“Yes, I think clothes should be sexy,” he admits without hesitation, his words shooting out at a press conference the day before I met Roberto Cavalli for an exclusive interview. “Because women are sexy. I make clothes for sexy women, so my clothes need to be sexy.”
Well, there isn’t much room for misinterpretation there as the man himself, like his excessively glamourous outfits, is as subtle as a brick. A sparkling, sequined, low-cut brick with animal imprints and crystals. Seated at the lounge of his suite, the king of glam-rock fashion is festooned by two impossibly chic women. Part body-guards, part assistant, part power-suit accessory, its never quiet established who they are and why they respond to certain questions addressed to Cavalli but as the interview progresses, one learns to go with the flow.
Recovering after an award show that clearly went on till the wee-hours of the morning, my Q&A with Cavalli started at the lounge of the Landmark Mandarin, went up to his cavernous suite, and back down again to the O Bar and then mulled around the streets of Central. The interview didn’t begin on time nor did it end as intended but like the force of nature that the subject matter is, I knew to, as mentioned earlier, go with the flow.
It’s hard to remember the exact year when the Florence-born Cavalli, 68, first hit the marquee with a bang. Poison-pens have inked that it took the tragic end of yet another Italian fashion icon, Gianni Versace, to let the spotlight shine brighter on this sartorial savant. Like Versace, Cavalli’s fondness for animal prints, sexually-charged campaigns with sultry models revealing dangerous curves, the razzle-dazzle element of shiny fabrics studded with sparkling stones and his proclivity with celebrities (Victoria Beckham, Christina Aguilera, Shakira, Lenny Kravitz, Michael Jackson) is a formula that’s been resoundingly successful. Fashion is ephemeral and designers are a dime-a-dozen. The real achievement is staying on top of the game and staying relevant; which Cavalli unquestionably is.
Like many a legend one sees filtered by the glossy sheen of fame, meeting the person takes a little away from the persona. Cavalli is much shorter in person, more salt than pepper haired, has a leathery tan that’s not as obvious in the soft-focus portrait shots sent out by his company. The raspy gravel of his voice doesn’t erode his smooth charms – which are copious and threatens to spill at any given moment in his rich Italian inflected English. A life bejeweled with fame, celebrity, world-travel, coated with kisses from supermodels and starlets, his multi-hued boat where he hosts his uber parties, his palazzo that’s host to Oscar and Grammy winners, he has all the accouterments of a global celebrity.
I’ve read so much about Cavalli and seen him in so many television shows, the sudden shock of being introduced to him leaves me speechless. Unsure where to begin, I simply ask;
You’ve been to Hong Kong before?
I was here many, many years ago. Perhaps, over 20 years ago. I love the energy of Hong Kong, it’s a city full of energy. The people are, I believe, a positive people. Everyone’s running, I feel that everyone’s dreaming, dreaming of success. Compared with Italy, sometimes you can see that on the street people are dreaming too. But in Hong Kong, it’s a different way to dream. The people here are dreaming to the future. They are thinking too much of the past in Italy.
What’s brought on this sudden visit to Hong Kong?
I’ve been planning to come for many years and we have finally come out to visit and release a new accessory line in Asia. I’m sure you will see this city is a fantastic market. Asia is the future of the world. China is the future of the world and Hong Kong is the trampoline!
You’ve worked with many Asian stars too – even before it became fashionable to do so in Hollywood, in the West.
For many years I’ve been friends with Michelle [Yeoh]. I think she represents my fashion very well. Because she’s a very good actress, she’s sexy, she’s sexual, she’s fashion, she’s beautiful. Unfortunately, I don’t come to Hong Kong often before but I promise you, now I will come to Hong Kong three or four times a year. When I walk around Central, I get to see and know a little bit of the people. I like the people, I like how they dance, I like how they walk, I like how they dress.
He suddenly turns around and counter questions, “Do you know my restaurant Just Cavalli?”
Um… No.
You know Just Cavalli, it is one of the most fantastic restaurants in the world and I’m not just saying that because its mine! It’s a very unusual, unbelievable restaurant, and it’s a discotheque on Friday and Saturday, the other days, its just a restaurant. And everyone in the world, they want me to open my restaurant in their country. Yesterday, I decided that I want to make a Just Cavalli restaurant in Hong Kong. Really. Here is the only place that I have thought to make it. Hong Kong has the “it” factor.
You sell and make fantasies. The merchant of dreams said a fashion rag of you. Do you agree with that tag attached with your name?
