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May 23, 2021 • 18 mins

Daniela vistis with Lavinia Biagiotti Cigna, CEO of Lauren Biagiotti fashion brand and one of Italy's leading fashion designers. Daniela and Lavinia discuss the complexity of fashion shows, the passion of fashion and sports, as well as the DNA of what it takes to host the upcoming Ryder Cup.

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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Love you. Thank you so much for being my next
guest on the B l A podcast. I cannot tell
you how excited I am because this is really an
honor for me, not only to have one of my
best friends being able to talk to, but also one
of the woman that I admire probably the most in
my life. So thank you so much for being with

(00:30):
me today. Thank you so much, Fanny for inviting me.
I always follow your podcast and I could not be
more excited to be here with you because you know
I'm your big fan, and thank you so much for
the beautiful things that you're saying about me. Your podcasts
are very inspiring because I always get tips from amazing people.
So I'm really really grateful to be here. Say thank

(00:52):
you so much. Well, let's go, uh baby, a little
bit to the beginning. How we actually met and it
is because of your connection to spot words. So where
did a passion for tennis, golf, sports in general come from? Well?
I always loved sports since I was a kid, and
my parents love sports. My father used to take me

(01:13):
to the tennis tournament in for Italico and I fell
in love with the sport. And actually it was your
big fun I remember I saw you playing at the
early beginning when you were very young and very strong
and very talented, and I got in touch with your
brother because I was dreaming to have you wearing some
of our loud of the Adoti clothes, and you were

(01:33):
so kind. You called me back on my mobile and
I couldn't believe it. I mean, I said, oh, my gosh,
is it really her? And you were so nice and
you were taking some pictures. And that goes back to
about twenty years ago. I just started. I actually started
to work at the age of seventeen when I lost
my father. And I always tried to bring my worlds together. Yes,

(01:54):
passion is my core business. Sports is my passion. Rome
is my city. I always try to tie ant among
my worlds so that I wake up happy every morning.
How much has sport actually influenced your work, your designs,
and your life in general? Sports is very important for

(02:18):
me in my personal life and in my career. We
were actually the first brand ever to bring athletes on
the catwalk. That was in Milan Apicola studio that you
know you've been to my fashion shows. In October twenty twenty,
we had all the guys who won the Golden Medals
of the Lympics in Sydney, all the Italian guys, and

(02:40):
they took a walk on the cat pook in the
finale at the end of the show, and everybody was
so amazed because they were used to see, you know,
supermodels on the cat twook, but never real persons who
are you know, real athletes who are of course amazing
people with a lot of talents, but their bodies are
of normal bodies except yours most of the times. So

(03:03):
I remember CNN was opening the show in TV saying
fashion and sports meet on the catwalk. So that was
the first time ever that you know, sports champions would
walk runway. And I'm happy I could merge my world
my world's and you know, bring up values because we
represent values, and that's that's what I think, you know,

(03:24):
sports and fashion have in common. I'm so glad you
mentioned fashion show and catbal because I always find it
fascinating whenever I have the honor to be near you
during a fashion show, how much similarities there are between
a tournament and what you have to go through in
order to prepare a fashion show. Please let our listeners

(03:46):
know a little bit more what it takes and how
much pressure you have to go through and how many
things to think about to put it all together, because
to me, I mean it masses me every single time.
And how you can remember all the things you have
to deal with and then all the expectations obviously from
the outside media world. So just work as a little

(04:09):
bit through what it takes to actually see those say
a few minutes of of fame, and how much work
there is behind all of that. Thank you for asking
me this, Danny. Well, we actually work from six to
nine months on the collection, hundreds of people I might say,
in some cases thousands of people, So it's like having

(04:32):
a huge orchestra and everybody has to play the instrument
in an excellent way. Because of course what we do
is quality. What we do is research and innovations, so
we cannot accept things as they come at the first time.
So we keep on arcing, arcing and changing and improving,
exactly like you do on your tennis. You know. Our

(04:54):
goal is to improve ourselves every day and to make
everybody you know, to align and everybody and to everybody
on the same page. So we actually work, as I said,
from six to one months in the collection, and we
shrink the fashion show from like five hundred outfits too
about fifty and it's always a tough decision. And then

(05:16):
three days before the show, it's like for you three
days before the tournament. We have to be super super
concentrated in making the right choice, the right choice for
the model and the outfit, and you know, all the
accessories and the music and the layout. And of course
I work with great people. I could not do this
without our wonderful team. And we've got experts in every

(05:37):
single field from production of course, casting to music. Uh
and something magic happens in then you know, of course
I don't sleave the two weeks before because you get
a lot of pressure. I have to be honest and
you get a lot of enthusiasm at the same time.
So the night before comes when I write to my
friend Danny, what should they do? And you send me

