Mauro Porcini loves surprising the board room

Fast Company

4 days ago

Mauro Porcini became the world's first chief design officer at 3M, before taking the role at PepsiCo and, now, Samsung. But despite defining what it means for a designer to take a seat in the C-suite, he admits that, for a few decades now, he's ceased to fit anywhere perfectly.
'Designers see me as a business person. The business people see me as a designer. I'm there in the middle between the two worlds, like I'm Italian and American. I'm both of them,' laments Porcini, before flipping this self-critique on its head. '[But that means] I'm exotic in Italy, and I'm exotic in America. Now I'm exotic in Korea.'
Porcini captures these dualities in the way he styles himself. With roots in Varese, Italy, he grew up alongside the Missoni family, and into his early 20s, he became friends with many of Italy's most prominent voices in fashion. To this day, he has a penchant for Italian luxury brands like Gucci, Prada, and Valentino. But he insists that he's not afraid to mix them with drops from Zara.
A longtime collector of fine footwear, his latest obsession is a Gucci x Adidas collab, which he owns in six colors. (He recently added their gold-clad loafer to his collection.) The pieces showcase the materials and silhouettes of Gucci, but with the three stripes of Adidas. It's an unexpected mashup that adds a signature to just about anything Porcini wears these days.
'The shoe has always been very powerful, because you can go crazy with the shoes. You can be really different. And for a man, it's an easy accent,' says Porcini. 'But then you go into these boardrooms, and you need to pitch investments of millions of dollars, or hundreds of millions of dollars, so rebalancing that with a jacket or blazer—something that reminds them that you're still part of that [business culture is essential]. So you're not going there with just a T-shit and sneakers.'
Porcini adores a double-breasted wool coat, and his latest is a custom commission from Golden Goose, embroidered with cities from his life: Milan, Dublin, Minneapolis, New York, and Seoul. The overall effect is that Porcini has been mixing classic suit silhouettes with hints of sport (I've even seen him mix trousers with a track pant piping into his look). It's perpetually surprising without being heavy-handed; intentional without feeling try-hard.
'Each of us has different ways of dressing, but show that you have an original point of view. Because this is what designers do,' says Porcini. 'They look at reality, they look at their world, and have a unique and original point of view on what they need to do. So through your dress, communicate that kind of original point of view. And communicate the confidence of sharing it.'
For Porcini, dressing well is a tool to be taken seriously as a creative in business, but its base is about self-acceptance, love, and expression. As he learned as a teenager reading the 1926 allegory One, No One, and One Hundred Thousand by Luigi Pirandello—in which a man becomes so obsessed with the shape of his nose that it ultimately destroys his life—you cannot let people's perception of you dilute who you are.
'You need to have the peace of mind and the awareness that people will judge you, not on the basis of just what you do, but on the basis of who they are,' says Porcini. 'And you need to be okay with it.'
Describe your style in a sentence.
A mix of creativity, confidence, self-love, but also love for the world.
What's the one piece in your closet you'll never get rid of?
There is a trouser that I painted when I was, I think I was 17, and I still have it, even if, obviously it doesn't fit anymore. I have more than one, but there is one that I really love. I started to paint on clothing, and I started to sell this clothing to make a little bit of money. I paid for my driving school in this way. When I was 18, I even sold one to my teacher who was giving me driving lessons.
How long does it take you to get dressed in the morning?
Super quick. Between the time I wake up and leave, it's 45 minutes. And that includes emails, breakfast, shower, and getting dressed.
What do you wear to a big meeting?
I try to have a touch of creativity that creates surprise in the room and talks about my belonging to the creative community. But then I blended with a code that is more accepted by the audience, the business community. I try to create that comfort and discomfort together.
What's the best piece of fashion advice you've ever gotten?
It was not articulated in one sentence, but it's literally, be yourself and be unique. Don't be a slave to fashion. Your pieces don't need to be the latest. They need to be something that makes sense for you and makes sense for what you want to project to the world.