Brunello Cucinelli's 1978 Goldcraft glasses

Brunello Cucinelli is a humanist entrepreneur, a prophet of what he himself calls "sustainable capitalism." He often speaks more like a philosopher and prophet than a businessman, and there is great self-satisfaction in his declining, usually with some adoring journalist ready to pick up crumbs of wisdom from the Lesson on Life & Surroundings held by Cucinelli, its peasant origins, a classic of Made in Italy in this case Made in Umbria, its success due to undisputed creative skills (self-marketing is part of this "toolbox of the modern "man who came from nothing and became great with his own hands"). But first of all his vision of the company, centred on a comprehensive idea of sustainabilityTrue? False? To each who listens, the arduous sentence.

Sustainable Fashion is defined as "a shift in the fashion system toward greater ecological integrity and social justice." The facts speak for themselves: on ecological integrity, we know that the fashion system is responsible for between 8 and 10 percent of global CO2 emissions. Few industrial sectors fare worse. As for "social justice," there's a global chain thanks to which almost all brands (Culinelli has nothing to do with this), especially those that boast about "Sustainable Fashion," actually employ labor from Bangladesh, where a 12-15 hour workday pays $02 to $3, or Chinese workers, just outside Milan, reduced to modern-day slaves, who make designer handbags that are then sold in stores for €3 to €5.

If you want to know all the secrets and protagonists of Unsustainable Fashion, read on.

Returning to Cucinelli's excellent storytelling on sustainable capitalism, and the fashion industry in particular, we can say that, in theory, this means more than decent salaries, comfortable work environments, non-exhausting hours, and training and development opportunities available to all. In practice, these things must all be verified in the field, and perhaps not through the voice of the boss alone, but through careful investigation—certainly not judicial, but through critical information, listening, for example, to those who have worked with Cucinelli since the beginning of his entrepreneurial journey.

There are rumours, but let's consider them the fruit of classical gust of the wind of social and professional envy, according to which Cucinelli the reality in the universe of the Umbrian "cashmere king" business system is very different from what it appears. And between Dr. Jekyll (the talented entrepreneur, humanist, not only interested in money, to money, as they say in Veneto) and Mister Hyde (the father-boss who uses an iron fist with his employees), the truth could lie, as often happens, right in the middle.

BRUNELLO CUCINELLI — Brunello Cucinelli (Source: Facebook)

Instead, there is no doubt about Cucinelli's attempt, probably partly successful, to be a luxury industrialist and artisan—the real one, not the disguised one like many of his colleagues who slap this word on their garments just to fleece customers captivated by a brand to be prominently displayed as if it were a scalp.

Cucinelli designs cashmere sweaters that, if they have striped ribs, like the classic tennis shirts of the 1960s, cost around 3,000 euros. And now he has brought out his latest gem, perhaps designed during a seminar on the philosophy of Sustainable Capitalism: a pair of glasses that you take home by paying a bill of 5 thousand euros, defined, in the newspapers where paid advertising for the Cucinelli brand circulates in abundance, “a precious treat”. A concept which, translated, means: buy them if you want to join the exclusive club of those who wear truly luxurious objects, that is, a whim paid for in gold, or rather platinum.

What's so special about these glasses that they cost no less than 5 euros, roughly, three salaries of those employees Cucinelli considers his human capital as a humanist entrepreneur? Nothing, or everything, is a matter of perspective. In terms of materials a couple of Goldcraft 1978, this is the name of the latest “precious whim” in the Cucinelli catalogue, are made of titanium and 18-carat gold. Maybe there will also be some raw material for technology green, that is, sustainable. And only the gentlemen at Luxottica, those of the company that physically makes the glasses later signed by Cucinelli, other rich entrepreneurs who "came from nothing" (the founder, Leonardo Del Vecchio, was a brilliant and hard-working man, raised in an orphanage in Martinitt), know what else is inside these glasses to reach such a stratospheric price. Or if in the end, scratch scratch, besides the undisputed quality there is also a good dose of greed, typical of the luxury sector, with prices inflated solely by a brand name. And they know full well what the profit margins are, which we can only imagine, for a pair of glasses presented with the supposed quality of being "handmade in Japan," and for some unknown reason not in Italy.

Let's be clear: anyone who can afford it and is willing to waste 5 euros on a pair of glasses is perfectly welcome to do so. The money is his and he can use it as he wants, even giving in to the flattery of the pro-Cucinelli headline writers and going home with the Goldcraft 1978, convinced, lucky him, that he had acquired "a precious whim". From our point of view, it remains a waste of money and an excessive expense, rather senseless, like the compulsive shopping, as often happens with objects that arrive in shop windows with an enormous value, regardless of everything, materials, function, use, and only by virtue of sophisticated but also rather shameless marketing and self-marketing operations.

The cover image features Goldcraft 1978 glasses (Source: shop.brunellocucinelli.com)

Brunello Cucinelli's €5 glasses

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