First, my dream is something to do different from all other designers. Since the beginning. I wanted my fashion to be something that in the moment that you see my clothes, you can tell immediately that its a Roberto Cavalli.
Today its more difficult, because everybody’s too much! (He laughs a raspy laugh). Everybody - they know too much of fashion. Too many magazines talk about fashion. I tried to create my brand to be young and sexy. Especially the young they know so much about fashion. They know what they like. It isn’t easy being a dreamer today.
Your early days were filled with hardship, in stark contrast to your life now, you’re life makes for an epic rags-to-riches novel. Did the initial difficulties inspire your career now?
Absolutely. I worked hard. The most important thing is to wish strongly to be better. When I speak to the young, I tell them that. I believe that if somebody believe strongly in anything, he can realise any dream, whatever he want. My grandfather was an artist. I started to paint first to make money and in the beginning people liked my work. The shirt and t-shirts I would paint on and people would ask for one, then two. Then someone wanted a few thousand t-shirts! I’d run out of prints. Slowly I was printing by myself! I was learning. I started to make my first creations then. My first fashions show was in Paris in 1970. I started to work by making thousands of prints. But I was just one man.
And now an empire! There’s never been a pastel shade in your shop. What brought on this romance with colour?
In monochrome, I’ve designed outfits but I tend to be colourful and positive – and I wear positive. Colour is positivism, my clothes, whether they are all black, I want them to be positive.
When the Kate Moss scandal first broke, as brands dropped her left, right and centre, you spoke in her favour and you’ve worked with her in campaigns since.
Yeah. I did. Yes, I was a friend. My friend, in my opinion when the story of Kate Moss came out, it was too much. Too much attention, too many tabloids. In my opinion, too many people spoke against her.
She lost a lot of valuable endorsements.
That was silly. After many options, I choose her because she’s professional. She’s very professional. She’s really one of the best photo models. That is the most important. She’s a photo model. I don’t like her in the runway, on the catwalk, she’s too small, she’s pretty but I choose her for the photo model. In her private life, she can do what she likes, in my pictures, as long as she looks great, I don’t care – and she looks great.
She’s not the most popular celebrity in the world and often ridiculed in the British press but you’ve always stuck by Victoria Beckham. She even models for you. Why her, why not someone classically beautiful or unquestionably popular?
She’s nice. Because I like her obviously I chose her. Sometimes, people are against her, talk badly about her. She looks very simple, but Victoria is not. She’s very strong. I don’t want to tell you that she’s very simple… because she’s not that either, but she’s more simple than what people think about her. Absolutely, its very important that I have to really like her as a person. Tara Reid – people in America don’t love her but I like her. Sweet girl, so I send her Cavalli outfits.
You’ve created outfits for the red carpet – both the Oscars and the Grammy award shows. What’s a bigger challenge?
I prefer the Grammy. Honestly. First the cause - it’s the music world. The singer, they are more interesting, a little bit more personality. Also the Oscar, its not 100 percent as I like, its too much competition between all the designers. Who to dress, how to dress. I know many designers pay the stylists. Its too much business, its not real any more. When one actress or actor wears a Cavalli outfit, she’s really wearing an outfit because he or she likes the outfit – not because of a business deal.
Lenny Kravitz, the Jacksons, rock stars, they all wear Cavalli and there’s that undeniable link to rock glam. And then someone like Academy award winner Sir Anthony Hopkins says he loves your clothes. Isn’t that a surprise? He’s such a serious British thespian...
Anthony Hopkins? (Laughs that raspy laugh again). How you know about him? Anthony Hopkins said he liked my clothes because he’s a very good friend of mine. I met him now so many years ago, 6, 7, 8… in Florence. When he was making Hannibal. When he shot the movie there in Florence, he used to be with me all the time for dinner and parties. Director Ridley Scott and I are great friends and Tony was a good friend of Ridley. Anthony came with him to our house, very early in the morning. In our house, in our gym, he would work out. That’s how close we are. Him or an even an actress like Emma Thompson, or someone like Beyonce, the most different people, wear Roberto Cavalli. Its the woman, the man, the spirit of who wears it that matters.
Why the preference to animal and leopard prints?
Because its natural, because I like nature. With the snake, with a real bird, with a tiger... nature is fantastic. Every woman likes to be a little feline, she likes to be wild and be soft at the same time. They love to be a tiger and cat at the same time. Maybe that is the reason I appreciate women very much. I was in metropolitan museum last year, for a fashion exhibition and I saw this dress with a leopard print made from 300 years ago! I knew I got it right eh?
