The great Gatsby was in Brunello Cucinelli’s mind for his Spring collection: “It’s a young Gatsby though, contemporary and a little sporty,” he said. Capturing the spirit of youth, together with a sense of dapper ease, was very much on his mind, too; apparently, millennials make for a good chunk of the label’s customers. “Because of the quite expensive price, maybe they buy just one great piece, like a soft-tailored blazer which can be worn with everything on every occasion, from a denim shirt or with layered T-shirts or over a waistcoat or a tie. A jacket always elevates the look.”
Cucinell’s style is quite ageless; at his presentations, the collection is modeled by his employees, from twentysomethings to handsome guys in their 60s. But looking young and well put together is paramount; according to the entrepreneur, traditional stiff tailoring makes a man look and feel old, so he’s perfected his signature silhouette, relaxed yet enhancing the male body in all the right places. The Cucinelli tailoring technique dictates that a jacket must have soft yet well defined shoulders, be fitted and trim at the waist, and cut with aplomb on the back. It’s a template that changes every season ever so slightly. For Spring, blazers or double-breasted jackets were just one inch longer; cut in textured linens and cottons in soft hues of sand, caramel, and tobacco, they felt as lightweight and malleable as cardigans, and would’ve delighted Jay Gatsby, surely.
Gatsby’s style was mentioned as a subtext for the collection not to celebrate a past sense of elegance; Cucinelli is not a nostalgic. Actually, it was because in the ’20s noble sports like tennis, sailing, or golf were for the first time referenced in formal dressing. Today, sportswear as stylistic language has become so globally pervasive, it’s impossible to ignore. Cucinelli obviously gave his personal interpretation of the theme. Pointing out a luxurious version of a tracksuit in heavenly soft cashmere worn under a supple quilted-leather waistcoat, he said, “When on Sundays you get up early to go buy the brioches for your breakfast, you must still look your best and be well groomed.” It doesn’t matter that the tracksuit in question sells at around $6,000? “My sportswear is obviously of outstanding quality,” he remarked, nonplussed. “It’s expensive-looking and molto signorile.”