(05:59):
the sound try Compladiator, and that counts me down a
little bit. And then we come to the morning of
the fashion show and we keep on being super concentrated
like hatlets you know, that's the secret concentration and loving
what you're doing. You cannot miss the detail. And then
the like six to nine months of work are concentrated

(06:20):
in eight ten minutes, like you said, and everything has
to work out as to be perfect for those ten minutes.
And that's how let me say we played our season.
We have no second chance to show our collection. We
have to do everything at our best in those ten
minutes and then it's gone like that. And then the
minute after the show is finished, I'm getting mentally ready

(06:42):
for the new collection. It's incredible, love how you just
described it, and it's exactly what I think about when
I see you're doing all the preparation. And even then,
I can't really relate to having that pressure on your
shoulders carrying your family name, knowing you don't have a
second sern Like you said, it's those ten minutes where

(07:04):
everything you put is on the line. How do you
prepare yourself mentally for you know, that week when everything
comes together, You've got thousands of people having to take
care of and you are in charge of all of that. Well,
like in sports, you really have to train yourself. I
study a lot, and you really have to be prepared.

(07:27):
That's the right word. Experience is great learning from amazing people.
I had the chance to learn from my mother Laura.
We worked together for twenty years. As I mentioned before,
I started to work at age of seventeen, so it
was great to learn from her from the tiny little
details to the big things and the big decisions. And

(07:47):
again you really have to be always super concentrated and
never lose your mind. You know. Sometimes in fashion you
see some hysterical moments which I don't like at all.
They don't belong to me, and they don't belong to
the big families in fashion. So I really want to
be kind to everybody and always open to learn from everybody,

(08:08):
from the smallest person that comes in the backstage and
maybe has a good idea. So I really want to listen,
have to be very open to what happens around me,
and in the same time I have to lead it.
So it's kind of a tricky position, the one i'm
you know, interpreting, but it always brought me to great
results and above all to improve myself. You know, after

(08:30):
a collection, I really feel like I went a little
step up, and this is what what what I want
to achieve in life. It's really to to learn more
and to improve myself. Well, I think the humbleness um
that you have loved is the biggest quality I appreciated
just whenever I have the opportunity to be around you,

(08:51):
Like you said, um, whether it's learning from anyone on
the street or the CEOs, it's uh, at the end
of the same, at the end of the day, the same,
I think, just having the open heart to the opportunities
around us. So would you say, um, if someone young
is listening to us to who wants to you know,
make it big in the fashion world, that it comes

(09:12):
down to kind of what you just said. And it's
so true for Roger Rafa Novak, just like the way
you think every day to try to improve um and
just having that focus and determination, because sometimes I feel
like with the young players, it's easy to see people

(09:33):
on the social media, you know, being successful and this
is how we appear and this is you know, it
happens all in one day. It's it's not the case,
is it. You know, I'm Roman and I'm in Rome
right now, and we always say Rome wasn't made in
the day. No success was made in the day. And
there's another sentence all out that says the only place

(09:54):
where work comes before success, sorry, where success comes before
work is addiction lary. So we have the s and
the that users work hard to reach success and you
always have to do a lot of sacrifice. And I
never go out in the evening. I'm always really really
concentrated on what i have to do. Try to go
to bed early. Try to keep very strong relationships with

(10:19):
my loved ones. There my strength, you know, my friends,
my family, there are my pillars in life. So never
miss a moment with your loved ones. That that's where
your strength comes from. Uh. And of course being humble. Um,
my mother was always there to learn. I mean she
had at five years herreer, super successful in her life

(10:40):
and she was always learning from everybody. She was super humble.
So that's one of the things she taught me. Another
thing that she taught me, which I think is very
useful for the next generation, is to start every day
from a white piece of paper, from a white sheep,
like you're doing now taking notes. You know, if you've
made mistakes, they belong to yesterday. Just you know, live
the so paper throwing behind your shoulders and start from scratch,

(11:03):
start from something new every day where you have to
be you know, sustainable, where you have to write something
that makes sense, not just little sketches. But I think
it's a great teaching in life. Well, I mean you've
said it all right there, Um, whenever you talk about Rome,
it's like sunshine comes through your eyes. We don't have

(11:27):
so much time to talk about everything, but whatever, say
three things that makes you love Rome like no other
city in the world, and that you are the most
proud of. Well, the fact that past, present and future
are linked together all the time. You know, you have
the stones which are very strong, they make you feel

