On Tuesday night, Brunello Cucinelli descended the stairs at L’Avenue at Saks Fifth Avenue in a celebratory mood. The designer had flown from Italy to mark 25 years of partnership with Saks, and the retailer welcomed Cucinelli to New York with an intimate dinner, store wide activations and the launch of an exclusive capsule collection and first fragrance.
The evening kicked off with cocktails inside the brand’s newly renovated women’s and men’s boutiques at Saks. Afterward, the festivities continued with an intimate dinner at L’Avenue at Saks, hosted by Mr. Cucinelli and Saks chief merchandising officer Tracy Margolies. Guests included Lucy Liu, Phillipa Soo, “Emily in Paris” star and Brunello Cucinelli brand ambassador William Abadie, James Turlington and Cristina Ehrlich, along with Saks’ Marc Metrick and Roopal Patel, and several members of the Cucinelli family.
“With everything going on in the world, it means so much for us to all be together tonight,” Margolies said. “I’ve known Brunello for over 20 years, and I can tell you that [Cucinelli’s] unwavering passion for fashion continues to inspire me,” she added. “One of the things that I’ve always learned about Brunello through the years is his love of his family, his love for product, his love for his clients — and his love for Saks.”
Margolies noted that the evening also served as a belated 70th birthday celebration for the designer, a milestone that earned cheers from each table.
Speaking through a translator, Cucinelli, who is next headed to Los Angeles, mulled his more modest upbringing and noted that he recently purchased his childhood home.
“I had no money in my pocket, mind you, and now I have become a wealthy man — they say — but see, that’s not my real interest,” Cucinelli told the room. “My father, who passed away last year and was 100 years [old], used to say to me ‘Do you want to be the richest guy in the cemetery?'”
The designer went on to offer a piece of advice to the crowd. “You should be brave; have the courage to throw yourself into life,” he said, adding that when life gets you down, “when you struggle with something, you should go outside. Look at the sky and the stars, and everything will fall back into place. Because only the stars in the sky can possibly fascinate us.”
Cucinelli concluded his speech on that thought, leaving the crowd to mull the sentiment over Italian antipasto, which was followed by a pasta course and entree. Afterward, guests were invited to the bar for dessert and a final toast before heading back outside — an opportunity to put the designer’s parting words to the test.
![Roopal Patel and Phillipa Soo](https://wwd.com/wp-content/themes/vip/pmc-wwd-2021/assets/public/lazyload-fallback.gif)