You once said that you don't do "fashion" at LARUSMIANI. If one of
Milan's most distinguished houses isn't a fashion brand – what is it all
about then?
It is not about Fashion, it’s about style and craftsmanship. Who said that sustainability cannot be a white linen shirt, hand-made in Italy from the finest linen in the world, destined to endure in our wardrobe for decades? Every piece created at Larusmiani, every cloth and every accessory, is made with this vision: one that stands at a considered distance from today's notion of fashion and luxury, and closer, always, to the idea of something that truly lasts.
In your Milan store, you showcase sports cars in dialogue with the clothing. What aesthetic criteria must a vehicle meet for you?
There are no purely aesthetic criteria for a car to enter The Automotive Gallery of LARUSMIANI. Like clothes and accessories, great cars are 70 per cent substance and 30 per cent beauty. Exceptional automobiles are the result of a constant strive for perfection: of performance and racing vision, of the desire for victory, and at the same time of practicality and the pure emotion of driving.
Since 2019, you have been curating FuoriConcorso on Lake Como. Was this event the logical consequence of your endeavour to finally merge fashion and mobility?
It all began with a deep passion for cars. It was the first edition of FuoriConcorso that revealed something fundamental to me: during the launch of our book and the exhibition of the 1990s Bentley Continentals, masterpieces entirely hand-built by skilled craftsmen, I realised clearly that collectors were seeking something more than traditional concours d’élégance events. They were looking for genuine opportunities to share passion, knowledge and emotion in moments of genuine connection. FuoriConcorso was born from this realisation, and has become all of this, and much more besides.
This year's FuoriConcorso, under the title "KraftMeister", is dedicated exclusively to German cars. What makes German engineering so appealing in your eyes?
What moves me about the great German automotive tradition is precisely what moves me about the finest tailoring and craftmanship: the refusal to compromise. There is a moral dimension to German engineering, a sense that precision is not merely a technical requirement but an ethical one, the strive for perfection. When car companies like Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, BMW and Audi built their most legendary machines, they were not simply solving problems of performance, they were making a statement about what it means to do something properly, completely, without shortcuts, or compromises. That philosophy resonates with everything we believe in at Larusmiani. KraftMeister felt like an entirely honest title.
→ What do the fashion designer, entrepreneur and self-confessed Porsche enthusiast have in common with photographer Helmut Newton? Read the second part of our interview shortly.
