Prada's CEO: America's Cup yacht Luna Rossa is very sexy, like riding a motorbike without a helmet
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The America's Cup is Formula 1 on water, where hi-tech yachts achieve once-unimaginable speeds while competing for the oldest international sports trophy in the world - known affectionately as the 'Auld Mug'. And for the past four years Patrizio Bertelli, billionaire co-CEO of global fashion group Prada, has had his fingers crossed that the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli team will, after 20 years of competing, finally sail to victory - although the New Zealand team has just opened up a lead with back to back wins in the final stages which come to a close on March 21.
Bertelli, now 74, was born in Arezzo in Tuscany, and since his youth has been a passionate sailor. "It all started back in the 1970s," he says, "with a group of friends at the sailing club in Castiglione della Pescaia on the Tyrrhenian Sea." Before the pressures of business made it impossible, he used to try to spend two months a year sailing. He has competed across Europe and still races in vintage 12-metre regattas.
His involvement with the America's Cup, though, only dates back to 1997. "I was talking to the Argentinian racing-yacht designer Germán Frers, who was designing a new boat for my family, when he told me, 'You are exactly the sort of person who should be thinking about the America's Cup.'"
Up until then, the race had been merely a casual interest, but as Frers had already created an America's Cup yacht, Il Moro di Venezia, for an Italian team - sponsored by the late industrialist Raul Gardini - that had been runner-up in 1992, Bertelli was confident that he knew what he was talking about. The figures involved were, unsurprisingly, breathtaking. Gardini was said to have sunk $200 million (£146 million) in today's money into his attempt. "So I went back home and to the company to try and work out if it was even financially viable," says Bertelli, who is sporting a black polo-neck, a signature Prada look.
The most important person to persuade was his wife and co-CEO, Miuccia Prada. The couple had first met at a trade fair in Milan in 1978, when Bertelli was the owner of a leather factory in Arezzo and Prada was an ambitious young designer at her family's leather-goods business. Prada was looking for a manufacturer for her bags, and when she arrived at her future husband's stand she realised he was the perfect man to work with. It seems that it was business at (nearly) first sight, and love at second.
Together, they built an empire, and today Prada is one of the most successful luxury conglomerates on the planet. The Prada Group also owns Miu Miu, Church's, Car Shoe and Marchesi 1824. The Prada brand itself is valued at $4.5 billion (£3.2 billion), according to Interbrand, and Prada Holding owns 80 per cent of the business. Hardly surprisingly, Time magazine has named them one of the most influential couples in the world.
"When we first discussed the America's Cup," recalls Bertelli, "the main difficulty was that it all seemed so far away. The race was to be held in New Zealand in 2000, and it felt like it was going to the Moon."
But he found his wife was willing to listen. "I wouldn't say Miuccia is difficult, more curious," he says. "As a company we are always willing to experiment, and she wants to move forward all the time, so we decided to go for it."
They had already been willing to take a risk when, in 1993, they set up the Fondazione Prada, a spectacular arts project in Milan. (The couple are among the world's biggest art collectors.) It was in the middle of Italy's 'Clean Hands' scandal, where the cosy relationship between government and some industrialists was being revealed as corrupt. "The country was in big trouble," he says. Indeed, the previous Italian America's Cup competitor, Raul Gardini, died in disgrace that year, having ended up billions in debt.
The permanent cultural complex and exhibition was given shape by Miuccia Prada's favourite architect, Rem Koolhaas, the designer of the flagship Prada stores in New York and LA - as well as creator of the sets for the label's catwalk shows. When the eye-catching gold-leaf-clad building opened in 2015, it immediately became an essential stop on any tour of Milan. Prada knows what she wants and is willing to go all out to achieve it. It took all her persuasive powers to induce The Grand Budapest Hotel film director, Wes Anderson, to design the Fondazione's cafe, Bar Luce.
"And like the Fondazione Prada, we were passionate and brave enough to go through with the America's Cup. Both are examples of how Miuccia and I want to go through the big adventure of life with our business. The competition is a huge financial commitment, but we partner with Pirelli so the burden is shared."
When Bertelli makes up his mind about something he doesn't waver, and his commitment to 'made in Italy' is total. He is a notorious perfectionist and a tough man to please. When Prada opened an office in New York, he insisted that everything be imported from Italy, including the desks, the chairs, the pens and pencils - and even, reportedly, the staples.
This year the race will again be held in New Zealand - the previous winner has the privilege of hosting - and the sailing will be in the Hauraki Gulf, north-east of Auckland. It's all about big numbers: Team Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli alone has a crew of over 100, including Bertelli's son Giulio there in support, and the technology involved is phenomenal. "The America's Cup is about newness and designing boats that are more and more extreme. We have yachts that literally fly. This would have been unthinkable when we started 20 years ago."
