Brunello Cucinelli is luxury fashion’s philosopher king, a practioner of slow fashion, quiet luxury, stealth wealth — multiple words that describe the Spring 2024 collection that emerged from the medieval Italian town of Solomeo from humanism’s bright north star.

Thanks to one of Martha Stewart’s innumerable woman about town IG pics, AOC returned to year-old observations that we made about Brunello Cucinelli in ‘The Devil Wears Barbour’, a late October 2022 fashion story from the Sunday Times Style.

The Italian brand is running a 30% increase in revenue and profits in 2023, fueled by the quiet luxury trend. Anne doesn’t believe this revenue increase is purely due to collection aesthetics and free PR from ‘Succession’.

Now age 70 and coming off a magnificent day-into-night early September celebration in Solomeo, Cucinelli describes his entrepreneurial work ethic this way. "Every single day I try to pay the utmost attention to ensuring that earnings are in line with the morality of my entrepreneurial business and with the high quality of my product."

On our latest visit, Brunello Cucinelli continues to impress AOC with a website that speaks first and foremost to progressive values before it tries to sell us clothes. The Italian luxury brand succeeded to inspire an AOC essay about German philosopher Immanuel Kant, one of the central Enlightenment thinkers, that’s in the pipeline.

In a conversation with the media in advance of the Spring 2024 show, the head of the brand explains that when he was a young man — his family left the countryside to live with electricity and a television. Previously, his companionship was with the sun, the moon and the stars.

Not well-educated, Cucinelli learned about Kant at the local bar, where a group of students introduced him to philosophy. "I couldn't be part of the discussions," the humanist explained , which led him to be self-taught and self-educated.

"Two things move me: The sky above me and the moral law inside me," he says.

Key trends appear in Bruno Cucinelli designs, but in his case they can be taken literally. There is transparency in his fabrics, for example. But it’s wear-now transparency, rather than breast-baring sheer fabrics revelation that 95% of women wouldn’t wear. The city shorts are similarly cut — and not only to accommodate the changing body shapes of older customers.

Bruno Cucinelli luxury is about discretion and elegance. There are no butt-baring hot pants in the collection. His first daughter Camilla is co-head of the designer brand's women's style team. His second daughter Carolina is now co-creative director and copresident of the Brunello Cucinelli company.

We assume that Carolina is named for Caroline Kennedy, because the family statesman believes that the assassinated American president remains a true brand icon for the Brunello Cuccinelli lifestyle and values.

For those who find just too much black in spring 2024 shows in progress, the color is a minor player at Brunello Cuccinelli generally and certainly in the spring 2024 collection. Elegance is not minor; nor is shimmering textures and weaves. The clothes play into the customer who says: “I’m a sporty and rich humanist who loves the ethics of the brands I wear.” Think Angelina Jolie.