Staying Power

Stefano Ricci has built a reputation on dressing titans of business, politics and entertainment. JING ZHANG visits his Italian compound for an inside look at the family’s booming luxury lifestyle brand

- Jing Zhang

EACH SUMMER, Stefano Ricci and family escape to Castello di Balbo on Italy’s Tuscan coast. The founder of his eponymous menswear label is joined by wife Claudia, sons Filippo (creative director at the house) and Niccolo (CEO), and their families.

At the castle, the Florentine natives often host lavish dinners overlooking the azure Mediterranean. Guests and VIPs, dressed to the nines, dine on sumptuous local cuisine beneath twinkling stars. The atmosphere is celebratory, almost wedding like, and the charismatic Stefano regales with stories of meeting the pope in South Africa at lunch with his late friend Nelson Mandela — both men whom he has dressed.

Fashion’s young guns may not have heard of the 46-year-old Florence-based menswear label, but to a certain set of high-flying and very, very wealthy men who like to spend on their clothing, it’s the ultimate sartorial power play — unabashedly flashy, ultramasculine and firmly focused on quality. The brand has clothed Andrea Bocelli and Tom Cruise as well as Mandela — in the famous black shirt he wore to meet Queen Elizabeth, among others — and supplied fabrics for Pope Benedict’s silk robes.

While many other luxury brands are traversing shaky times, Stefano Ricci reported turnover of €144 million last year, up 13 percent from the previous year. It’s clearly doing something right.