Cashmere legend Umberto Muratori from Emily in Paris is real (the brand is in Delhi too)

The fictional luxury brand Umberto Muratori in Emily in Paris draws inspiration from Italian luxury designer Brunello Cucinelli's eponymous real-life company, his strong ethos of humanistic capitalism, and the idyllic work environment he created in the Italian hamlet of Solomeo.

You can love it, hate it, or love to hate it, but you can’t ignore 'Emily in Paris', with its protagonist Emily Cooper who moved from California to Paris for what was supposed to be a temporary job, only to stay there ‘forever’ – giving us all the ultimate cringe-binge escape with her tumultuous love life (featuring handsome men), high-end fashion, gorgeous Parisian scenery, and the endless drama that tends to follow her everywhere.

It turns out, the next dose of drama will be served alongside fettuccine and arrabbiata in Rome (yes, the Netflix show has been renewed for another season) – where she is likely to once again mix her personal life with her professional while handling public relations for designer Umberto Muratori’s eponymous quiet luxury brand and dating his handsome and humble son, Marcello.

Marcello, a man seemingly too good to be true (like many other elements of the show), runs the brand which is known for its impeccable, hard-to-acquire cashmere clothing – along with his mother in Solitano, a fictional town far from Rome. All the residents work for Umberto Muratori like one big happy family. They have communal lunches and zealously celebrate everyone's birthday, including that of fabric cutter Maria, because "she is special, just like everyone else who works with the company." The ethos of this brand was established by Umberto Muratori, who believed in sharing success with the entire village. Essentially, everyone who works for the company is genuinely happy.

Meet Brunello Cucinelli and Solomeo

Sounds like another too-good-to-be-true aspect of the show, especially at a time when there's global buzz about work pressure, the right to disconnect, and exploitative sweatshops in the East where your brands like Dior and LV are made? Well, there is some reality to it. Meet Brunello Cucinelli, the legendary Italian designer, founder of the eponymous label and hailed as the ‘King of Cashmere’ - the inspiration behind Umberto Muratori.

His brand operates out of Solomeo (the inspiration behind Solitano in 'Emily in Paris') – a small, ancient hamlet in Italy – a place synonymous with Brunello Cucinelli, which the ‘philosopher-designer’ turned into the headquarters of his burgeoning empire, where everyone works like a family.

He has been in Solomeo, the birthplace of his wife, since 1985. He restored the ancient hamlet to accommodate family and associates and also built a theatre, library, and amphitheatre. He started out by purchasing the Solomeo castle, which he preserved and turned into the company's headquarters. The factory is spacious and made entirely of glass so that the workers feel closer to nature.

Everyone is forbidden from working after 5.30 pm. At 1 pm every day, the employees head to the company dining hall for a 90-minute lunch. The Big Boss doesn’t believe in working overtime. He, in fact, believes that working too many hours will steal your soul. The money? Oh, they pay their workers 20 percent above the average Italian manufacturing wages.

Brunello Cucinelli has championed the philosophy of 'humanistic capitalism' since the inception of the brand, and even before he started the brand, actually. It was the tears of humiliation in his father’s eyes, who then worked as a factory worker, that inspired him to base his business on the moral and economic dignity of human beings.

“I wanted to set up a company where moral and economic dignity would rank first. I wanted my people to work surrounded by beauty, in beautiful places. I wanted them to make slightly more money than the average. And I wanted them to be treated as thinking souls. This is what humanistic capitalism is all about, and it goes hand-in-hand with a healthy, well-balanced profit,” Cucinelli said in an interview ahead of his 70th birthday in September 2023.

The grand bash in Solomeo was a full-blown star-studded affair, with Ashley Park and Paul Forman (Mindy and Nicolas from 'Emily in Paris') also in attendance.

A humble beginning

Brunello hailed from a humble sharecropper’s family, with no access to electricity or running water. He would assist his father and uncle in picking olives and ox-drawn ploughing, before the family decided to move to a city in the quest for a better life. That was the time when his father joined a factory as a worker, and the tears of humiliation turned Brunello into a strong advocate for the moral and economic dignity of people.

Though he briefly worked as a model, his true introduction to fashion came through his wife, who was from Solomeo and ran a small clothing shop there. Accompanying her on shopping trips sparked his fascination with the fashion world. At 25, he decided to focus on creating coloured cashmere sweaters exclusively for women, recognising cashmere as a symbol of luxury and noticing the lack of options in vibrant colours for women. He borrowed 20 kg of cashmere from a supplier and got six sweaters dyed by a famous expert.

With just three round-neck sweaters and three V-neck sweaters, the Italian ventured into the market, selling 400 pieces in the first three months. For the next 15 to 20 years, the brand remained entirely dedicated to this single product category: sublime-coloured women’s sweaters, free from logo mania, offering unmatched quality and premium craftsmanship designed to last for years. Why just one product category? He always believed that to do something special you have to focus on a single project that's your lifelong dream.

In the 1990s, he introduced menswear, but only knitwear.

The brand's journey

It was in the year 2000, thanks to the Americans wanting to buy the full look of a brand, that Brunello Cucinelli ventured into other categories. Now, the brand is not limited to cashmere and also offers a wide spectrum of accessories and footwear, with over 100 stores across the world.

In India, you can find a Brunello Cucinelli boutique at The Chanakya in New Delhi. A simple sweater top for women can cost over a lakh, while a shearling men’s jacket comes with a price tag of over Rs 10 lakh.

He took his brand public in 2012, listing its shares on the Italian stock exchange, and became a billionaire in the process. Despite reports of slowing demand for luxury goods, the Brunello Cucinelli group saw a 19.3% rise in operating profit for the first half of the year.

Brunello Cucinelli’s family is heavily involved in the brand’s operations. Both his daughters, Carolina and Camilla, and their respective husbands are part of the board of directors.

Brunello Cucinelli always imagined creating products that would be just as fulfilling for the people who made them as for those who wore them; he envisioned a beautiful workplace where workers could enjoy pleasant and relaxing breaks, with craftsmanship taking the centrestage; he wanted human relations to respect humanity and truth, and wages to be sufficient to live a dignified and serene life. And guess what, the philosopher-designer did it and continues to do so while living his dream of being “a good man” – a glimpse of whose legacy we got to see through Umberto Muratori in 'Emily in Paris'.