If longevity is the hottest metric in wellness then Brunello Cucinelli, 70-something years young, is well ahead of the trend. He has been observing the Seven Tibetans, a daily practice of dynamic yoga moves reputed to extend the span and quality of life, for decades now. And as he disclosed at today’s womenswear presentation, he is soon to be featured in a Men’s Health story dedicated to every aspect of his daily routine in Solomeo, the bucolic hamlet from which he oversees his eponymous company.
As our manly chat continued—the trim cashmere king kindly lied that I’d lost weight—we dwelt on longevity. Don’t you sometimes think, I mooted, about how the clothes you wear will probably last longer than you? “It’s for certain!” Cucinelli replied, before Suzy Menkes sailed in for her chat and I retreated to the panini bar.
The few Cucinelli pieces I have (apart from my lamented gray BC flannel pants and their inevitably delicate seat plus a pair of crepe soled BC saddle shoes that are long worn out but I keep just to sometimes look at) are nailed-on lifers: my sons regularly borrow some of them in indecent anticipation of assuming full ownership. The build quality is a paramount factor in this, but also the aesthetic. In menswear especially, Cucinelli inhabits a platonic ideal that, to my mind, is much more evolved and nuanced than his mainstream ‘quiet luxury’ (urgh) competitors.
Seasonal womenswear is more challenging because the field is more uneven and subject to perilous shifts in trend. However, Cucinelli manages to adopt different seasonal poses each season, flexing the reach and emphasis of his womenswear output while maintaining a strong core identity that stems from his house’s artisanal mastery of knitwear.
This season’s offer was equestrian based and vaguely anglo-inflected. The handmade opera knits that I have seen being expertly constructed in Solomeo were this season notable for featuring oversized and abstract interpretations of the Prince of Wales check. There was a Monili sparkle riding crop, riding boots sometimes spurred, cashmere corduroy culottes. A cashmere tweed shelled riding helmet was matched with a greige tailored jacket in lurex-shot rib knit and matching loose jodhpurs.
Off-theme but an absolute highlight was the quite incredible coat (with matching helmet) fashioned from textured alpaca embroidered to echo the pattern of crocodile skin. A brown-edged gray cardigan was hand embroidered with enormous delicacy to communicate the kaleidoscope fleck of a rich and heathery tweed. These were just a few pieces both deeply special but deployable for the every day in a collection that brimmed with clothes worth sticking around for as long as possible, just in order to keep wearing them.
