big business. By Susan Weissman | Photography by Philip Lee Harvey 102
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The tiny town of Solomeo is halfway between Rome and Florence, tucked away in the verdant hills of Umbria and a two-hour drive from Rome. I had come to this idyllic spot to learn what inspires Italian designer Brunello Cucinelli and to experience first-hand the humanistic business practices that have made him so successful. I made the trip to Solomeo the morning after a transatlantic flight from New York. Groggy, I awoke just as the car veered off the Autostrada and my driver manoeuvred up a narrow road leading to a little town where I could see a small church and a castle in the distance. We followed behind an old lemon-coloured Citroën with a Vespa and baskets of flowers spilling out of its trunk. The scene was like something out of a modernised version of an E.M. Forster novel, leaving me to ponder the author’s observation that Italy “purifies and ennobles all who visit her.” I wiped the sleep from my eyes and intently surveyed the pastoral landscape that Brunello Cucinelli calls home. I would meet Cucinelli—the charming but self-effacing Italian textile entrepreneur—that night at a regional theatre performance in the piazza of the village. For the rest of the day, I would wander about the 13th-century town that he has restored. Here he lives and headquarters his company, the luxury cashmere brand that bears his name and whose aesthetic is described by its designer as “sporty chic.” It is an unlikely place—far from the chaos and edge of style centres such as New York, Milan or Paris—to build a fashion empire. When I later asked him if he could achieve the same success in another place, his retort was sure: “No, this is our life. The product we make is Italian and uniquely characterised by the creativity and soul of Solomeo. When you buy a cashmere pullover from Brunello Cucinelli, you buy tradition, you understand where it comes from, who makes it, and you keep it for life.” Born in 1953, he is the son of a farmer from Umbria. His father left the simplicity of the country and moved to the city in search of a better life. In nearby Perugia, he became a factory worker and struggled with an existence that Cucinelli recalls deadened his soul. Observing the effects of that experience, the son says that as a young man he was inspired by his father’s alienation to do something good for people. Cucinelli embraced the practical and studied to be an engineer but remembers passing the time between adolescence and young adulthood “discussing life, philosophy, God and women” with his peers. “I was always creative but I was also a thinker,” he recalls. That may well be an understatement. Cucinelli, who is largely self-educated, reads voraciously and loves nothing more than to discuss the beliefs of philosophers such as Aristotle, Kant
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preceding pages: Brunello Cucinelli takes an active approach to design; Solomeo at sunrise. these pages, clockwise from top right: Embodying the aesthetic of “sporty chic,” Cucinelli still actively designs more than 30 years after the inception of his company; a typical morning stroll to the office; design details and collection announcement; a colourful selection of woven cashmere; view from the town square.
“The product we make is Italian and uniquely characterised by the creativity and soul of Solomeo. When you buy a cashmere pullover from Brunello Cucinelli, you buy tradition, you understand where it comes from, who makes it, and you keep it for life.” —Brunello Cucinelli
and St. Francis. In fall 2010, the University of Perugia will bestow an honorary doctoral degree in philosophy on the designer. He seems particularly gratified by this recognition, since it validates his success in restoring dignity to big business. While he was searching for a profession, the Italian company Benetton came on the scene, enjoying huge international success selling brightly coloured merino wool knitwear manufactured in Italy. Encouraged by the success of the company, and mindful that knitwear manufacturing was an established industry in the region he called home, Cucinelli decided to up the ante and produce coloured cashmere for women. “The English had been making high-quality coloured cashmere for men for a long time,” he says. “There was no fashionable equivalent for women, so I saw an opportunity.” His innovation made sense, and friends came to his aid with seed money. “Human relationships are so much a part of success in business,” he says. “In a big city, establishing the kind of trust you need to borrow money is not so easy. But in Umbria, people knew my character, my background.” His first product was a long-sleeved cashmere tee available in five pastel colours that he sold directly, first in the north of Italy. The sweaters caught on and he received orders for 3,000 additional items. He boldly decided to expand his reach, selling in Austria and Germany and then in the United States. His instincts paid off, and with that early venture he launched his career as a designer—creating super luxe cashmere sportswear in muted shades for men and women that is now carried in Saks, Bergdorf Goodman and Harrods, and eponymous boutiques in New York, Paris, Sydney, Moscow and Hong Kong. That was 1978. Cucinelli was 25 years old. In the intervening years, Cucinelli has been so successful that he has been invited to lecture at Harvard and MIT. He is even lauded within his own industry for the ethical capitalism that characterises his approach to business. Ernst & Young named him Italian Entrepreneur of the Year for 2009, praising Cucinelli “for his steady examination of the psychological well-being and quality of life in the workplace, for his passion in the recovery and FOU R s e a s o n s m a g a z i n e | i s s u e t h r e e 2 0 1 0
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Scenes from Solomeo Go to FourSeasonsMagazine.com and search “Brunello Cucinelli” for more photography from our visit to this idyllic Umbrian countryside.
