"No logo and you don't advertise for anyone. I don't believe in imposed luxury. I believe in built luxury. Something you refine with your own taste. Mass luxury is not my luxury."
-Lapo Elkann
Meet the Man of Style
Lapo Elkann (born October 7, 1977) is a New York-born Italian industrialist, former marketing manager. He is currently the manager of brand promotion at Fiat Automobiles. He is a "global ambassador" of the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer. Son of Margherita Agnelli de Pahlen and the writer Alain Elkann, he is the brother of the Agnelli "crown prince"John Elkann. Elkann is a grandson of Marella Agnelli and Fiat chairman Gianni Agnelli and a stepson of Russian count Serge de Pahlen. In addition to his brother, John, Elkann has a sister, Ginevra Elkann, and five half-siblings by his mother's second marriage: Maria, Pierre, Sophia, Anna, and Tatiana. He’s young, good-looking and extremely wealthy. He’s fluent in six languages and the very definition of cosmopolitan, having been born in New York, raised in Brazil, educated in England and France, and now once again living in Gotham. He’s the scion of Italy’s preeminent family (the Agnellis, not the Mafia), and is quintessentially Italian. Style and fashion are in his blood, thanks to his aunt Diane von Furstenberg. He’s linked with sleek cars and even sleeker women. Perennially named to the world’s best-dressed lists, he’s officially a Style Icon.
Now lets talk about his Personal Style.
personal style is eclectic. One day he will be precisely dressed in a blue double-breasted suit, spread-collar white shirt, solid tie and puffed pocket square, or a navy blazer and stripped pants with red socks and brown shoes. On the next, he’ll wear a bold-check suit with scarf, or he’ll spice up one of the impeccably cut suits he inherited from Gianni Agnelli by wearing sneakers with no socks. For daywear he quirkily favors tuxedo jackets in bold and unlikely checks. He’s commissioned a Mediterranean-blue suit from the prestigious Rome tailoring house of Caraceni, executed to his specifications, accented by grosgrain lapels with the proportions of a 1959 Cadillac’s tailfins and a built-in cummerbund waistband, which he’ll wear with velvet slippers.
He talks to Pandora Lennard about his unique take on the definition of luxury. Here's an excerpt of that interview.
Lapo Elkan: I am very curious. I’ve been curious in good ways and bad ways, but I’ve always paid for it. I love movies, I love photos, travelling, people, all kinds of people. I’m not a snob – I like the waiters, the bartenders, I like the girl who does the coffee, the guy who washes the windows. I like humanity. People are 90 per cent of whatever you do. If you have the right people you win, andif you have the wrong people you lose. I learned this at a very young age, because I made mistakes with people at a young age. It made me learn very quickly.
Pandora Lennard: Is there still a market for luxury brands in the current economic climate?
Lapo Elkan: I think people confuse luxury. Luxury is a very complex and cheapened word. There’s luxury, and there is mass luxury. To me, mass luxury is Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Armani, Prada. It’s belts you have all over the world with a logo on them. A lot of people buy brands because it allows them to show that they are rich; that they’ve made it. It’s status, not real luxury. Real luxury to me is having a full fridge, but not having a butler. Real luxury is Anderson & Sheppard. Real luxury is being able to customise the interior of your Ferrari with denim or pinstriped cloth. Luxury is never having to hear the word “no”.
Lapo is a man who always gets it right. Whether on jeans or a well tailored suit, he is class personified!
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