(11:50):
strong roots. And then you have the ponentino. You know,
the wonderful winds that comes into the when you play,
and that wind gives you wings to fly. So I
really love the feeling of walking on the past, of
being surrounded by the past, but of having a breeze,
of having something very light that gives you the opportunity

(12:10):
to dream, that gives you the opportunity to be a
vision our. And then I love the light of the sunset,
all those shades of gold. You know, I never get
tired of it. I think the great beauty of bram
is that you really discover new emotional things every day. Well,
I think you said it right there. The sunset, because
it's a beautiful bridge that brings us straight to your

(12:33):
garden where the make Ryder Cup will be happening. And honestly,
like what we talked about that you are literally the
only girl in the world having a Ryder Cup in
your garden. Like how how does it even sound and
feel for you? Well, when you say to like face,

(12:56):
it really sounds crazy, it doesn't. You know, this is
one of my biggest greens and challenges and commitments coming through.
You know, this doesn't come in a day. It comes
with a lot of work, a lot of sacrifice, a
lot of tears, a lot of smiles, a lot of energy.
And yes, it's it's a wonderful chance for my country.

(13:19):
Let me say that first. You know, having the rider
top Marksimone Marcosimone is the golf venue built by my
family at the end of the eighties and they built
it with the vision of, you know, gifting to Rome
a great location to host international tournaments. Then, unfortunately, my

(13:40):
father passed away in nineteen six and I was super young,
and I was concentrated on core business, which was fashion,
so golf was not really exploding in Italy. Then at
some point I decided I really wanted to take more
care of the golf course because I love, you know,
the green, I love being outside, I love challenging that sporties,
and I love all the great feelings emotions that golf

(14:03):
keeps you. And in the meantime, Italy was bidding to
host the Ryder Cup, was beating against Spain, Austria and Germany,
and they looked at some courses and we want and
we're the candidate course. And in December fifteen we were
worded with the Ryder Cup, which was meant to be
in twenty twenty two. Then the pandemic comes and removed

(14:24):
twenty twenty three. In the meantime, so between the candidates
here and today Danny, I learned so much, so much.
I learned Number one from nature, you have to respect nature.
We were sitting the grass and the grass was not
growing when I wanted, you know, in fashion, I designed
this weather that the next day's ready. The following day

(14:46):
goes on the cat talk and it's been two days
and the process is done. Nature is another story. So
I learned so much about it. Again, it comes to respect,
it comes to patients, comes to waiting. And now we
have a beautiful golf course and I feel so grateful
for all the people who helped me, and for all
the people who you know, put all their energies every

(15:09):
day to make Marcosimon so beautiful. And we're open two
and a half years ahead of the Ryder Ha, So
this is another great achievement. Everybody says that Italians are
slow and without achieved results. Now we did it. Yes,
you proved everyone wrong and I can confirm. The views
don't get any better. The sunset are as beautiful as

(15:30):
it ever gets. The food in the restaurant is the
main reason why I come every time I can to
play nott Off Giving. It's obviously to see you, but
it is one of the most spectacular and special places
I've ever visited, and I cannot wait to be back there. Um,

(15:51):
when you look at Ryder Cap, what what is personally
the thing you look most forward to when the time
comes around? And also what the fence be excited about already? Now? Well,
I'm sure the fans will love it. It's a unique
venue that combines so many things. At the same time.
You have the view of St. Peter's down from several holes.

(16:14):
We are playing next to an ancient Roman villa that
dates back to the first second century of the christ
and the old golf course. It's like a huge green
skirt around the tower of the castle where I am
right now, where Galileo GALILEI lived as well. So you
can sense history. You can enjoy food, of course, you
can play a very very challenging golf yet very enjoyable

(16:38):
for amateurs. You know. The let's say, the task was
to reach the golf course that was super path for
you know, the big, big players, but enjoyable for amateurs.
And I think we breached a balance, and I'm very
very excited about it. Love, I feel like we could talk,
like you said another point, Today's two hundred different issues

(17:01):
and opinions on but I know how precious your time is.
So the last. But I think the most important question
is uh, whenever we're having through lat you know, I
can't wait to see you and please come back from

(17:22):
come back soon to Rome. Rome loves you so much.
I love my friends, and to be fair, you're one
of my mentors. I learned so much from you. Please
keep on mentoring me because I think friends are the
biggest writer in life. No, that's so beautifully said. Love you,
and I feel the same towards you. Thank you so
much for your time and I cannot wait to have
you in person. Tell Danny good luck for everything. I

(17:46):
love you. Tell from I hope you have enjoyed today's
episode and getting to know my guests a bit better.
If you feel like you just subscribed to us so
you don't miss any of the actions. Also let me
know or comments or suggestions on my social media channels,
and have a lovely rest of your day. By
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