HAIL, Caesar!

From Solomeo to Silicon Valley, Brunello Cucinelli came, saw, and conquered. On the eve of a lifetime achievement award, he boils down the secret of his success:

- JON CARAMANICA

Brunello Cucinelli grew up in a farming family, and only a few photos of him in childhood survive. The clothes he wears in them are durable, unfussy, basic.

"We were not a wealthy family," he says. "My mom would buy those clothes, and they would have to last for the whole season."

He was Zooming in from the restored and repurposed 13th-century castle in Solomeo, Italy, that serves as both the base of operations of his global luxury empire and his spiritual raison d'être. The occasion was his selection to receive a lifetime achievement award this month from the Neiman Marcus Group. (Previous honorees have included such titans of the trade as Coco Chanel, Christian Dior, and Yves Saint Laurent.) Neiman's, which is launching a limited edition collection in April, has been carrying the Brunello Cucinelli label since the mid-'90s and is his largest client partner worldwide. Behind him were immaculate white built-in shelves. On the top row, spread across 10 or so feet, sat spools of cashmere in a rainbow of pastel neutrals: cotton candy, cactus, caramel. A kaleidoscope of tones bright enough to attract the eye but not so pointed as to overwhelm. "We use neutral colors," he adds, "but we are never, never basic"

For more than four decades Cucinelli has been honing his extremely specific vision of luxury, rooted in but not limited to cashmere, by identifying the most provocative ways to be quiet. Even if his clothes are expensive to make and to purchase, utilitarianism is a core principle not only for the brand but for the clientele: Mediterranean dandies and thoughtful tech bros, uninterested in flashing their fortunes at a time of market anxiety. Custom black mock turtlenecks for Steve Jobs; more recently, gray T-shirts for Mark Zuckerberg.

A group of tech titans, including Jeff Bezos, once made a three-day pilgrimage to Solomeo.