Brunello Cucinelli's origins and vision

Brunello Cucinelli, an Italian entrepreneur and fashion designer, founded his company in the 1970s in Umbria, a region in central Italy known for its long tradition of knitting. He introduced brightly colored cashmere, a material previously only available in beige and gray, and developed new styles for it, helping to redefine luxury fashion.

Growth and philosophy

Cucinelli’s company, which entered the stock market in 2012, now has a turnover approaching a billion euros and continues to grow. Despite this success, he lives in Solomeo, a medieval town he restored into an ideal city, emphasizing sustainable and artisanal luxury nourished by philosophy. He rejects the term "quiet luxury," focusing instead on exclusivity and high-quality craftsmanship.

Work-life balance and humanist capitalism

Cucinelli practices what he calls "humanist capitalism," where work, culture, and spirituality coexist. He enforces a workday ending at 5:30 p.m. to preserve personal life and balance. This approach is influenced by his father's experiences during the 1960s rural exodus in Italy, where he felt modernity failed to compensate for the loss of traditional life.

Influences and personal reflections

Cucinelli's life is shaped by his childhood memories of the village, where he would contemplate the sky and stars. He also reflects on the time after his mother's death, when he spent hours discussing life with his father. Today, he works with his two daughters and cites Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, identifying with the character who carries a lamp to guide others.

Inspiration in film and architecture

Cucinelli's journey has inspired filmmaker Giuseppe Tornatore, who directed Brunello, Il Visionario Garbato, a film that chronicles Cucinelli's life, his humble rurality, and the restoration of Solomeo. The film features Solomeo, a place Cucinelli describes as the "place of the soul," where he and his wife met. Around the 14th-century castle in Solomeo, there is a school of crafts, an amphitheater, the Garden of Philosophers, and a Beauty Park with vineyards, olive trees, and an orchard that supplies the cafeteria.

Cucinelli's intellectual pursuits and role

Cucinelli also established the Aurélian Neo-Humanist Academy, a library housing 120,000 books, which he envisions as a universal collection. His autumn-winter 2025 collection campaign features him surrounded by books, also serving as the poster for Tornatore's film. He describes himself as a "traghettatore," or ferryman, emphasizing that he is not the owner but the responsible one, as the owner is humanity. Cucinelli cites Pascal's maxim that the heart has its reasons that reason ignores and has built a model of conduct directed by passion.