奢侈品電商創始人馬爾凱蒂

Wearing a grey jacket from Alexander McQueen, pale grey cashmere sweater and button-down shirt, his baby birdlike features exaggerated by black-rimmed spectacles, Federico Marchetti meets me in a small parking lot on the shores of Lake Como, Italy. It’s a steely grey day and the clouds hang mistily over the surrounding hills. As he greets me, the scene has a whisper of John le Carré about it — like two operatives meeting to share secrets.

在意大利科莫湖(Lake Como)邊的一個小停車場內，我見到了費代里科氠爾凱蒂(Federico Marchetti)，當時他身着Alexander McQueen牌的灰色夾克、搭配淺灰色羊絨衫和鈕釦領襯衫，佩戴的黑框眼鏡進一步凸顯出他精明的五官。天色陰沉，雲霧繚繞着附近的山上。當他問候我時，整個場景有點約翰勒卡雷(John le Carré)的味道——我們倆就像是兩名特工在接頭交換情報。

The truth is rather more prosaic. The 46-year-old tech entrepreneur and founder of Yoox, the vast e-commerce retailer of luxury goods now poised on the brink of a merger with Net-a-Porter, is about to give me a tour of his hood.

而事實遠沒有那麼戲劇性。這位46歲的科技企業家、大型奢侈品電子商務零售商Yoox（即將與Net-a-Porter合併）的創始人，正準備帶我在他的地盤四處看看。

Marchetti settled in Como permanently a year ago, at the insistence of his partner, Kerry Olsen, a writer and journalist, who wanted to raise their daughter, Margherita, three, in a house with a garden. “I moved for her,” he says, explaining the daily commute to his office in Milan. Although Como has no shortage of starry inhabitants — Richard Branson is a few minutes along the lakeside, George Clooney owns a villa — the neighbourhood has, says Marchetti, the same sleepy provincial feel of his childhood home in Ravenna, the Byzantine capital in Italy’s northeast.

在其伴侶克麗攠爾森(Kerry Olsen)的堅持下，馬爾凱蒂1年前在科莫定居了下來。奧爾森是一名作家兼記者，她希望讓他們的女兒——3歲的瑪格麗塔(Margherita)在有花園的房子里長大。“我是爲了她才搬家的，”他在解釋自己爲什麼每日往返於位於米蘭的辦公室和這裏時說。儘管科莫不乏星光熠熠的居民——理查德布蘭森(Richard Branson)的住處就在湖邊，距離馬爾凱蒂家僅有幾分鐘的路程，喬治克魯尼(George Clooney)在這裏也有一棟別墅。馬爾凱蒂稱，這個社區寂靜的鄉村感就像他童年時在拉文納（位於意大利東北部，過去曾是拜占庭在意大利的首府）的家一樣。

Walking towards the restaurant, we pass a palazzo belonging to a Russian billionaire that is being renovated for his daughter, and a dilapidated silk factory. The former mill is Marchetti’s, a two-year building project that will ultimately become the family home. With its industrial windows and factory roof, it is the antithesis of the splendid building next door. “I didn’t want a great ostentatious house,” he says. It will, however, fulfil his lifetime ambition of having a swimming pool: a 20m lap pool in the basement. “I never wanted a Ferrari. But I always wanted a pool.”

在去往餐廳的路上，我們路過了一棟屬於一位俄羅斯億萬富翁的豪宅（現在他正在爲女兒翻修這棟宅子）和一座破敗的絲綢廠。該廠現在歸馬爾凱蒂所有，正在裝修（工期兩年），最終將成爲馬爾凱蒂的家。這座有着工廠式窗戶和房頂的建築與隔壁富麗堂皇的豪宅形成鮮明的對比。“我不想要一棟特別浮誇的房子，”他說。然而，這棟房子將會實現他畢生的願望：擁有一個位於地下室的長20米的小型游泳池。“我從不想要法拉利，但是我一直想要一個游泳池。”

As we enter the restaurant, 40 pairs of eyeballs turn towards us. The diners are all local tradesmen, burly men on their lunch break. We were going to sit inside, as rain seems imminent, but the sight of so many young men, eating in silence, is a little overwhelming. “Shall we go back outside?” asks Marchetti, with a sympathetic grin. We take a corner table under a tree in the courtyard. “It has been family-run for over 100 years,” he says of the bar with its tabacchi desk by the till. “It’s our second home and the food is very good. I asked you to come here because I wanted to show you how I live. Rather than bring you to a Milanese super-duper restaurant, the luxury guy is bringing you to a little bar.”

