Carolina Cucinelli grew up in the idyllic Italian village of Solomeo, which her father, the founder and chief executive of his eponymous luxury men’s and womenswear label Brunello Cucinelli, restored to serve as the brand’s headquarters. Despite living in the “hamlet of cashmere and harmony,” Carolina never heard much about the family business inside her home. In fact, there was “absolutely never” any talk about work by her parents.
“From the beginning, when my sister Camilla and I were very young, my father and my mother decided not to speak about their jobs at home,” Carolina says. “We’d have lunch and dinner together every day and they wanted to leave us out from all the nuts and bolts of the business.”
Carolina, who now serves as the co-president, co-creative director and board member of the company, wasn’t lured to work for the family business by pressure or necessity; instead, she found the love of the work all on her own.
“My father always said that I’m completely free to choose my path, which was important to me,” she explains. “Growing up I was passionate about art and dance and fashion. When I was very, very young I started to create sample clothes for my Barbie dolls. But being that my father and mother were very busy working at the company every day, I was a bit curious about it. So, when I finished school, I decided to spend one year in the company. After almost 11 years, I’m still here.”
She didn’t shoot straight to the top when she began, despite her last name. Instead, she spent five years working in the production department and with the design team to better understand the fabrics and craftsmanship involved in the line. Then, she moved to the communications and digital side, working on the website and online boutique.
Today, being the co-president and co-creative director means she oversees just about everything going on in the company. From working with the design team, to communicating with clients, journalists and all vendors outside the company, Carolina is busy day to day. “Design and communication are a big focus for me,” she explains. “The majority of my time, around 80 percent, is dedicated to the product.”
No matter what she tackles in any given day, she’s always thinking about the overall image of the brand. “We try to work every day to create a connection with our client and better explain our philosophy, our brand, our product,” she shares. Most recently, that effort has taken shape through three different platforms — by launching a new video series campaign, getting into the celebrity dressing space, and debuting the brand’s first collaboration.
The first initiative she helped launch was the Be Your Change project, a video series the brand began in 2021 and will continue this year, featuring stories of creative and accomplished individuals. The company wanted to highlight friends of the brand who are “very in line with our values and with our perspective of life” and who could share the “real stories and challenges” that people go through, Carolina explains.
Some of the videos feature Olympic skier Eileen Gu, pianist Alexander Romanovsky, and figure skater Elladj Baldé sharing their thoughts on hope and the future. “The idea was to try to create a connection with the new generation, and the new generation is very focused on the digital world,” Carolina says. “It’s a very fresh campaign with a message that the young generation can appreciate: a message for the future, a message of hope. I’ve seen a lot of re-posting of this video. It’s something different from the fashion part of the brand; this is taking it to a second level.”
Another way the brand is connecting with inspiring individuals is by breaking further into the celebrity dressing scene. While the brand has always had “a little collection of clothing for occasions,” Carolina says, now they are extending their reach into Hollywood. Brunello Cucinelli hosted an event in Los Angeles in December 2021 to show celebrity stylists and friends of the brand a special 10-piece selection of men’s and women’s red- carpet designs so they could “better understand our kind of style,” says Carolina. “We like the idea of mixing and matching pants and a jacket with other pieces, like a very funky T-shirt, or with precious shoes. We like the idea that women can adapt the look for a special event.”
The third way she’s expanding the brand is through a collaboration with the California- based eyewear brand, Oliver Peoples, which launched last fall. The debut line marked the first-ever collaboration for Brunello Cucinelli, which happened to be a very organic fit “because our companies hold the same values and have the same approach to business,” Carolina says.
It’s not lost on Carolina that having her father as her mentor — “my stroke of luck” — makes her experience in the workforce a bit different than others. Brunello, who is as well known for his ethical and humanistic approach to business as he is for captivating the industry with his innovative dyed cashmere when he launched in 1978, paved a bold path. Still, being a woman comes with its own challenges.
“As a woman, a mother, a young person, the world of business is not the easiest place to be,” Carolina notes. “Sometimes I do have the feeling that you have this constant need to prove your worth, to show how much you value yourself.” And, there’s no question she feels pressure in the role that she’s in today.
“To tell you the truth, I don’t know whether this pressure came from others or whether I put it on myself. But the latter is what matters the most. I contributed to it, and I put pressure on myself, that’s for sure.”
What shifted her mindset was becoming a mom. “It really has helped me a lot in finding and setting my priorities right,” Carolina admits. Before COVID-19, she traveled often, but now what’s most important to her is being at home, raising her 1-year-old son Brando in the same town she grew up in with her husband, Alessio Piastrelli, who also works for Brunello Cucinelli on the men’s style team.
In fact, the precedent her parents set to keep work out of the home is still something Carolina and her sister Camilla — who also works for Brunello Cucinelli as co-head of the women’s style office along with her husband Riccardo Stefanelli, the company’s CEO — continue to embrace today.
“When we are at work, we are colleagues and at home, we are friends,” says Carolina. “It’s important to divide it into two different worlds.”
“The choice that my parents made — never to bring work into the home in the evening — really paid off for them, because that was a reason why my sister and I actually fell in love with the job and enjoy the business.”
If it worked for Carolina and Camilla, it may be the ticket to priming the third generation to take the reins one day. “I definitely hope that my son and my two nieces, they can sort of fall in love with the company, so maybe one of them can really carry forward the legacy,” she says. “But it needs to be a choice that they make themselves.”
In the end, Carolina knows what’s best for her son is “to be really happy,” no matter what that looks like. Carolina muses, “Whether he wants to become an artist, or he wants to join the business, or if he wants to move to the other side of the world, I truly just wish for him to be happy and to have a lot of different experiences and to travel and be a child of the world.”
Whether or not her son works side-by-side with her one day, the teachings Brunello instilled in Carolina surely will be passed onto the next generation. To Carolina, “What my father conveyed to me the most was that of respect. Respecting all the different points of view of the people I work with, my family, and my whole community.”
That very act of respecting those around her at work and in life is what keeps Carolina motivated and inspired every day. Noting that her favorite aspect of going to work is “getting to learn new ways of tackling things and interacting with many different people,” she says. “Whether it’s the seamstress, who makes and manufactures the garment, or somebody who talks to me about communication or finance, I want to work with all of them and hear the ideas they bring into the office.”
At the end of the day, having the same focus as her family is a uniquely special experience. “I’m very proud and I’m very happy to be here,” says Carolina. “I feel lucky.”
To read more from GRAZIA USA’s March 2022 issue, pick up a copy on newsstands and email [email protected] to subscribe.
