Style
Agnelli’s fashion sense stood out, even in a country like Italy, where dressing well and fashionably is generally perceived as very important. His style has inspired and influenced menswear throughout the years, in Italy and around the world. In his retirement speech, Milanese fashion designer Nino Cerruti named Agnelli as one of his biggest inspirations, amongst James Bond and John F. Kennedy. Esquire Magazine named Agnelli as one of five best dressed men in the history of the World.
Agnelli’s dress style was a combination of a foundation of classic suits, combined with eye-catching personal tricks. He had a large number of bespoke Caraceni suits, which were of very high quality and classic design, and yet had the signature Italian bravura. It was the accessories and the way they were worn that made Agnelli stand out as a fashionisto. He is known for wearing his wristwatch over his cuff, wearing his tie askew or wearing (fashionable) high brown hiking boots under a bespoke suit. All these tricks were carefully chosen in order to convey sprezzatura, the Italian art of making the difficult look easy. His outfits were scrupulously chosen to the last detail, yet the accessory choices appeared as errors, making it look as if he did not care or make an effort about the way he was dressed.
Apart from his dress sense, Agnelli’s homes were work of designers and looked like studies in elegant living. Additionally, he was interested in sailing, fast cars, Cresta tobogganing, skiing and horses. His grandsons and heirs to Fiat, John and Lapo Elkann, seem to have adopted their grandfather’s tradition of dressing, as they are both often observed dressed classically and flamboyantly at high-society venues.
Agnelli's nickname of "The Rake of the Riviera", inspired the classical menswear magazine The Rake.
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Famous quotes containing the word style:
“We are often struck by the force and precision of style to which hard-working men, unpracticed in writing, easily attain when required to make the effort. As if plainness and vigor and sincerity, the ornaments of style, were better learned on the farm and in the workshop than in the schools. The sentences written by such rude hands are nervous and tough, like hardened thongs, the sinews of the deer, or the roots of the pine.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I might say that what amateurs call a style is usually only the unavoidable awkwardnesses in first trying to make something that has not heretofore been made.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)
“It is the style of idealism to console itself for the loss of something old with the ability to gape at something new.”
—Karl Kraus (1874–1936)