Lapo Elkann Quotes

Real luxury is customization.

I love Italy and I say I am from Italy wherever I go.

I try cars; I try them all. Cars need to be sexy, because we’re not talking about biscuits here.

I love Winston Churchill; I think he had the grace of coming and the grace of leaving – when things were hard he was there, and when it was time to leave, he left.

I am lucky because I can – and I like to – mix the beautiful Caraceni jackets I inherited from my grandfather with a pair of Tsubi jeans or wear a favorite pin-striped suit from him for more formal occasions. I’m crazy about pinstripes and vintage fifties fabrics.

Fashion is something which is non-lasting; it’s ephemeral.

You can learn from everyone, the president or the cleaner. You need teachers in life, but they’re not always school teachers or professors. You learn from ordinary people. You learn from travel, from just walking down the street.

I am Jewish, Italian, American, Catholic.

I have many weaknesses, but I have one strength. When I do something, I do it 300 percent. I’m not a middle man.

I’d say Juventus has a story as legendary as the Yankees.

I don’t have an MBA, and I didn’t go to Yale. I’m not an academic person and wasn’t a good student. Instead, I’ve been taught by some of the most inspiring people in the world.

London is the financial capital of Europe, a great platform to America and Asia. I love the fact that in British culture you can be whoever you want, and people don’t even look at you. I don’t feel that in Paris or Milan.

I love Winston Churchill. I love the wisdom he had, the sagacity. I like people who are independent-minded. People who aren’t part of clans or systems, who are talented and free, and able to do things without being corrupted by the system.

I am an obsessive personality. And if you are an obsessive personality, you need to be aware of it and be able to drive it with success. There are moments in your life when you are driving it well, but you shift and you shift badly and you hurt yourself.

I’ve missed a lot of trains in my life, and another one always comes.

I’m a freestyle creative entrepreneur. Not a businessman. I like to create ventures in which creativity stands at the centre.

I have the Italian flag embroidered onto all my dress-shirt cuffs. I am very proud to be Italian.

I’ve lived in London, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, New York, and Turin. But New York is my favorite city. It has so much energy, so much toughness.

I like my country, but I don’t think like an Italian. It’s a complex, complicated difficult country to make things happen in.

I do not follow the rules of fashion, and I don’t like to be considered a man of the world of fashion. I like to call it the ‘style industry‘ because we try to work on taste.

If you stop for lunch elsewhere in the world, you tend to eat a sandwich, and a bad one. Italy is unique for the style of life. I think everyone envies it a bit.

London is like a girlfriend I loved, then really fell out with.

Just because you’re born in a privileged family and have money doesn’t mean you’re happy. Happiness you can’t buy. Happiness is something you need to work for.

The value of ‘Made in Italy’ must necessarily be up-to-date. This is the philosophy that Italia Independent has embraced. We decided from the outset to do away with stereotypes and attune ourselves to the extreme pace, to the incessant metamorphoses of the globalized world.

I love challenges, and I believe that the challenge of quality cinema should not be underestimated as an important part of the Italian cultural offer.