It’s becoming an annual tradition for Brunello Cucinelli.
For the second year, the “King of Cashmere” hosted a Hollywood bash at the Chateau Marmont, welcoming a starry crowd for drinks and dinner Thursday night in Los Angeles, in advance of awards season.
“I like the idea of coming here at the end of the year, it feels good,” said Cucinelli, who himself will be the subject of a soon-to-be-released autobiographical film directed by Oscar winner Giuseppe Tornatore.
In the lobby of the Chateau, “Yellowstone” heartthrob Kevin Costner was a main dish, wearing a white Cucinelli suit and taking in the fashionable scene, which he’s not often been a part of, he said.
“He dressed me, he got me…and I let him,” Costner said of the designer, who has made casual elegance his brand. “I’m not terribly comfortable being dressed up. I love how other men look dressed up. I never feel quite the same.”
Unlike most every actor in Hollywood, shockingly, Costner has never been in a fashion campaign. “I tried to sponsor a brand of clothes I really like, and I may give it another shot, but typical me, it’s kind of outdoor wear,” he said, laughing at the suggestion that he should plan a debut trip to Paris Fashion Week.
Oprah Winfrey, catching up with Ava DuVernay on a couch in the garden, was a less reluctant fashionista, sporting a very on-trend Cucinelli men’s necktie and proud of it. “Yes,” she responded, when asked if it was feather-embroidered. “To match these,” she said of the plumage on her dazzling brown silk mermaid skirt.
Ava Phillippe was rocking a sparkly Cucinelli bra — who knew he made those, too? — underneath an oversize menswear-style blazer, a look she said was inspired by the iconic pants suit look Julia Roberts wore to the 1990 Golden Globes. “She chose that deliberately, because she wanted to be taken seriously among all the men,” Phillippe said of the fashion power play.
Once guests, including Sharon Stone, Chris Pine, Jon Hamm, Joshua Jackson, Ruth Negga, Quinta Brunson and Jay Ellis, took their seats for dinner, Cucinelli took the mic to philosophize — as he does — about St. Augustine, Thomas Moore, malaise, poverty and hope.
“I would like this evening to be dedicated to the soul,” he said. “Like St. Augustine put it, I’ve always believed you need to tidy up your soul on a daily basis. And when we come close to the end of the year, we tend to take stock of what we’ve been doing. I’d like us to stop and think of this. We have no time to stop and look at the stars in the heavens. We have this malaise in our soul,” Cucinelli said, before encouraging the creatives around him. “So you are every important, distinguished human beings, and we need you to light up mankind. We need to once again believe in great ideals…good politics, family, spirituality.”
