alain elkann interviews
Paul Smith

Paul Smith

FASHIONABLE FOR FIFTY YEARS. British designer Sir Paul Smith, born in 1946, founded his fashion company in 1970. He was made a Royal Designer for Industry in 1991, the highest accolade for designers in the UK. Primarily known for men’s clothing, today the business of...

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Virgilio Sacchini

Virgilio Sacchini

“There will be one million more cancer deaths in the world because of coronavirus.” Dr Virgilio Sacchini is a professor of surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York and at the University of Milan (UniMi). He also teaches in Zurich. Dr Sacchini,...

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Alexandre de Vogüé

Alexandre de Vogüé

THE STORY OF VAUX-LE-VICOMTE. Alexandre de Vogüé and his two brothers, Jean-Charles and Ascanio, own and run the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte, one of the greatest Historical Monuments in France.A podcast of this interview is available to listen to here. Alexandre de...

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Ferruccio Ferragamo

Ferruccio Ferragamo

PATERFAMILIAS OF MERIT. Ferruccio Ferragamo has devoted his career to the family business since 1963, and has been Executive Chairman of the Board of Salvatore Ferragamo S.p.A. since 2018.Ferruccio Ferragamo, congratulations on your recent award of Cavaliere del...

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Mila Askarova

Mila Askarova

A BRAVE MOVE PAYS DIVIDENDS. MILA ASKAROVA was born and raised in Azerbaijan, before settling in London in 2002. After graduating from the London School of Economics with a BS in International Relations, she pursued her studies at Central Saint Martins and Christie’s,...

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Ines de la Fressange

Ines de la Fressange

FASHION IS CULTURE. Ines de la Fressange started modelling at the age of 17 and quickly made a name for herself. She became nicknamed by many as "the talking mannequin", due to her tendency to talk with fashion journalists and express her opinions on her profession...

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Emilio Ambasz

Emilio Ambasz

TO RECONCILE ARCHITECTURE WITH NATURE. The Argentinian architect Emilio Ambasz, Spaniard by Royal Grant, is known as the forerunner of green architecture.Emilio Ambasz, when did you decide that you wanted to be an architect?  I knew since I was eleven that I was going...

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Ruth Rogers

Ruth Rogers

Ruth Rogers started her celebrated London restaurant The River Café in 1987 with her partner Rose Gray. It is still going strong today. “The one thing I have always wanted people to feel when they walked in to The River Café is that they are home. In a way this...

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Nerio Alessandri

Nerio Alessandri

WELLNESS AS A WAY OF LIFE. At just 22 years of age, in 1983 Nerio Alessandri founded Technogym. Today Technogym is a world leading company offering products and digital services for Wellness and rehabilitation. Nerio Alessandri, you created your first exercise machine...

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John Micklethwait

John Micklethwait

THE WORLD IS AT A CROSSROADS. John Micklethwait is Editor-in-Chief of Bloomberg News. He oversees editorial content across all Bloomberg platforms, as well as its research services including Bloomberg Intelligence. He was previously the Editor-in-Chief of The...

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Remo Ruffini

Remo Ruffini

THE GENIUS OF MONCLER. Remo Ruffini is the chairman and chief executive of Moncler. Since his purchase of the Moncler Group in 2003, he has helped establish the company as a leading luxury group. In 2018 he was named "Knight of Labour" in Italy, one of the highest...

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Christian Louboutin

Christian Louboutin

THE ECLECTIC SHOEMAKER. Christian Louboutin is an internationally renowned designer whose high-end stiletto footwear incorporates shiny, red-lacquered soles that have become his signature. The Palais de la Porte Dorée in Paris is currently presenting a major...

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Thaddaeus Ropac

Thaddaeus Ropac

BACK ON THE ROAD. Thaddaeus Ropac is an Austrian gallerist specializing in international contemporary art. He founded the Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in 1981, and today represents more than 60 artists with his galleries in Salzburg, Paris Le Marais, Paris Pantin and...

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Rocco Forte

Rocco Forte

A LIFE IN HOTELS. Sir Rocco Forte is a hotelier and the Chairman of Rocco Forte Hotels. Rocco Forte, because of the Corona virus you were not able to open the hotel Villa Igiea in Palermo. It has been a great damage for you? Because of the virus the work programme for...