當我們走進餐廳時，40雙眼睛立刻轉向我們。用餐者都是身材健碩的本地人，正在享受午休時光。因爲感覺快下雨了，我們本來準備坐到餐廳裏面，但是這麼多沉默用餐的年輕人盯着我們的目光，讓人有點招架不住。“要不我們回外面吧？”馬爾凱蒂問道，臉上帶着同情的笑容。我們在院子角落一顆樹下的桌子旁坐定。“這裏是家族經營的，已經開了100多年了，”他說起這個吸菸桌緊挨着收銀機的酒吧，“這裏是我的第二個家，食物非常贊。我讓你來這兒，是因爲我想讓你看看我是怎麼生活的。這個奢侈的傢伙沒帶你去米蘭的高級餐廳，而是帶你來一個小酒吧。”

Today, though, the luxury guy has a sore tummy and is on “a strict diet” of fish and steamed vegetables — “no rice, or potatoes,” he insists, while ordering a shoal of lake fish that will be variously deep-fried, roasted, smoked and smothered in green sauce. I eat some bread while Marchetti demonstrates parsimonious restraint; he is, however, persuaded to take a thimble of white wine.

不過，這個奢侈的傢伙今天肚子痛，而且還正處於“嚴格節食”中，只能吃魚和蒸煮的蔬菜。他堅持“不要米飯，不要土豆”，然後點了各種炸、烤、薰、青醬拌的湖魚。在馬爾凱蒂展現自己過於嚴苛的自制力時，我吃了些麪包；而他在我的勸說下抿了幾口白葡萄酒。

The younger son of a “white-collar” family — his father was a warehouse manager at Fiat and his mother worked at a call-centre (in “e-commerce”, he jokes) — Marchetti launched Yoox in 2000 with next to no experience of the fashion industry but the conviction he could persuade luxury brands to sell him end-of-season stock to sell online, at a time when luxury accounted for “zero per cent” of the e-commerce market.

馬爾凱蒂來自“白領家庭”，是家裏的次子，他父親是菲亞特(Fiat)一家貨倉的經理，母親在電話呼叫中心（他開玩笑說，也算是“電子商務”）工作。2000年創辦Yoox時，他幾乎沒有任何時尚業從業經驗，但卻堅信能夠說服奢侈品牌把季末尾貨賣給他、讓他在網上銷售，而當時奢侈品在電子商務市場上的份額爲“0%”。

Since then, Yoox has grown into a multinational “lifestyle” company with revenues of 524m and a net profit of ㄠ3.8m last year. It entered the US in 2003, Japan in 2004 and, in 2006, signed a deal with Marni to provide tech support and a website for the Italian fashion house. Yoox now powers the web infrastructure for 38 luxury brands (“mono brands”), including Armani, Valentino and those owned by the Kering group. In 2009 the company was listed on the Milan stock exchange. And on March 31 this year, Marchetti announced plans for a merger with Net-a-Porter, the luxury fashion site founded, also in 2000, by Natalie Massenet.

從那時起，Yoox逐漸發展爲一家跨國“時尚”公司，去年收入達到5.24億歐元、淨利潤1380萬歐元。2003年進入美國，2004年進入日本，2006年與意大利時尚品牌瑪尼(Marni)簽訂協議，爲後者提供技術支持並建一家網站。Yoox如今爲38家奢侈品牌打理它們的在線商店（“單一品牌專賣”），其中包括阿瑪尼(Armani)、華倫天奴(Valentino)以及開雲集團(Kering)旗下的幾個品牌。2009年，該公司在米蘭證交所掛牌。今年3月31日，馬爾凱蒂宣佈了與Net-a-Porter的合併計劃，後者是納塔莉氠斯內(Natalie Massenet)於2000年創辦的奢侈品時尚網站。

In September, Marchetti will become chief executive of the newly created Yoox Net-a-Porter Group (Massenet will be executive chairman) and will oversee the operations of the world’s largest online luxury retailer. When the merger was announced, the implied valuation for the combined group was 3.4bn, with annual sales of ㄠ.3bn, shipping to 180 countries worldwide, and with a combined total of 24m unique users.

