Brunello Cucinelli on Doc ‘Gracious Visionary,’ Emily in Paris, Hollywood

In September 2024, Brunello Cucinelli acquired a shocking invitation.

“Emily in Paris” creator Darren Star requested the style mogul’s presence on the Rome premiere of the Netflix hit’s fourth season. And albeit, Cucinelli was confused. Although he’s used to being invited to VIP gatherings — from trend exhibits to conferences with presidents and kings — this appeared exterior his wheelhouse.

“Why ought to I am going to Rome to see the premiere of ‘Emily in Paris’? I’ve nothing to do with it!” Cucinelli, talking in boisterous Italian by a translator, remembers with a booming chortle. He’s seated in his stark-white, minimalist workplace on the headquarters of his billion-dollar clothes model in Solomeo, Italy, however his inviting demeanor and barely flashy burgundy-checkered sports activities coat lend greater than a bit of heat.

“So I didn’t go,” Cucinelli, 72, continues. “And the day after that, worldwide — from India, China — they showered me with emails!”

Because it seems, Cucinelli had impressed a whole storyline in “Emily in Paris” — he simply didn’t realize it. Performed by Eugenio Franceschini, Marcello Muratori is an Italian inheritor to a luxurious cashmere firm based by his late father, Umberto, and the most recent love curiosity of Lily Collins’ Emily Cooper. When she visits him in Rome, he whisks her away to his hamlet of Solitano, the place she falls in love with the way in which his workers are handled like household and even takes a break from posting to social media to guard the sanctity of the village.

The storyline was impressed by a go to that Star, the prolific TV creator, paid to Cucinelli. Star had been conscious of the cashmere-centric model — which he calls “the epitome of quiet luxurious, refined style and magnificence” — for years, and in October 2023, some trend trade pals organized for him to go to Solomeo, a picturesque village 100 miles north of Rome, to fulfill the person behind all of it. There, Star discovered the lacking piece of Marcello.

“I used to be just a little nervous, hoping he could be happy, since I like him a lot,” Star says. “The shock was how a lot the fact of Solomeo and Brunello himself surpassed my creativeness. As stunning as our fictional Solitano is — we didn’t do it justice!”

Star is only one of Hollywood’s many energy gamers enamored with Cucinelli. He has been referred to as the king of cashmere for many years, with everybody from Mark Zuckerberg to Leonardo DiCaprio, Oprah Winfrey to Gwyneth Paltrow, drawn to his dear but comfortable sweaters. Now Cucinelli is about to take his model to thebig display. His life story is the topic of a brand new drama, mixing documentary and conventional narrative, referred to as “Brunello: The Gracious Visionary.”

The Cucinelli model doesn’t cease on the pink carpet: Cucinelli strives to share his philosophy and lifestyle. Impressed by the beliefs of Socrates and Kant, Cucinelli prides himself on “humanistic capitalism” and giving again to his neighborhood, a lot in order that in 1985 he bought the Citadel of Solomeo — and over time, the remainder of the village wherein his spouse grew up — and has since renovated its historic buildings, moved his headquarters there and employed hundreds of locals.

His new movie is a testomony to his love of collaboration. A loyal cinema fan, Cucinelli recruited a pair of Oscar winners in “Cinema Paradiso” helmer Giuseppe Tornatore and “Life Is Stunning” composer Nicola Piovani to assist recount how he went from a peasant’s son to the founding father of a world-class luxurious model. The 2-hour movie options docu-style interviews — alongside his spouse and daughters, Winfrey, Patrick Dempsey and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman make appearances — and reenacted scenes with actors together with “Love & Gelato” breakout Saul Nanni.

To make “Brunello: The Gracious Visionary,” Cucinelli needed to woo Tornatore, whose 2021 doc “Ennio,” about legendary composer Ennio Morricone, performed festivals worldwide.

