Presiding over the sprawling showroom in the central pavilion at Pitti’s Fortezza da Basso, Brunello Cucinelli seemed utterly at ease among the crowd of buyers, press people and various Pitti-peacocked types cramming the space. “I must say that I feel quite happy,” he said. Not surprising, as his company closed 2022 with sales revenue up by a hefty 30%.
Cucinelli’s enthusiasm in walking you through the collection hasn’t dimmed over the years, despite his role today encompassing major responsibilities. “At heart what I love is the product,” he stated. Surrounded by his in-house models, a handsome posse of age-defying Cucinelli clones, he was clearly delighted at pointing out the seemingly inconspicuous details that make the fall collection different just so from the previous one, while keeping it unmistakably in Cucinelli-esque territory. Plus ça change.
This season, the fit of suits, knitwear and outerwear was a tad softer than usual; trousers were slightly roomier, cropped in the new ankle-grazing length he called alla Milanese; blazers were just a whisper longer, but “always marking the waistline, to enhance the shape of the shoulders and the silhouette,” he said. Masculine vanity has guilt-free pride of place in Cucinelli’s universe. “Who says that men don’t care about their looks?” he asked in disbelief. “Nonsense.”
The soft tailored suit is definitely the versatile pièce de résistance of Cucinelli’s ethos, where meticulous mismatched styling rules. Blazers and trousers can be combined and reshuffled at will, paired with pieces from previous seasons or with new ones. An elegant pinstriped blazer was given new life worn with a pair of denims, while a casual-looking double breasted jacket in dove-grey ribbed cotton-cashmere (“so soft you could play tennis in it,” he said) was upgraded into the chic version of itself, worn with a crisp shirt, a tie, a pair of slim Prince of Wales trousers and formal brogues. The old and the new coexist in harmony in Cucinelli’s wardrobes: “Repair, re-use, keep for life what’s beautiful and made with ethical respect: that’s what’s important today,” he concluded. “Who wants to throw things away irresponsibly or to buy something not ethically produced? You’d feel awfully uncomfortable doing that.”
For all the latest fasion News Click Here
