Q&a / Carolina Cucinelli, vice-president of Brunello Cucinelli, talks about the understated brand that dresses celebs such as Kristen Stewart and Kim Kardashian and was featured in Emily in Paris

Apr 8 , 2025

Carolina Cucinelli (left) is vice-president of the family firm run by her father Brunello, where her sister Camilla (right) also works. Here, she talks about the values that steer the Italian quiet luxury brand. Photo: Handout

Fashion

One day she is expected to head the firm along with her sister Camilla – until then, she lives in Solomeo, an Umbrian village her father has renovated

Carolina Cucinelli is the scion of one of Italy’s most illustrious luxury dynasties, but she couldn’t be more different from the entitled nepo baby that description suggests. Born, raised and still based in the hamlet of Solomeo – the village in Umbria that her father Brunello has restored – Carolina acts as vice-president and co-creative director of the company her father founded in 1978. She shares her duties with sister Camilla, and the two are widely expected to one day take the reins of the label that has become synonymous with modern-day Italian luxury.

In recent years the brand has experienced a surge in growth and visibility, thanks in no small part to the “quiet luxury” trend that it embodied long before it became a trending hashtag. Earlier this year, the company reported that profits had risen 12.9 per cent in 2024, not a small feat amid an industry-wide slowdown both in the West and in China.

From left, Carolina Cucinelli, Brunello Cucinelli, Oprah Winfrey and Camilla Cucinelli. Photo: BFA.com

Last year in particular was a pivotal one for the label in terms of exposure, from a big event in Shanghai, to dressing celebrities such as Kristen Stewart and Kim Kardashian, and a dinner in Los Angeles attended by the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Kevin Costner, both clients of the label. Another moment that catapulted the brand to the centre of pop culture was a storyline in Netflix hit show Emily in Paris that paid homage to Brunello and what he has built in Umbria.

As a result of all this buzz, Carolina’s duties have increased, as the young mother explained in an interview the day before the label’s autumn/winter 2025 presentation at Casa Cucinelli, the brand’s Milan headquarters.

How has your role evolved over the years?

When I was a teenager, I had many artistic phases like painting and dancing, and I didn’t expect I was going to join the company. But then I went to fashion school and my dad asked me to join even just for a few months, to see and then decide. So I started with the idea of becoming a designer and then I started doing other things like marketing and communication. As someone who dabbled in art, I can easily detach myself from certain situations and strict rules and escape into fantasy. My mission has always been to combine my two souls: my artistic passions and the part connected to the company.

Tell me about Solomeo and what your family has built in that village.

Carolina Cucinelli with her husband Alessio Piastrelli, who sits on the company’s board. Photo: BFA.com

I am very connected to art, and I want to bring that to Solomeo because it’s important for the new generation to be motivated to stay there, a village of 800 people. Instead of them going to Milan or Rome, they can stay and work for a company that is based there and also trains them in savoir faire and in disciplines like gardening, music, the arts, theatre, dance. That makes the place more lively and fun to live in, especially in the summer, when we have film showings and festivals and it’s all free. I could never live anywhere else, and on weekends I love tending to my vegetable garden and being in the countryside with my husband and child.

Brunello Cucinelli is not a fashion brand but is really about style. Do you agree?