Emily Cooper’s arrival in Rome feels a bit like déjà vu, doesn’t it? Just as the enthusiastic marketing executive said “hello” to the Agensa Grotto in 2020, her design for the Eternal City, Buongiorno, this month received predictable fanfare with its design filled with empty stereotype-filled descriptions of Roman trattorias, streets and attractions that appeal to the tourist.
However, we’ve moved on, right? Of course, anyone watching “Emily in Paris” on Netflix can take its surrealism with a pinch of salt. Anyway, it’s purely an escapist TV show, so it has nothing to do with real life… right?
The latest season follows Emily as she visits the fictional Sorbonne with her new boyfriend Marcello Muratori (Eugenio Franceschini), while she visits the small town of Litano, home of his family’s luxury cashmere brand Umberto Muratori, the whole scene reminiscent of Italy’s most famous city, Solitano. The ideal headquarters of one of the fashion dynasties has surprising similarities.
The family-owned brand known for the softest, finest luxury cashmere wool? Check mark. The cultural monuments of this mountain town have been restored and perfectly preserved by the brand? Check mark. Sharing mozzarella, mortadella and melt-in-your-mouth tomato pasta around a large table for lunch? Yes! Check mark! These scenes are straight from Brunello Cucinelli’s playbook: the 12th-century Peruvian town of Solomio (known as “the village of cashmere and harmony”) has been his brand’s headquarters since 1985.
The similarities don’t end there. As Marcello explains to Emily, the Muratori family built a school, a library, and a theater (“We want everyone here to be happy – if you’re unhappy at work, you’re unhappy in life too”). The Cucinelli family did the same thing in a real village. The Cucinelli Theater hosts regular plays, the amphitheater hosts concerts, and there’s a terraced garden called the Garden of the Philosophers, dedicated to meditation and contemplation of nature. According to the fictional Muratoris, all of these institutions are staffed by locals. As Marcello says, “The most important route to happiness is through the stomach, which is why every day at 1 p.m. everyone sits down to the most delicious lunch.” The Cucinellis are known for their warm hospitality and delicious afternoon tea.
I attended Cucinelli’s 70th birthday celebration at Salomeo last year, and it would be no exaggeration to say that the village – including the communal tables – looked exactly like it did on the screen (in fact, it’s all served up by the famous Cucinelli (the paccheri pasta is almost identical to the Kashmiri pasta). Beyond the food, the few hours spent at Salomeo felt like stepping into a different, dreamlike dimension. If anything, fact may have been more bizarre than fiction during my visit, as we were mesmerized by poets, opera singers, and Mr. Cucinelli himself, who urged the preservation of craftsmanship and slow fashion in his speech to guests. Here, the focus is really on cherishing the art of craftsmanship and encouraging new generations to preserve it. This is really only possible when people like Cucinelli and his fictional rival Marcello insist on emphasizing and protecting these skills. Emily in Paris deserves more praise for highlighting the difference between slow and fast fashion on a major platform like Netflix.
Like the fictional Solitano (the village of Ostia Antica southwest of Rome is where scenes were actually filmed), the real-life Solomeo regularly hosts major players from Hollywood and Silicon Valley. Likewise, “Emily in Paris” creator Darren Star visited here last summer, and Cuccinelli personally gave him a tour of the village.
“My dear Darren, in the last two episodes of the fourth season of the Netflix TV show Emily in Paris you have brilliantly conceived and directed some key words – Solitano, discreet luxury, Umberto Muratori, family business, tradition, sobriety, humanist values - extraordinary content in the form of an interesting illustration of Solomio’s and my life,” Cucinelli wrote on Instagram on Wednesday. “When I see the scene in which Solomio is symbolically portrayed, I feel joy and gratitude, and I’m sure that my father Umberto, who died two years ago, will also smile because you have generously decided to remember him as Umberto Muratori.
This isn’t the first time Emily in Paris has taken a dig at real-life fashion. A (fictional) fashion conglomerate based in Paris is trying to acquire Marcello’s family business, two of the central characters come from (real) LVMH, and the cashmere heiress’ mother comes from Milan’s Valextra (Italy’s arbiter of understated luxury handbags). The nod to Solomio is another IYKYK detail that gives Emily in Paris an inherent authenticity, even if critics are quick to dismiss it as nonsense.
Of course, the big difference here is that Brunello Cucinelli isn’t trying hard to stay relevant. Instead, it’s a $4 billion brand and one of Italy’s proudest exports. Will a determined Emily help Umberto Muratori achieve similar success? Stay tuned. Stay tuned with Emily in Rome.