今年9月，馬爾凱蒂將成爲新成立的Yoox Net-a-Porter集團的首席執行官（馬斯內將擔任執行董事長），負責這家全球最大的奢侈品在線零售商的運營。在合併消息宣佈時，合併後集團的潛在估值爲34億歐元，年銷售額13億歐元，產品銷往180個國家，總共擁有2400萬不同用戶。

Not bad for someone who, even after 15 years in the industry, still describes himself as an outsider. “I’ve always been ambitious,” says Marchetti, as he gently separates some fish from its spine. He attributes his drive to no one. “My parents didn’t encourage me in any way. I wasn’t guided. But I was extremely, extremely, extremely good at school.” Neither was there an inspirational teacher to push him into further education — first economics in Milan, then an MBA from Columbia University. “I did it my own way,” he says. “I’ve been alone most years. I started Yoox by myself.”

對於已在時尚行業幹了15年卻仍然稱自己爲局外人的他來說，這是個不錯的成績。“我總是野心勃勃，”馬爾凱蒂一邊剔魚骨一邊說。他並不把自己的進取心歸功於任何人。“我父母從沒有以任何方式鼓勵我這樣。也沒人引導過我。但是我就是非常、非常擅長唸書。”他也不是因爲哪個老師的鼓勵而繼續深造——先是在米蘭學習了經濟學，之後在哥倫比亞大學(Columbia University)拿到MBA。“我就是按照自己的方式做的，”他稱，“大多數時間我都是自己一個人。我也是自己創辦了Yoox。”

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The merger is another step towards a long-imagined “dream” of Marchetti — the specifics of which he is vague about. “We started talking about a merger in 2009 but it was too early. It hasn’t been done to please investors, or for stock price; it’s a merger based on substance. And the substance is two companies that started at exactly the same time, with exactly the same vision, but which took completely different approaches. We started with end-of-season, they started full price. Then they started end-of-season [with The Outnet], we started full price [with The Corner]. Then we launched the mono brands, because we were strong at the back-end with logistics, and they launched the editorial content, because they were strong at the front end with the marketing. It’s incredible, like sliding doors — like it was almost planned. I don’t think any merger in history has been so perfect on paper. ”

兩家公司合併是馬爾凱蒂向着其長期憧憬的“夢想”邁進的又一步（具體細節他不願多談）。“我們2009年便開始討論合併，但那時還太早。合併並不是爲了取悅股東或者推高股價，而是一次基於實際情況的合併。現實就是兩家公司幾乎同時創辦，擁有完全相同的夢想，但是選擇的道路卻截然不同。我們從季末尾貨做起，他們從全價商品做起。之後他們（創立The Outnet）進入季末尾貨市場，而我們（創立The Corner)進入全價商品領域。再之後我們推出了單一品牌專賣，原因是我們在後端物流方面很強，而他們推出了編輯內容板塊，因爲他們在前端營銷方面很強。我們就像兩扇滑動門一樣相互契合，簡直不可思議，幾乎像是設計好的。我不認爲公司合併史上有過如此完美合拍的案例。”

Nevertheless, as he quickly points out, this is not a marriage of equals. Marchetti is still a solo operator and he’s very clear that the Yoox Net-a-Porter Group has only one boss. He raises a hand: “And that’s me.”

