Custom luggage to match your Rolls? There’s a designer for that

To celebrate its 50th anniversary last weekend, Italian luxury brand Stefano Ricci hosted a catwalk show inside the 3,500-year-old Hatshepsut Temple in Egypt’s ancient capital Luxor — an undertaking involving four chartered flights, six tailors, 45 models, 130 drivers, and 200 chefs, waiters and technicians. Four hundred of the brand’s biggest-spending clients and a smattering of press were ferried to a formal dinner in Luxor Temple, a lecture from prominent Egyptologist Dr Zahi Hawass and private tours of the Valley of the Kings.

Why would a family-owned Florentine menswear brand choose to celebrate its anniversary in Egypt? According to the brand’s namesake founder and designer, the answer is his longstanding cultural interest in the country. In 2003, Ricci produced a coffee-table book in consultation with Hawass named Luxor of Egypt, which celebrated the city and its ancient past. “It was edited to give to our friends and our clients. I love Egyptology,” he explains, sitting beside the pool at the Hilton Luxor hotel.

There is a subtext, though. Stefano Ricci claims to be the first brand ever to host a fashion show on an ancient Egyptian site. Ricci beat LVMH stalwart Dior to the punch (Dior has a show at the Pyramids of Giza scheduled for December) and did so with more pomp than a ceremonial ship launching. The catwalk — with its 90 maximalist looks and performances from opera singer Andrea Bocelli — was a power move designed to highlight Stefano Ricci’s status in the luxury world.

To entrepreneur and longstanding client Dragos Sprinceana, chief executive and president of US-based GoldCoast Logistics, Stefano Ricci offers a level of exclusivity and service that he’s not found anywhere else: “You’ll tell them when you’re coming, and then everything on the floor is your size,” he says. “The quality is amazing.”

We meet the morning of the show, which ran for over an hour and demonstrated that more is not always better. The opening run of suits were loud and chintzy, in metallic fabrics with a surfeit of gold thread and buttons. The silk shirts were gaudy, as were the two-tone crocodile shoes in white and metallic silver. Ranks of topless male models dressed as ancient Egyptians lining the catwalk felt cheesy too. But the clients sitting around me loved it. “Forget about Paris Fashion Week,” one said.

Ricci started in fashion in 1972, aged 22, by selling a range of Italian-made silk ties that were picked up by department stores including Neiman Marcus and Harrods. He has gone on to build his business into a favourite of the rich and powerful by creating, in his words, “product that’s made with love, passion and an artisanal system”.

According to Ricci’s eldest son and brand CEO Niccolò Ricci, Stefano Ricci will generate sales of €150mn by the close of 2022, in line with 2019. The company was hit hard by the pandemic as clients were forced to forgo travel and factories were closed. Historically, the brand has concentrated its efforts on China, the Middle East and Russia, but now credits 56 per cent of its sales to the US and Europe.

Stefano is unabashed about his ongoing presence in Russia: “I have a global business,” he says. “Russian men today are more elegant than most European people.” The brand still ships items under €300 to the country, a spokesperson says.

The brand’s showy approach to menswear design has won fans among those unafraid to flaunt their wealth. Signature pieces range from a suit in super 150s wool retailing for £4,800 to a full crocodile skin jacket for £55,000. The label is also known for its crocodile belts (from £2,000), finished with chunky gold buckles depicting an eagle.

Clients include politicians, performers and captains of industry. The brand famously made some of Nelson Mandela’s trademark Madiba shirts (Ricci and Mandela were friends, and his daughter sent a video message that was played during the dinner at Luxor Temple) and has dressed other heads of state, including Putin, and celebrities such as Tom Cruise and Michael Bublé.

The brand is notable when it comes to customisation, with 20 per cent of revenues coming from one-off pieces for clients. During our interview, a comparison to fellow Italian menswear label Zegna does not land well: “With all my respect for Zegna, I think we operate in a completely different territory,” Stefano says. “We have an approach to our product that’s completely in two different worlds.”

Bespoke projects range from creating full wardrobes for clients (some fly Stefano Ricci’s tailors in on private jets to facilitate appointments), to crafting suites of furniture upholstered in crocodile skin. The brand has an interior design division that specialises in kitting out superyachts. “Recently, we had a client send in a piece of leather from his customised Rolls-Royce,” says Niccolò. “He wanted crocodile luggage to match the colour, and then a key holder, wallet and other accessories too.” The brand also recently finished upholstering 20 palatial tan crocodile skin armchairs for a client in Cambodia. “It took eight months to find the proper skins at the right size,” he adds. The brand owns a crocodile farm in Australia.

Younger Ricci sibling and brand creative director Filippo Ricci manages a team that specialises in customising existing designs for clients: “We have one client who gets a collection which is totally customised for him,” he says. “Whatever he sees, he buys straight from the showroom . . . but he wants everything modified a little.”

Evidently, Stefano Ricci gives clients what they want — and it works. The brand, though small compared with high-end menswear stalwarts such as Zegna (2021 revenues of €1.03bn) and Brunello Cucinelli (€712mn), is in expansion mode, with a run of new stores in the pipeline. That includes a new boutique on Madison Avenue, plus locations in Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and the SKP Mall in Beijing. To keep jet-setting customers coming into stores, 40 to 50 per cent of the offering in each one of Stefano Ricci’s 70 stores is unique. “Each client travels and they shop in London, New York, LA, have a house in Miami,” says Filippo. “These clients have sometimes no budget in spending. The more you show them the things they will enjoy, they will keep on shopping.”

Stefano is confident newly minted clients will continue to flock to his flashy, masculine vision for men’s luxury. “The more a man becomes powerful, the more he gives care and time to what he wants to wear,” he says. “When you reach the point that you feel successful, you really want to look different.”

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