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Dante Ferretti

Dante Ferretti

THE MULTI-AWARD WINNING IMAGININGS OF DANTE FERRETTI, the Italian production designer, set decorator and art director who has worked with acclaimed directors throughout his career. A protégé of Federico Fellini, he worked closely with Pier Paolo Pasolini and latterly...

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Laurence Graff

Laurence Graff

THE ULTIMATE GIFT OF LOVE. The jeweller Laurence Graff OBE has always been fascinated by diamonds. Graff diamonds was established in 1960 and now enjoys global success with over 50 stores worldwide. Laurence Graff has handled more important diamonds than any other...

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Peter Marino

Peter Marino

REACTING TO VIRTUAL REALITY. Peter Marino is the principal of Peter Marino Architect PLLC, a 160-person, New York–based architecture firm founded in 1978. Widely credited with redefining modern luxury through equal emphasis on architecture and interior design,...

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Damien Hirst

Damien Hirst

CHERRY BLOSSOMS IN PARIS. Damien Hirst talks about his life and the new paintings on beauty, life and death that he plans to exhibit at Fondation Cartier. This interview with Damien Hirst is also available to listen to as a podcast and on YouTube. Damien Hirst, there...

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Carlo Clavarino

Carlo Clavarino

RETURN TO GENOA. Carlo Clavarino is Executive Chairman of the AON insurance company’s Europe Middle East and Africa region. 22,000 people work for AON in this area and Clavarino is a member of the executive committee of AON Corporation. He is also president of the...

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Marlene Taschen

Marlene Taschen

INDEPENDENT, INCLUSIVE AND INSPIRATIONAL. Marlene Taschen is the CEO of the international publishing house TASCHEN that was founded by her father Benedikt, who is also a collector of contemporary art. TASCHEN specialize in illustrated publications on a range of themes...

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Renzo Piano

Renzo Piano

BUILDING VESSELS OF LIGHT. Renzo Piano is an Italian architect whose notable buildings include the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, The Shard in London, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center in Athens...

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Jean Nouvel

Jean Nouvel

AN ARCHITECT IS LIKE A FILMMAKER. The Paris based architect Jean Nouvel injects a sense of originality into the projects he undertakes all over the world. He creates a unique concept for each particular combination of people, place and time, yielding buildings that...

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Fabiola Gianotti

Fabiola Gianotti

DISRUPTIVE RESEARCH. Fabiola Gianotti is the first woman Director-General of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva. Elected for a five year term in 2016, she was recently renominated to hold the position until 2025 and thus becomes the first...

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Andrew Viterbi

Andrew Viterbi

NEW FRONTIERS IN COMMUNICATIONS. Andrew Viterbi is an Italian born American electrical engineer and businessman who co-founded Qualcomm Inc. a company that transforms theoretical concepts into practical means of communications. He is celebrated for the invention of...

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Federico Marchetti

Federico Marchetti

OUR CUSTOMERS BUY BEAUTIFUL FASHION FROM MOBILES. Federico Marchetti is a visionary who started the e-commerce fashion company Yoox very early in the emergence of the web. Now he is the Chairman and CEO of the combined Yoox Net-a-Porter Group, following the merger...

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Larry Gagosian

Larry Gagosian

GLOBAL ART. The art dealer Larry Gagosian has evolved his business into a global network of seventeen exhibition spaces with a vibrant  contemporary program that features the work of leading international artists.This interview is also available as a podcast here...

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Franco Maria Ricci

Franco Maria Ricci

PRESCIENT INFLUENCER Franco Maria Ricci is a, if not the, giant of art publishing and graphic design. Born outside of Parma, as a young graphic designer Ricci came across the typefaces of Giambattista Bodoni in the Palatina Library and felt an instant affinity with...

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Nina Yashar

Nina Yashar

DOYENNE OF DESIGN. Nina Yashar founded the famous Nilufar Gallery in Milano, which has become the reference point to lovers of historical design as well as to people following the evolution of contemporary design. Nina works within ‘interdisciplinarity’, shifting in...

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// FEATURED

Money Must Stay in the Family

The plot of Money Must Stay in the Family, unfolds around the family matriarch’s last will and traces the story of an upper class Jewish family from Turin, the fictional Ottolenghis. The multigenerational saga begins with the flight from Mussolini’s Racial Laws of 1938 and continues with the arrival in the Upper West Side of Manhattan and the dispersion from New York to Rome, Paris, Tuscany, South America, and Jerusalem.

// PUBLICATIONS

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