儘管如此，正如他很快指出的那樣，這並非一次平等的聯姻。馬爾凱蒂仍然是唯一的掌門人，他非常清楚地表明Yoox Net-a-Porter集團只有一個老闆。他舉了舉手說：“那就是我。”

While their business models have followed opposite but complementary paths, Marchetti and Massenet’s managerial styles might be harder to fuse. At Net-a-Porter, the glamorous, California-born Massenet has built her empire on foundations of sororal cheerleading — lots of positive affirmations, #incrediblewomen and whooping about team achievements. Marchetti, on the other hand, is notable for his relative anonymity. “They don’t like me,” he says of his relationship with his staff. Really? “No, they don’t like me,” he continues. “There is no love.” He stops. “I think they feel inspired. But they don’t need to love me.”

儘管兩家公司的商業模式選擇了截然相反卻又相互補充的發展道路，但馬爾凱蒂和馬斯內的管理風格也許沒那麼容易調和。在Net-a-Porter，生於加州的魅力女性馬斯內以姐妹拉拉隊爲基礎建立了她的帝國，這裏充滿了正面肯定、對女性的歌頌、對團隊成績大張旗鼓的宣揚。而馬爾凱蒂是出了名的低調。“他們不喜歡我，”他說起自己和員工的關係時這樣說。真的嗎？“是的，他們確實不喜歡我，”他接着說，“沒有愛，”他頓了一下，“我覺得他們會感覺受到鼓舞。但是他們不需要愛我。”

Will there not, then, be a conflict of cultures in the new world order? “We’re different,” says Marchetti. “But it’s not bad. I don’t need love. I need results.”

那麼，在新公司中不會出現文化衝突嗎？“我們截然不同，”馬爾凱蒂稱，“但是這不是壞事。我不需要員工的愛。我要的是業績。”

On paper, Marchetti’s attitude may seem arrogant but, in person, his gnomic self-analysis is drily amusing: when I suggest our lunchtime rendezvous is an elaborately staged attempt at humility and that no one in the bar knows who the hell he is, he starts laughing. “Today everything low-key. And then when you leave the helicopter arrives with my dinner...”栠攀 jokes.

理論上，馬爾凱蒂的態度可能看起來很傲慢，但是與他本人接觸時，他精闢的自我剖析頗有些冷幽默：當我暗示我們的午餐地點是爲了彰顯其謙虛的精心安排、且餐廳裏沒人知道他到底是誰時，他笑了起來。“今天一切都很低調。等你走了以後，直升機會給我送晚餐過來……”他開玩笑說。

In fact, his braggadocio sounds more like incredulity: as if he’s still a little mystified by his success. “Starting a company like Yoox in a country like Italy, it’s quite a miracle. It was a cultural innovation: internet, venture capitalist, stock was an American story in Italy, so it was quite brave. But, at the same time, I had huge advantages: the proximity to the designers, speaking the same languages to the brands, understanding their needs.”

事實上，他的自誇聽起來更像是質疑：彷彿他對自己的成功仍然有點困惑。“在意大利這樣的國家創辦一家Yoox這樣的公司，是個不小的奇蹟。這是一種文化革新：互聯網、風投資本家、股票期權……這是一個發生在意大利的美國故事，所以這相當勇敢。但是，與此同時，我也擁有巨大的優勢：與設計師近在咫尺、與品牌廠家說着同樣的語言、理解他們的需求。

It was brave, possibly foolhardy, to launch a company selling discounted luxury goods in 2000. At the time, Marchetti was working as a merchant banker — and miserable with it. “I was leaving the office around 8pm and at night writing my business plan. Around Christmas 1999 I said, ‘I think I need to do it.’ I’m 30, I had to take a risk. So I quit my job. And in 40 days I convinced the venture capitalist to give me ㄠ.5m for 33 per cent of my idea,” he says. “And this was Italy, where there were two venture capitalists, not Silicon Valley, where there are hundreds.