Cucinelli beloved “Ennio” and wished his movie to be made by a “poet,” however Tornatore was reluctant. “It was very troublesome to wrap my head round his request,” the director informed journalists at a December press convention in Rome. Cucinelli wouldn’t take no for a solution. “He insisted, as solely he can do — he insists so much.”

It additionally helped that Cucinelli didn’t give Tornatore any monetary constraints. The movie ended up costing $17 million and was principally self-financed, save for roughly $4.7 million in Italian tax movie credit score assist acquired by govt producer MasiFilm.

Cucinelli had hoped to share his life story whereas he was nonetheless round to see its ripple results. “These documentaries are made after individuals have died. A number of the ones I’ve seen are of people who I’ve identified — I don’t like them very a lot,” Cucinelli explains. “They don’t seem to be as profound as the worth of the human being.”

“The Gracious Visionary” opened in Italy on Dec. 9 and has performed brisk enterprise on the field workplace, scoring greater than $1 million throughout its restricted seven-day run. Different launch dates haven’t but been set — Cucinelli says he’s aiming for the tip of February within the U.S. — however the movie’s posters adorn the home windows of each Cucinelli retailer. It’s undoubtedly a love letter to Cucinelli himself, and when it’s launched worldwide it would additionally function an extension of his model — his life philosophy wrapped up within the luxurious coats and sweaters that obtained him this far.

It’s simple to see why Star was so charmed by Solomeo. Located atop a sun-soaked hill, the medieval village is anchored by a 14th-century citadel — which now homes the model’s tailoring workshop and signature boutique — identified to be frequented by celebrities like Paltrow (who holidays on the close by Castello de Reschio). Peppered all through the village are busts and plaques bearing quotes from Cucinelli’s favourite minds, from Mahatma Gandhi to Leonardo da Vinci. From the village’s small car parking zone, one can see the vineyards the place Cucinelli produces his personal wine, a neighborhood soccer discipline — and, after all, the Cucinelli headquarters.

Down on the ecru-colored campus, the workplace is clear and vibrant, with Renaissance artwork adorning the partitions. At 1 p.m. each day, workers get pleasure from a meal collectively within the wood-beamed eating corridor — antipasti, pasta al pomodoro, wine and dessert. And at 5:30 p.m., the lights in the principle workplace flip off. Extra time is forbidden.

A lot of the designer’s work ethic and philosophy may be traced to his late father, and Cucinelli was honored by the nods to him in “Emily in Paris.” The fictional model bears his father’s first title, Umberto, and the surname Muratori evokes the Italian phrase for mason, “muratore.” Although his father was a farmer within the Umbrian hamlet of Castel Rigone, the place Cucinelli was born in 1953, in his teenage years the household moved to the Ferro di Cavallo neighborhood of close by Perugia, the place his dad started working in a cement manufacturing facility to offer a greater life. This represented a serious sacrifice.

“He would by no means complain about his wages or the truth that it was chilly within the manufacturing facility; what he did complain about was that he was being belittled,” Cucinelli says wistfully. “That basically killed me. … You see, human beings want dignity much more than they want bread.”

Cucinelli based his firm in 1978 on the age of 25 after discovering success dyeing cashmere in vibrant colours at a time when that hardly existed, particularly for girls. He barely had any expertise in trend and didn’t go to school; as an alternative he credit his enterprise savvy to the card-playing abilities taught to him by his grandfather, the philosophy he discovered in his native bar as a younger man and the stylistic eye of his spouse, Federica Benda, who already had her personal boutique when he was simply getting began.

At the same time as the corporate grew, his values stayed the identical. Cucinelli considers his workers not simply employees however “considering souls,” and so they earn about 20% greater than the typical Italian manufacturing or industrial wage. If one worker offends one other, they’re fired on the spot. After relocating to Solomeo within the Nineteen Eighties, Cucinelli regularly expanded, broadening the corporate’s product line from sweaters to full prêt-à-porter and veering into menswear, a sphere wherein he began to “develop into the brand new Armani,” notes Alex Badia, fashion director at Ladies’s Put on Day by day.

