In what I hope proves to be the first of many in a series on style icons, I chose to highlight a name that may be unfamiliar to many – the exceptions being if you are Italian, enjoy Eurpoean car history, a fan of Juventus football club, or a student of fashion.
If we were taking the SAT, the analogy would read like this — Gianni Agnelli : Italy :: John Rockefeller : America . A controversial figure who was a leader in not only industry but also innovation. In living up to his controversial persona, there is an interesting quote that says he was directly responsible for making aluminum and factories the materials by which Italy is represented instead of the traditional marble, bronze and paint.
You see, the Agnelli family owned and controlled the Fiat car company which (with all of its holdings) at one point represented over 4% of Italy’s GDP. By comparison, Rockefeller at his height of personal wealth represented just under 2% of American GDP. Agnelli was known for his desire to provide jobs for the people of Italy, as long as they met his rigid, structured standards.
Agnelli, before his death in 2003, was also known for a number of other things including being the owner of the famous Juventus football club, being a man devoted to his family and being a playboy (he allegedly had trysts with Rita Hayworth and Jacqueline Kennedy, although this has never been confirmed).
But in other circles, Agnelli was known as a fashion icon, fashion innovator and clothes savant. Here are two of the more famous pictures of Agnelli:
Agnelli was famous for not only being one of the most elegant dressers on the planet, but also for adding his quirky subtle details to an otherwise, albeit fabulous, traditional suit.
If you notice on his left wrist in both pictures, his watch sits on top of his shirt cuff. This came to be his trademark as he was famous for saying he didn’t have time to lift up his cuff to take a peek at his watch.
Another detail not pictured here were his ties which he would frequently wear just off-center and a little loose (good image here).
Most of Agnelli’s clothes were made exclusively for him to his exact measurements and specifications, and, rumor has it, his grandson still wears his suits today. They were so elegantly made with such attention paid to detail that they can be worn as classic suits some 30 or 40 years later. And with Agnelli, it was a suit all the time, back when the suit was a man’s uniform and you dared not leave the villa without your coat and tie.
There is something to be said about a man who says he rarely had time to check his watch, yet was so deliberate about his appearance and so conscious of how he looked. As a man of stature, he dressed the part and never would disappoint.
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Sources: New York Times, Wikipedia, Biographybase.com, NNDB.com