在2000年創辦一家賣打折奢侈品的公司的確很勇敢，可能還有些魯莽。當時，馬爾凱蒂是一名商業銀行的員工——過得很痛苦。“晚上8點左右我才離開公司，夜裏還要寫商業計劃。1999年聖誕節前後，我說，‘我覺得我必需做這件事。’當時我30歲，不得不冒一次險。於是我辭掉工作。在40天內說服風投給我150萬歐元，來買我這個想法的33%的所有權，”他稱，“這發生在當時只有兩個風投資本家的意大利，而不是在如今有着數百名風投資本家的硅谷(Silicon Valley)。”

“I took a big risk, and the risk was essential. I cannot say I love risks. I’m not a cowboy. I suffer, internally. But it’s a fine line between luck and risk and I’ve been very lucky. We started in the same month as Net-a-Porter, in June 2000. [the LVMH-backed e-commerce site] collapsed in May 2000, and then luxury collapsed. Had I [tried to get] the investment a month later, I would have got nothing.”

“我冒了很大風險，而這種風險是有必要的。我不能說自己喜歡冒險。我並非莽撞之人。我內心很受煎熬。但是，幸運和風險僅有一線之隔，而我非常幸運。Yoox和Net-a-Porter在同一個月創辦，都創辦於2000年6月。（路威酩軒集團(LVMH)出資的電商網站）於2000年5月關停，隨後奢侈品業也垮了。如果我再晚一個月去爭取投資，我可能籌不到一分錢。”

He may not be a cowboy but there must have been a certain swagger about the 30-year-old nobody. “I didn’t even have a website,” he says. “And I was not the son of any one. I was just selling the dream of an online service. And I was very good at selling the dream. Because I believed in that dream.”

他也許不是莽撞之人，但是當時那個30歲的無名小卒身上必然帶着某種狂妄。“我連個網站都沒有，”他說，“我也沒有爹可以拼。我當時只是在推銷自己關於在線服務的夢想。我很擅長推銷夢想。因爲我相信自己的夢想。”

Marchetti made fashion his focus because it was a native luxury, because he had the home advantage and because there was no competition. “You cannot be great at everything,” he argues, when I suggest the big fashion brands have been rather cowardly about e-commerce. “You need to be a specialist. The internet is a different set of skills. Unless, like Burberry, you have a leader and designer that is an internet native and it’s part of the strategy.”

馬爾凱蒂把重心放在時尚方面，因爲它是天然的奢侈品，還因爲他有本土優勢，而且還沒有競爭。當我表示大型時尚品牌一直對電子商務相當畏懼的時候，他反駁道，“你不可能什麼事都精通。你需要成爲一個專家。互聯網是一套不同的技能。除非像巴寶莉(Burberry)一樣，你有一個出生於互聯網時代的領導者兼設計師，並且互聯網是你戰略的一部分。”

Marchetti’s specialism is in logistics and, to that end, his greatest asset is a warehouse in Bologna. A 102,000 sq m distribution centre through which 8,000 orders are processed every day, it is the mother ship for the group’s operations. It is here that every one of the 5.5m items currently stocked are unpacked, checked for damage, photographed, tagged, stored and repackaged on their passage to a final destination. A marvel of technology, it is patrolled by robots that pick out items from container-loads of goods while 55 studios capture between 9,000 and 15,000 images every day. It’s also a very human enterprise; human hands unpack the incoming product, dress the mannequins and pack the merchandise away when it is sold: they might also wrap them in tissue paper or tie them with a ribbon depending on the particulars of the mono-brand packaging. “It’s an amazing operation,” says Marchetti. “You wouldn’t expect so much perfection from an Italian company — about 0.001 per cent of mistakes. Why? Because we cannot send a Saint Laurent product. We need it to be right, otherwise it’s a loss of credibility.”

馬爾凱蒂的特長在於物流，在這方面，他最寶貴的資產就是位於博洛尼亞的倉庫。這個面積達10.2萬平米的配送中心，每天處理的訂單數達到8000個，是該集團運營的大後方。就在這裏，550萬件現有庫存商品逐一被拆包、檢查、拍照、打上標籤、存放好、然後在發給最終顧客前重新包裝好。這是科技的奇蹟，機器人將商品從成集裝箱的貨物中揀出，55間攝影室每天拍攝9000-15000張照片。這也是一家非常需要人力勞動的企業；入庫商品拆包、給模特穿上服裝、商品售出時打包好發走，靠的都是人工；有些商品還需要人工用薄紙包好或是用絲帶打結（取決於不同的個別品牌的具體包裝要求）。“這是一項神奇的業務，”馬爾凱蒂稱，“你想不到一家意大利公司能如此完美——錯誤率約爲0.001%。爲什麼呢？因爲我們不會給送一件聖羅蘭(Saint Laurent)的商品。我們需要它準確，否則我們會失去信譽。”

Neither does the stock hang around. “We have a huge inventory in our logistics, so it’s a huge commitment,” he says. “ collapsed because of the inventory.” So what do you do? Discount it to death? “Yes,” says Marchetti. “And everything goes.”