Since going public in 2012, Brunello Cucinelli S.p.A. has constantly proven year-on-year income progress averaging within the double digits, with latest forecasts pointing to 10%-12% progress for 2025 and 10% for 2026. That is distinctive at a time when many established luxurious conglomerates — corresponding to Kering and LVMH — are hurting.

“He got here from nothing, and it’s actually outstanding what he’s performed,” says Badia, who has lined Cucinelli for greater than a decade. “If I needed to make investments, I’d spend money on Brunello Cucinelli, as a result of I see that the long run is vibrant.”

Extra lately, Cucinelli’s daughters, Camilla and Carolina, have positioned a renewed emphasis on girls’s put on. That is now 50% of the corporate’s output, which Badia says is “the place the expansion potential is.”

That’s additionally the place Hollywood comes into play. Greater than ever, celebrities are those transferring trend merchandise, reducing by the muddle in an oversaturated media setting.

In his Solomeo workplace, a nook of the room is about up like a shrine to the celebrities who’ve labored with Cucinelli. It began when Prince William wore a Cucinelli sweater in his official engagement photographs with Kate Middleton in 2010 — their image is smack-dab within the heart of 1 wall. Surrounding the royals are pictures of among the greatest names in Hollywood: Paltrow, DiCaprio, Julia Roberts, Daniel Craig, Angelina Jolie, George Clooney. From April to October, his assistant says, the workplace is inundated with requests from the wealthy and well-known wanting the total Cucinelli expertise, which regularly features a tour of the services and lunch within the eating corridor.

Throughout our walk-through, we stumble upon Cucinelli on his technique to a gathering. He’s not fluent in English — although he’s taking lessons — however his greeting is communicated with a pat on the elbow and a cheerful smile. By a translator, he affords us espresso earlier than heading to the workshop to proof the model’s newest couture creations — heavy knit attire with sequins hand-sewn onto the cashmere. Every costume weighs three kilos and is the results of greater than 60 hours of labor.

“You go to see him, and immediately he treats you such as you’re a part of a household,” Badia says. “He affords you espresso. He feeds you — he’s bringing mozzarella, pasta al pomodoro. Even his physicality, the way in which he approaches you, is so disarming. And he enchants celebrities.” Cucinelli underlines that the model doesn’t “sponsor anybody” to put on its garments — it’s all natural. “So if Gwyneth or Angelina go for one in all our attire, it’s their alternative,” he says. “We don’t pay them to try this.”

Identical to the late Armani, Cucinelli personally attire film stars — together with Robert De Niro, who he recounts doesn’t just like the label’s signature fashion of trousers that taper beneath the knee to an abbreviated cuff.

“What are these fucking quick pants?!” Cucinelli remembers De Niro saying in Italian at a latest becoming.

“I made them a bit longer for him,” Cucinelli says, chuckling on the reminiscence. “However not full-length.”

Exterior Solomeo, Cucinelli usually hosts star-studded occasions at Los Angeles’ Chateau Marmont, celebrating his humanist beliefs with friends like Chris Pine, Jennifer Lopez, Jon Hamm, Ava DuVernay and Sharon Stone — “who will solely come if she will get to take a seat subsequent to me,” he says.

Cucinelli has additionally been hobnobbing with Silicon Valley, beginning with Zuckerberg, whom he’s been outfitting in $400 customized grey T-shirts. In 2017, Cucinelli appeared at Dreamforce, Salesforce’s annual convention, the place he took the stage for a fireplace chat with founder Marc Benioff, who sported a Cucinelli pin-striped go well with.

Although it might appear that know-how — particularly the appearance of synthetic intelligence —straight opposes Cucinelli’s humanist philosophy, he’s studying to embrace it. When requested his ideas on the specter of AI taking away so many human jobs, Cucinelli declares: “I really like AI!”

“Let me present you one thing,” he provides, rising from his seat and striding throughout the room. Amid dozens of framed information clips documenting the ascent of the Cucinelli model is a manifesto on AI, signed and dated in roman numerals.

