You may love it, hate it, or love to hate it, but you can’t ignore ‘Emily in Paris’, which had its main heroine Emily Cooper come to Paris from California for a temporary job, only to stay there ‘forever’ – providing us with her tumultuous love life (with handsome men), high-end fashion, gorgeous Parisian scenery, and the ultimate embarrassing escape with endless drama that follows her everywhere.

Turns out, the next dose of drama will be served up over fettuccine and arrabbiata in Rome (yes, the Netflix show has been renewed for another season) — where she’s once again mixing her personal life with her professional one, handling public relations for designer Umberto Muratori’s cool luxury brand and dating his handsome and suave son, Marcello.

Marcello, a man who seems too good to be true (like many other elements of the show), runs a brand known for its impeccable, hard-to-find cashmere clothing with his mother in Solitano, a fictional town not far from Rome. All the residents work for Umberto Muratori like one big happy family. They have group lunches and enthusiastically celebrate everyone’s birthdays, including Maria, the fabric cutter, because “she is special, just like everyone else who works with the company.” The spirit of this brand was established by Umberto Muratori, who believed in sharing success with the whole village. Essentially, everyone who works for the company is really happy.

Meet Brunello Cucinelli and Solomo

Another aspect of the show that rings truer, especially at a time when there are global discussions about work pressures, the right to disconnect and the exploitative sweatshops in the past where brands like your Dior and LV are made? Well, there’s some truth to it. Meet Brunello Cucinelli, a renowned Italian designer, founder of the label of the same name and known as the ‘King of Cashmere’ – the inspiration behind Umberto Muratori.

Her brand is run by Solomio (the inspiration behind Solitano in ‘Emily in Paris’),) – a small, ancient village in Italy – a place synonymous with Brunello Cucinelli, which the ‘philosopher-designer’ transformed into the headquarters of his growing empire, where everyone works like a family.

He has lived in Solomio, his wife’s birthplace, since 1985. He restored the ancient village to house family and colleagues and also built a theater, library and amphitheatre. He started by buying the Solomio castle, which he preserved and turned into the company’s headquarters. The factory is huge and made entirely of glass so that employees feel close to nature.

Everyone is forbidden from working after 5.30pm. At 1pm every day, employees head to the company dining hall for a 90-minute lunch. The big boss doesn’t believe in working overtime. In fact, he believes that working too many hours will steal your soul. The money? Oh, they pay their workers 20 per cent more than the average Italian manufacturing wage.

Brunello Cucinelli has espoused the philosophy of ‘humanistic capitalism’ since the brand’s inception, and in fact even before starting the brand. It was the tears of humiliation in the eyes of his father, who worked as a factory worker at the time, that inspired him to base his business on the moral and economic dignity of human beings.

“I wanted to build a company where moral and economic dignity was a priority. I wanted my people to work in beautiful places, surrounded by beauty. I wanted them to earn a little more money than the average. And I wanted them to be treated as thoughtful souls. That’s humanistic capitalism, and it goes hand in hand with healthy, balanced profits,” Cucinelli said in an interview ahead of his 70th birthday in September 2023.

The lavish party, held at Solomio, was attended by a star-studded crowd, with Ashley Park and Paul Foreman (Mindy and Nicholas from ‘Emily in Paris’) also in attendance.

A humble beginning

Brunello came from a simple sharecropping family with no access to electricity or running water. He helped his father and uncle pick olives and plough fields with oxen before the family decided to move to the city in search of a better life. It was then that his father joined a factory as a labourer, and the tears of humiliation made Brunello a strong advocate for the moral and economic dignity of the people.

Although he worked as a model for a while, his real introduction to fashion came through his wife, who was from Solomio and ran a small clothing store there. Accompanying her on shopping trips fueled his fascination with the fashion world. At the age of 25, he decided to focus on creating exclusively colored cashmere sweaters for women, recognizing cashmere as a symbol of luxury and noticing the lack of options in vibrant colors for women. He borrowed 20 kilos of cashmere from a supplier and had six sweaters dyed by a renowned expert.

With just three round-neck sweaters and three V-neck sweaters, the Italian entered the market, selling 400 pieces in the first three months. For the next 15 to 20 years, the brand was completely dedicated to this single product category: women’s sweaters in vibrant colors, free from logo mania, offering unmatched quality and premium craftsmanship designed to last for years. Why just one product category? He has always believed that to create something special you have to focus on a single project that is your lifelong dream.

In the 1990s they did introduce clothing for men, but only knitted garments.

The journey of the brand

In the year 2000, Brunello Cucinelli ventured into other categories due to the desire of Americans to purchase the full look of the brand. Now, the brand is not limited to cashmere but also offers a wide range of accessories and footwear with over 100 stores worldwide.

In India, you can find Brunello Cucinelli boutiques at Chanakya in New Delhi. A simple sweater top for women can cost over Rs 1 lakh, while a shearling jacket for men costs over Rs 10 lakh.

He took his brand public in 2012, listing its shares on the Italian stock exchange, and became a billionaire in the process. Despite reports of a slowdown in demand for luxury goods, the Brunello Cucinelli Group saw operating profit rise by 19.3% for the first half of the year.

Brunello Cucinelli’s family is heavily involved in the running of the brand. His two daughters Carolina and Camilla and their husbands are part of the board of directors.

Brunello Cucinelli always envisioned creating products that would be as satisfying for those who made them as those who wore them; he envisioned a beautiful workplace where employees could enjoy pleasant and relaxing leisure, with craftsmanship at the center; he wanted human relationships to respect humanity and truth, and salaries to be high enough to live a dignified and quiet life. And guess what, the philosopher-designer did that and continues to do so while living out his dream of being “a good person” – a glimpse of the legacy of which we get to see through Umberto Muratori in ‘Emily in Paris’.