他們也不會讓庫存停留太久。“我們物流中的庫存量很大，因此這是巨大的投入，”他稱，“就是因爲庫存積壓嚴重倒閉的。”那你怎麼辦？打折到賣出去？“是的，”馬爾凱蒂說，“所有東西都會清掉。”

His other great advantage is a vast bank of data. With nearly 15 years and millions of transactions to pick over, he has become a font of retail information and it’s a joy to quiz him about the world’s shopping habits. Who are the serial returners? “The Germans,” he says. “They’re the worst.” And the least likely to shop during office hours? “The Japanese are the most ethical guys. They only ever shop after midnight. They don’t sleep.” (The Brits tend to shop late afternoon and evening and, though he won’t speak ill of his countrymen, it’s pretty clear from his facial expression that Italians like to do it at their desks.) The Spanish prefer red while the Italians love purple. Men are more loyal to brands and 65 per cent of transactions are undertaken by women, except in China, where the reverse is true.

他另外一個巨大的優勢是擁有海量數據庫。坐擁近15年、數百萬筆交易的信息，他成了零售業信息的百科全書。考他世界各地的購物習慣是件很有趣的事。哪國人最愛退貨？“德國人，”他稱，“他們最愛退貨。”哪國人最不可能在上班時間購物？“日本人是最有職業道德的。他們只在半夜購物。他們壓根不睡覺。”（英國人往往在傍晚和夜裏購物，儘管他不想說同胞的壞話，但從他的面部表情上可以清楚看出，意大利人喜歡在辦公室網購。）西班牙人對紅色青睞有加，而意大利人最愛紫色。男性的品牌忠誠度更高，而65%的交易是女性完成的，不過中國是個例外，那裏的情況是相反的。

It’s a game I could play all day. “It’s a sociological dream,” he agrees. It’s also valuable. For example: “We found out that when women buy shoes, in two-thirds of cases they only buy shoes, they don’t mix the cart with anything else. It’s a very focused category. Which means that, after analysing 8m orders with shoes, we launched a website for shoes only [], because we knew what women want. The power of information is huge.”

這個小遊戲我能玩上一整天。“這是社會學夢寐以求的信息，”他也贊同。這些信息也很有價值。比如：“我們發現，當女性買鞋時，2/3的情況下她們只買鞋，她們不會在購物車裏加入其它商品。這是一個非常專注的種類。這意味着，在對800萬個鞋履訂單進行分析後，我們推出了一個只賣鞋的網站（），因爲我們知道女性購物者想要什麼。信息的力量太大了。”

If I were a luxury CEO, I would insist Marchetti be at every meeting. But, he says, luxury has been fairly reluctant to harness the power of his data. “Historically, it’s an industry that drops down from creativity to the customer — data have not been so essential. But I do my bit and I’m sure that they will come.”

如果我是一個奢侈品CEO，我會堅持讓馬爾凱蒂參加所有會議。但是，他說，奢侈品牌一直挺不願意利用其數據的力量。“從歷史角度來說，這是個從創意淪落到迎合消費者的行業——數據一直沒那麼重要。但是我會做好分內之事，我敢肯定他們會來找我的。”

Perhaps it’s just as well. If all we were being offered were things based on web sales, our wardrobes would probably be directed by housewives in Texas. Besides, while Marchetti knows what sells, he still doesn’t know why.