“Will it substitute human intelligence? By no means,” Cucinelli reads from the doc. “AI is born from cause; it can’t embrace any folly. However creativity is born from folly. Due to this fact, AI can’t create.”

The model has began to make use of AI-powered sensible boards to help with high quality management — notably to find flaws within the hand-knit cashmere — however Cucinelli is agency that it’ll by no means exchange human work.

“I believe that know-how is a blessing from creation, however dangers dropping the soul that we’ve,” he says. “We have to strike that stability once more.”

Sitting with Cucinelli is like conferring with a dwelling historical past e-book. He casually quotes philosophers — Rousseau, Marcus Aurelius, Socrates — and speaks in riddles as if he’s one himself. A theme that resonates all through our dialog, and a message Cucinelli hopes viewers take from his movie, is that there must be a brand new form of revolution to take the world again to humanistic beliefs.

“There’s a very sturdy malaise in all people’s soul,” he says. “We have now now reached a really excessive degree of harshness in how we categorical ourselves — in politics, in each day life, in work, in household.”

A part of this revolution, he says, ought to be returning to villages versus dwelling in bustling cities. Although he usually travels for work — Cucinelli has simply returned from Korea and Japan — he’s most at house in nature. Our picture shoot takes place in his vineyards, and Cucinelli makes the quick drive there himself behind the wheel of a muddied silver Rolls-Royce. Outfitted in garments from his newest assortment, he stops to say whats up to a snail making its means up a statue earlier than expertly posing among the many trellises. He picks a wrinkled pink grape off the vine and pops it in his mouth with a mischievous smile, urging us to dothe identical. Later, he insists we strive the mosto, grape juice from the September harvest that’s fermenting in oak barrels within the cellar.

Although his philosophy could seem at odds with the fast-paced nature of Hollywood, it’s simple to see why the well-known and rich have been seduced by Cucinelli’s lifestyle. It’s sluggish and easy, targeted on having fun with the little moments and giving again the place doable. When celebrities like Paltrow come to go to, Cucinelli says, they spend time within the backyard and decide tomatoes for that evening’s feast.

“There’s no stardom there,” he says. “Simply normality.”

Cucinelli could have been reluctant to make the journey to Rome for “Emily in Paris,” however on Dec. 4 he had a premiere of his personal to host.

Held at Cinecittà Studios, simply steps away from the re-created Colosseum, the debut of “Brunello: The Gracious Visionary” might have been mistaken for that of an A-list Hollywood manufacturing. Jonathan Bailey, recent off his Individuals Sexiest Man Alive honor, giggled with Jeff Goldblum in a “Depraved” reunion. Jessica Chastain wore a customized Cucinelli robe dripping in diamond accents and talked store with DuVernay. Pine, Édgar Ramírez and Kyle MacLachlan appeared sharp within the model’s signature double-breasted fits, and Ramírez informed Selection on the beige carpet that sporting Cucinelli “makes me really feel like my household is with me.”

“I’m clad by legacy, by household values, by custom, by delicate, timeless magnificence, and that to me is essential,” he added.

“The model stands for one thing,” DuVernay mentioned. “I take into consideration household, about advocacy for the land, one thing that goes past simply aesthetics.”

After the screening, a whole bunch of candles led friends by the traditional Rome set to a dinner area surrounded by 100,000 of Cucinelli’s favourite books. As attendees loved rigatoni al pomodoro, Goldblum and Pine informed Cucinelli how touched they had been by the movie.

Cucinelli was elated by the response. “I didn’t sleep for fairly just a few nights. I’m nonetheless a bit going gaga,” he says over Zoom two weeks later.

In addition to telling his story and touting his model, for Cucinelli “The Gracious Visionary” is all about legacy. Maybe that’s why he determined to make the movie whereas he’s nonetheless round to see it.

“I need to promote the tradition of our firm,” he says. “However additionally it is a time once I imagine {that a} human revolution can begin. And I need to be there.”