What’s going to be the signature look for your coming season?
White colour for summer. A totally different print. The white colour means a lot to the black colour. Because I like the combination white with a little print, with a little black, the main colour scheme for the new year will be white. White with other colours. White with floral print. Leopard or snake, its animalier.
What do you think of Madonna’s attempts at designing?
I don’t see it. All I saw was one of the dresses… it looks like very much like… Cavalli style!
Everyone in the room bursts out laughing with Cavalli.
I don’t know. It’s like one day I start to sing all of a sudden – does that make me a good singer? I don’t think I could be a good singer. I don’t think that Madonna she could be a good designer. Its just my opinion. I believe that everybody should do what they are able to do! I don’t want to sing. I don’t want to do anything else. My work is fashion and Madonna and many other people should do what they are able to do.
That was silly. After many options, I choose her because she’s professional. She’s very professional. She’s really one of the best photo models. That is the most important. She’s a photo model. I don’t like her in the runway, on the catwalk, she’s too small, she’s pretty but I choose her for the photo model. In her private life, she can do what she likes, in my pictures, as long as she looks great, I don’t care – and she looks great.
She’s not the most popular celebrity in the world and often ridiculed in the British press but you’ve always stuck by Victoria Beckham. She even models for you. Why her, why not someone classically beautiful or unquestionably popular?
She’s nice. Because I like her obviously I chose her. Sometimes, people are against her, talk badly about her. She looks very simple, but Victoria is not. She’s very strong. I don’t want to tell you that she’s very simple… because she’s not that either, but she’s more simple than what people think about her. Absolutely, its very important that I have to really like her as a person. Tara Reid – people in America don’t love her but I like her. Sweet girl, so I send her Cavalli outfits.
You’ve created outfits for the red carpet – both the Oscars and the Grammy award shows. What’s a bigger challenge?
I prefer the Grammy. Honestly. First the cause - it’s the music world. The singer, they are more interesting, a little bit more personality. Also the Oscar, its not 100 percent as I like, its too much competition between all the designers. Who to dress, how to dress. I know many designers pay the stylists. Its too much business, its not real any more. When one actress or actor wears a Cavalli outfit, she’s really wearing an outfit because he or she likes the outfit – not because of a business deal.
Lenny Kravitz, the Jacksons, rock stars, they all wear Cavalli and there’s that undeniable link to rock glam. And then someone like Academy award winner Sir Anthony Hopkins says he loves your clothes. Isn’t that a surprise? He’s such a serious British thespian...
Anthony Hopkins? (Laughs that raspy laugh again). How you know about him? Anthony Hopkins said he liked my clothes because he’s a very good friend of mine. I met him now so many years ago, 6, 7, 8… in Florence. When he was making Hannibal. When he shot the movie there in Florence, he used to be with me all the time for dinner and parties. Director Ridley Scott and I are great friends and Tony was a good friend of Ridley. Anthony came with him to our house, very early in the morning. In our house, in our gym, he would work out. That’s how close we are. Him or an even an actress like Emma Thompson, or someone like Beyonce, the most different people, wear Roberto Cavalli. Its the woman, the man, the spirit of who wears it that matters.
Why the preference to animal and leopard prints?
Because its natural, because I like nature. With the snake, with a real bird, with a tiger... nature is fantastic. Every woman likes to be a little feline, she likes to be wild and be soft at the same time. They love to be a tiger and cat at the same time. Maybe that is the reason I appreciate women very much. I was in metropolitan museum last year, for a fashion exhibition and I saw this dress with a leopard print made from 300 years ago! I knew I got it right eh?
What’s going to be the signature look for your coming season?
White colour for summer. A totally different print. The white colour means a lot to the black colour. Because I like the combination white with a little print, with a little black, the main colour scheme for the new year will be white. White with other colours. White with floral print. Leopard or snake, its animalier.
What do you think of Madonna’s attempts at designing?
I don’t see it. All I saw was one of the dresses… it looks like very much like… Cavalli style!
Everyone in the room bursts out laughing with Cavalli.
I don’t know. It’s like one day I start to sing all of a sudden – does that make me a good singer? I don’t think I could be a good singer. I don’t think that Madonna she could be a good designer. Its just my opinion. I believe that everybody should do what they are able to do! I don’t want to sing. I don’t want to do anything else. My work is fashion and Madonna and many other people should do what they are able to do.
Roberto Cavalli outfits are available at The Swank. All images courtesy of the brand.
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