Cucinelli's Creed

An ardent student of philosophy, Brunello Cucinelli contemplates how looking to the past can help the fashion industry—and humankind—map out a better future

- Rosana Lai

Brunello Cucinelli is as much a philosopher as he is a designer, only cashmere is the medium through which he imparts his beliefs. It is not unusual to hear the venerated Italian designer, renowned for high-end knitwear, quote everyone from Confucius to Xenophanes in any given conversation, as he did with me the day after he opened Pitti Uomo with his latest menswear collection. “Plato, followed by Aristotle and then Jean-Jacques Rousseau, were the first to introduce the idea of a social contract,” says Cucinelli, while explaining the writings he ruminated over during lockdown last year. “I’m confident now more than ever that we need a social contract, this time not just between human beings, but with the animals and our environment, to strike a balance between profit and giving back. That must be the legacy of this pandemic.”