The new 75ft AC75-class yachts, such as Luna Rossa, that are competing in the 36th America's Cup are monohulled and equipped with tilting side foils. It is these that allow the boats to 'fly' above the waves like a hydrofoil and reach speeds of over 50 knots. "In a normal yacht," explains Bertelli, "you feel the ocean and the power of the waves against the hull, but when Luna Rossa lifts up, and this doesn't take much wind, you are suspended in mid-air and can no longer feel the water. The sounds are different and you feel this sensation of weightlessness. You really experience the speed when you are exposed to the wind while travelling at 60 miles per hour. It's like riding a motorbike without a helmet. It is very sexy."
Nature still plays a big part in the final result. "These boats are specifically targeted. Luna Rossa performs well in light winds, whereas the UK entry, skippered by Olympic gold-winner Sir Ben Ainslie, and the US boats perform better in stronger conditions, so it all comes down to the day. We are in the hands of the gods. But it is better to be in the hands of the gods than to be a hostage to fortune."
For Bertelli, however, it isn't just about the winning - or losing - it is also about sustainability, particularly when it comes to the Luna Rossa crew's uniform, versions of which are on sale to the public. The pieces are made mostly with natural fibres such as wool and cotton, which are renewable and biodegradable, thus avoiding the use of synthetic fibres, which, during washing, can release highly polluting microplastics into the water.
It has been estimated that around a third of the microplastics in the world's seas comes from synthetic materials used in the clothing industry, and a recent study by the University of Manchester has calculated that up to 1.7 million tons of these microfibres are released into the ocean every year. Bertelli points out that the infamous "waste island" in the North Pacific is now three times the size of France.
In his opinion, Generation Z's sensitivity around environmental issues marks a huge cultural shift, and one that fashion companies such as Prada have to confront. "It reminds me of the Summer of Love that took place in the 1960s in California. It's a similar movement. It's about mental freedom, and the freedom we are seeking is to go back to nature, to put the human race back at the centre of the world, but in a position of responsibility not power. We are going back to something more primitive but, ironically, we will need technology to achieve this. It's pretty subtle."
The Luna Rossa range also reflects the fact that, increasingly, fashion is informed by sport, technology and comfort. "This is part of an ongoing cultural shift. What we wear goes hand in hand with our lives. Covid has made our daily lives stop - no restaurants, no clubs - so we have become more casual. It is also about intimacy. Take the hoodie: it is very cosy but also very intimate. Most importantly, however, it is about comfort."
For Bertelli, the America's Cup project is largely about pushing technology forward. "It is like Formula 1, in that the innovations filter down," he says. "In the past it was all about conquering something and breaking records; now it is a process of discovery and really thinking about the objectives." Already, the Swedish company Wallenius Marine has announced that it is building a cargo vessel known as Oceanbird that will be powered by wind and capable of carrying 7,000 cars across the Atlantic, while cutting emissions by up to 90 per cent.
At the time of talking, thanks to Covid, Bertelli wasn't sure he would make it to Auckland - and he was yet to have his vaccine. "We'll see. At the moment you have to quarantine for two weeks when you arrive in New Zealand. That's not ideal. But the morale of the team is high," Bertelli says. "After all, they are living in an incredible place that is paradise compared to Europe right now. You don't even have to wear masks. I'm a big fan of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. It's a small country, of course, but she enforced a real lockdown and it worked. China managed it too, but in a rather different way," he says, laughing.
As I was writing this article, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli had just won a resounding victory against Ben Ainslie's Ineos Team UK in the Prada Cup Final - the event that decides which challenger team will compete against the defender, Emirates Team New Zealand, for the America's Cup itself. That match is already in session and runs until 21 March. So Bertelli is in touching distance of the Auld Mug.
Covid aside, he already had a good start to the year, when, on 20 January, Amanda Gorman wore head-to-toe Prada to read a poem at Joe Biden's inauguration, making the 23-year-old LA native a worldwide superstar in the process. She has long been a Prada favourite, having appeared in the front row of its shows in Milan, and she spoke at its Shaping a Sustainable Future Society conference in 2019. Perhaps this is an example of Bertelli and Miuccia Prada's ability to pick a winner, and to discover an authentic face to appeal to a new generation of fashion aficionados. "People tend to recognise each other," says Bertelli, "and Prada mirrors her personality."
When he does eventually win the America's Cup, Bertelli hopes Italy will be as ecstatic as Australia was in 1983, when Alan Bond's team won the trophy - the first time the Americans had been defeated in the challenge since it was launched in 1851. Then-prime minister Bob Hawke suggested that every Australian should be given the day off work. Though whether Bertelli will give his entire workforce a holiday is another question.
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