Hospitality Design - November 2016 - 116

A custom Mazda MX-5 by Garage Italia Customs emulates the sunset

Photo by ALDO FERRERO

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the ideas man

lapo elkann
Chairman and Founder
Italia Independent Group and
Garage Italia Customs
Moschino, and Smeg-with some 15 stores
and 1,000 styles. (He also launched Italia's
advertising and branding arm Independent
Ideas.) More recently, in 2015, he found his
way back to his true love, cars, with Garage
Photo by FABIAN KIRCHBAUER
Italia Customs, where his team outfits "all
New York-born Italian entrepreneur
that moves" (automobiles, planes, helicopters,
Lapo Elkann may come from a family of
bikes, and boats) with whatever the owner dreams
opportunity-he is a grandson of the late Fiat
up, from pinstripes and polka dots to lavish colors
chairman Gianni Agnelli (who also owned
and intricate designs. Garage was a natural
soccer team Juventus, and dabbled in real estate,
extension-previously he created and ran the
wine, and retail)-but he has made a name for
Tailor-Made personalization program with Ferrari,
himself building multiple innovative global
made a custom denim Smeg fridge line for Italia
companies from the ground up.
Independent, and a Fiat 500 furniture collection
He did try his hand-and find much success
with Meritalia. The company is resonating so well
in-the family business (after studying in
with consumers that he moved its headquarters
France and England, and serving as personal
into the iconic midcentury former Agip gas station
assistant to Henry Kissinger). As worldwide
in Milan's Piazzale Accursio, complete with a
brand promotion director, Elkann helped pull
restaurant, showroom, and work areas.
the Fiat Group out of a rut in 2005 with his nextA creative, passionate thinker, Elkann
generation marketing of the Fiat Grande Punto,
reveals what ultimately drives him, the power of
and then the relaunch of the Fiat 500 two years
personalization, and his greatest gamble.
later.
In 2007, he decided to go out on his own,
Growing up, did you want to go into the
establishing eyewear label Italia Independent-
family business?
now an international brand known for stylish
I was a bad student at school, and I bypassed the
collaborations with Adidas, Ducati, Hublot,
fact that I was not good enough by escaping into

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November 2016 hospitalitydesign.com

A polka dot customization
for Smart car model fortwo

a creative world of my own. I always knew that
because of my weakness in studies and having
seen myself as 'less than,' I wanted to be 'more
than' once I was on whatever path I would follow.
Not being good enough then gave way to a
huge hunger, and to the idea that I would have to
challenge myself to have not just good ideas and
projects, but exceptional ones. I would and could
not be satisfied with medium and average, and
that goal is something that is my drive [still today].
I have always been an independent spirit, and
I was luckily raised with no weight on having to
one day be part of the family businesses. I chose
to be part of the Fiat Group when it was in full
turmoil. Challenges are what have and still do
give me the adrenaline to create. But I am a man
of ideas and vision and my creativity needed to
explore worlds outside our companies. I wanted to
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