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This article first appeared on Vogue Italia.
Culture is a team game, where all the arts participate in creating beauty. But it also takes people, constantly seeking the new. This is especially true for a brand like Louis Vuitton, where creative collaborations are part of the company’s DNA. Take for example, the brand’s latest boutique on Via Monte Napoleone in Milan, which opened on Friday.
Aside from Louis Vuitton’s traditional product lines (plus the bar and the restaurant), the rooms of the neoclassical Palazzo Taverna will be the first boutique to home the maison’s Objets Nomades collection of experimental furniture pieces and design objects, art de la table, décor and play objects.
“This store opening has a lot to do with [Milan] Design Week,” says Louis Vuitton CEO and president Pietro Beccari. “It’s designed by [American architect] Peter Marino and we were careful to respect the Milanese style.” The maison will tell its vision by focusing on an all-Italian narrative, which also means there will be no shortage of food. “We want to offer an experience of true culinary culture. The bar overlooking Via Monte Napoleone will be dedicated to aperitifs; on Via Bagutta, on the other hand, we will have a real restaurant, Dav by Da Vittorio,” he tells Vogue.
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The Milan boutique is the second chapter of an ambitious global project. “In New York, with the extraordinary success of the 57th Street store, we gave a concrete representation of what we want to do,” Beccari says. “We are also working on a project on the Champs-Élysées, something never seen before. I don’t want to go into details, but I think it represents the future of retail, which I call ‘retailtainment’ — a mix of products, brands, experiences and culture.”
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Artworks by Italian artists Giuseppe Penone and Mimmo Paladino will be exhibited in Palazzo Taverna during Milan Design Week, which runs from 7 to 13 April. Also during the week, Louis Vuitton will present a reconstruction of French architect Charlotte Perriand’s legendary ‘La Maison au Bord de l’Eau’ — a minimal take on a beach house, first designed in 1934 — at Palazzo Serbelloni. For LV, this will mark the launch of a series of textiles repurposing some of Perriand’s graphics.
Beccari is enthusiastic: “When a brand starts from luxury and wants to expand to become a cultural brand, collaborations are a great tool. It’s the same mechanism that happens in our lives — we meet people who change us, who leave a piece of them in our lives.”
Beccari was born in the small Italian town of Basilicagoiano, before moving to Germany and making his start in the cosmetics business. Though prior to that, came sports. “I thought I was going to be a football player,” he says. “I had almost gone professional. But instead, one day I was told, ‘No, you’re not a football player.’ So then I wanted to be a clerk in the hottest multi-brand fashion store in Parma. I went to business school, and I started working without really knowing where I was going. With my eyes always open, I also developed a certain ambition. I never set out to become a fashion executive, but it happened.”
Along this path, there was no shortage of those Beccari refers to as his mentors. “Definitely Mr Yves Carcelle,” he says, referring to a great predecessor of his at the helm of Louis Vuitton. “He changed my life. He interviewed me and I told him I didn’t want to work in fashion. He invited me, together with my wife, to dinner at his house, and by showing me his way of life he managed to fascinate us. I worked alongside him, saw how he operated; he was a giant.”
“Then, there is Mr Bernard Arnault, with whom I have worked directly for 10 years now; he has a stubbornness to always want to improve, to never be satisfied, to always look for something better. An obsession that I think I have as well. In fact, I think some obsession is essential to succeed in life. Then you have to know how to keep it at bay, otherwise it risks taking over,” he continues. “Finally, there is Toni Belloni, now head of LVMH Italy. I worked with him back in the days of Fendi. He has extraordinary skills, both human and managerial, and he taught me a lot.”
Beccari has also collaborated with many designers whose names are already cemented in fashion history. How does one strike the balance between creative and corporate? “Perhaps the most important word is authenticity. We often tend to shield creative people from reality. Instead, I think in my dealings with them, there has always been a relationship based on sincerity: a space where I can say what I think, always respecting their creativity,” says Beccari. “At the same time, I confront them with responsibility and share a clear vision of where I would like to take the brand collectively. This sense of a common goal, of a space where you can say what you think, is the secret — a modus operandi that also leads to great confrontations and rapprochements. But where there is too much quiet there is a lack of dialogue and we lose sight of the common goal, the relationship and even the joy of creating and doing things together.”
We can’t help but ask about working with Pharrell Williams and Nicolas Ghesquière, creative directors of menswear and womenswear, respectively. “They are very different, and this diversity is a great asset. Consistency is a force in the mass market — where I worked for many years — because there you need to repeat the same message. In luxury, on the other hand, you learn that difference is the flint that lights the flame,” he says. “The distinctions between Williams and Ghesquière are intentional, and each has extraordinary qualities. The former brings with him a unique sensibility for all forms of culture; a boundless talent in many areas. Ghesquière, on the other hand, is one of the last great living couturiers. He designs collections by hand, he does not repeat himself, he forces himself to reinvent himself every time. There are very few like him.”
A company like Vuitton relies on a diverse team of characteristics and needs. And Beccari knows this well: “A good manager is the one who brings out the best in people, who knows how to offer the right support to each person when they need it. I think I can say that in my career many people have been able to bring out the best in themselves. And I say that with pride.”
Beccari may not have become a football player, but he brings a strategic and team-focused mindset to Louis Vuitton. “There is a lot of my being a sportsman in this. It stems from the fact that I trained every day from the age of 13 to 22, which taught me a strong sense of discipline, but also the value of the collective, the team, sacrifice and the beauty of winning,” he says. “Because if you win, you get used to winning and keep winning. If you never win, you don’t know what it means and you are less motivated to do it.”
Starting out discussing design and culture, we conclude our interview by talking about books. What are you reading now? “A coaching book: The First Rule of Mastery by Michael Gervais, a great motivator of athletes. He argues that CEOs are like athletes who have to perform at high levels. He talks about the ‘fear of people’s opinions’ (FOPO), which often holds us back. We do many things out of fear of judgment or because we follow the advice of others, following common sense or what has already been done. In reality, we betray what we would really do and slow down our potential. Alongside, I am also reading a collection of maxims and reflections — from Marcus Aurelius to Hadrian to Seneca — in search of the balance that, with work, we sometimes risk losing.”
Before parting ways, we ask for a maxim that sums up his human and entrepreneurial vision. He smiles and admits: “I have many! A phrase that often comes to mind is, ‘Don’t think big, think huge. Or, ‘Dream, dare, do.’ It’s not enough to dream, you have to dream big. You also have to dare, because if you dream without daring, dreams remain just dreams. Successful people are those who can turn dreams into reality, and I would like to be one of them — I would like my team to think like that, too.” The dream can be a boutique full of ideas, a palace where art can be discovered, a collection of design objects, a fashion project that becomes part of the cultural zeitgeist. The important thing is that there is a team.
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