Brunello: I wanted the brand to have my face. I wanted the product to convey the culture, life, lifestyle, dignity of work. We are a listed company, and I wanted to manufacture a product with dignity. I wanted a profit with dignity. Because the press all talk about the moral ethics of profit. Why can’t we have a dignified profit then?

I almost don’t even want to design and operate from scratch. I’m into the idea of editing. And I think that’s valuable now, because the cycles have gotten shorter. For me, the ideas of Mies van der Rohe and Bauhaus are things that completely translate to modernism in clothing—the idea that you could design a building that’s so resolved in its princ... See more