restoration of historic buildings and his commitment to promoting education and culture.” This year he was also the recipient of the prestigious Leonardo Prize, an international competition that recognises achievement in the arts, science and technology. Remarkably, he has defied the economic downturn, his business thriving in the United States and Germany and growth so promising that the company is exploring development in the Middle East and Asia. His employees now number close to 500, and he pays them considerably more than the going rate in the industry and gives 20% of his profits to charity. He’s the first to admit that, although he took the risk to start a business, he owes much of his success to those who work for him. In 1985 he began restoring Solomeo, the town where his wife was born, with the goal of “creating a beautiful place for people to work, where their souls are nourished, they can be creative and feel connected to one another.” About 100 workers actually live in the town, the remainder living within quick driving distance of the production facilities. He’s also built a library, theatre and nursery school for the community. To encourage camaraderie, the company eats lunch together in a rustic canteen located in a restored farmhouse, adjacent to the town’s piazza. Workrooms and public spaces are adorned with placards bearing such philosophical sayings as “Beauty is our salvation” (Dostoevsky). Those who work for Cucinelli call him Brunello, further reinforcing the notion of equality that underlies the ethics of his business. When I asked a woman piecing together a heathercoloured cashmere sweater in a workroom cluttered with sweater parts—and resembling a sitting room in an Italian B&B—what she liked about working for the company, she motioned to the windows in the room. She smiled and said that she has a beautiful view. “Something as simple as windows are important to people,” Cucinelli says. “I want my team to be inspired so they do beautiful work. It’s hard to get young people interested in manufacturing jobs these days. Here, workers feel part of something shared. They want to do well, and that translates into the quality of the product we produce.” Steep stairs deliver you to Cucinelli’s office in the medieval fortress at the centre of the village. He works at a large, roughly hewn, rectangular table. Almost monastic in its simplicity, the room gets its energy from the glorious vista of the countryside, a reminder of his heritage. Giant spools of cashmere thread in every colour imaginable are stacked on shelves behind his desk. They represent some of the colour stories for collections he’s designed. As we chat, he handles the spools and responds to my question about where he gets his inspiration. Dressed head to toe in his i s s u e t h r e e 2 0 1 0 | FOU R s e a s o n s m a g a z i n e
Even though he’s channelling new energy into his fall collection, Cucinelli doesn’t pander to trend. He honours authenticity and that which endures. He’s based his business on the conviction that his customers buy his brand “because of what it stands for as much as what it looks like.”
clockwise from top right: Solomeo, the 13th-century town that Cucinelli calls home; a pattern cutter at work in an airy and sun-filled atelier; the fertile landscape of the Umbrian countryside; Brunello Cucinelli works at a large, roughly hewn, rectangular table surrounded by spools of cashmere thread in every colour imaginable; the designer attired in his familiar style of “sporty chic.”
own designs, and embodying the youthful essence of “sporty chic,” or what some might describe as classics with an edge, he explains that he takes his style cues from the street. The best looks come from young people, whose style he adapts for a more mature audience. “People are at their best when they’re about 35,” he says. “Today, customers want to look younger than they did in the past.” The formula to achieve his chic but casual look seems pretty simple, but when something seems effortless, there’s usually a lot going on behind the scenes. Details are at the heart of his men’s line. “Designing for men is easier than designing for women,” he says. “It’s all about merchandising when it comes to fashion for men—what you layer with this or that. Choosing the right tie, the shoes, how you combine colour and texture . . .” He grows more pensive when he transitions to discussion of his women’s collection. The stakes are high in this world. Each season everything must be fresh to get noticed. With his hands, he traces the outline of a woman’s body and indicates that the fabric must drape over curves just so. He remarks that the collection will be very new, as if he’s signalling a departure from Brunello Cucinelli of the past: “Bold new shapes over leggings. Outerwear with short sleeves that can be worn with detachable knitwear sleeves. Grey is the foundation of the collection, and it’s combined with bordeaux and aubergine.” Even though he’s channelling new energy into his fall collection, Cucinelli is not a man that panders to trend. He honours authenticity and embraces that which endures. He’s based his business on the conviction that his “customers buy Brunello Cucinelli because of what it stands for as much as what it looks like. They know that we create socially conscious products and that when they buy our products, they contribute to the community of Solomeo and the lives of the people who make the cashmere they wear.” Indeed, this is one case where doing the right thing has paid off on so many different levels. 4S Susan Weissman is
executive editor of Four Seasons Magazine.
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