也許這也是公平的。如果市面上售賣的所有服裝都是基於互聯網銷售情況決定的，那麼我們的衣櫃很可能會由德克薩斯州的主婦說了算。此外，儘管馬爾凱蒂知道哪些商品賣得好，但他仍然不知道這是爲什麼。

“There’s a very common risk with data that you can become lost in it. At Yoox we still use a good part of commercial instinct for the buy. It’s a mix. Using data is a piece of information but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we are led by it. It’s the sociological point of view that I’m missing. Why do women buy only shoes when they buy online? I don’t know. I just know that they do.”

“運用數據有一個非常普遍的危險，那就是你可能會迷失其中。在Yoox，我們仍然很大程度上利用商業直覺決定進哪些貨。兩者要結合起來。利用數據是獲得一種信息，但是未必意味着我會被它左右。我不知道的是社會學上的觀點。爲什麼女人在網上購物時只買鞋？我不知道。我只知道她們就是這樣。”

In a commercial world dominated by chatter about Applebot and Silicon Valley evangelists, Marchetti is an exception. He’s not especially tech-obsessed: he couldn’t care less about the Apple Watch, and he’s less dogmatic about the omnipotence of the tech age than one might assume. He doesn’t believe, for example, that the internet will kill print media, nor the fashion show. “I’m a hybrid type of guy,” he says. “I’m not a fanatic who thinks the world will only go online, or that there will be no more fashion shows, or e-commerce will be 100 per cent of sales...I really think the fashion shows are a very efficient way to make business.”

在這個由關於Applebot（蘋果(Apple)的網絡爬蟲——譯者注）的議論和硅谷(Silicon Valley)狂熱者主導的商業世界裏，馬爾凱蒂是個異類。他並不是特別沉迷於科技：他一點都不關注Apple Watch，對科技時代的無所不能也沒有人們所認爲的那樣武斷。例如，他不相信互聯網會幹掉紙媒和時裝秀。“我是那種比較兼容幷包的人，”他稱，“我不是那種認爲整個世界只會日益轉移到線上的狂熱者，也不認爲不會再有時裝秀或者銷售將100%通過電子商務完成……我真的認爲時裝秀是一種非常有效的做生意的方式。

We walk together up the hill towards his temporary home until the mill is complete. It’s an unassuming house, albeit one with a tower in the garden and extra houses for two housekeepers. Otherwise, it’s full of the normal jumble of a family home. Nothing fancy. Neither is his new boat, an old wooden knockabout called La Dolce Vita he picked up because he thought it would be nice “to bring my ladies out”. He suddenly looks a bit doleful. “The next three years won’t be la dolce vita, that’s for sure,” he says suddenly, as he considers the implications of his “perfect merger”.

我們一起向山上走向他在工廠改裝完成前的臨時住所。這是一棟樸實無華的房子，儘管花園裏有一座高塔，還有額外的房子給兩名管家住，不過除此之外就像普通人家的房子一樣，一點兒都不浮誇。他新買的船也很樸實，是一艘名爲“甜蜜生活”(La Dolce Vita)的舊木船，他買它的理由是覺得用它“載着我的美女們出航”會很美妙。突然間他看起來有點沮喪，“接下來的3年不會是甜蜜的生活，這是可以肯定的。”說話間他在琢磨“完美合併”帶來的影響。

In spite of this, he’s very happy. “I’m a bit Calvinist, I think, in a country that is very Catholic,” he explains. “Even when I took the company public I was distant. I just came home and ate a bowl of minestrone. No champagne. No holiday. Nothing. I think it’s a problem — I always then think what’s next? I’m never satisfied. But when I did the merger I was very, very, happy.”

儘管如此，他還是很開心。“我覺得，在一個天主教影響很大的國家，我有點像個加爾文教徒，”他解釋說，“即使是在我的公司上市的時候，我也是很淡然的。我只是回家吃了一碗意大利蔬菜濃湯。沒有開香檳。沒有去度假。什麼都沒有。我覺得我有這毛病——總是會想接下來怎麼辦？永不滿足。但是當我完成合並時，我非常非常開心。”

No minestrone then? “No, no,” he laughs. “No minestrone that night...”

那天晚上沒吃意大利蔬菜濃湯嗎？“沒有，沒有，”他笑道，“那天晚上沒吃……”