THE SWAN PRINCE

FASHION MAGNATE LEONARDO FERRAGAMO HAS CULTIVATED NAUTOR’S SWAN INTO THE WORLD’S MOST RESPECTED YACHT BRAND

- TOBY HODGES

If there is one yacht marque that every sailor knows, and can probably recognise even at a distance, it’s Nautor’s Swan. This famous Finnish yard has been owned for more that 20 years by an Italian, Leonardo Ferragamo, who has not only taken it through choppy waters, including a recession and now a global pandemic, but he has helped expand it into the most ambitious, innovative yacht brand in the world.

Swan is as popular now as it has ever been, with an order book to envy. An aggressive investment strategy over recent years has revamped the firm and led to a broad range that now includes cruising and racing yachts from 36-125ft.

But how does someone whose business is in fashion come to own a yacht building company? Ferragamo insists there are strong ties between the worlds of fashion and sailing. “It is about branding, it is about international marketing, about a product that needs to be done because of the substance, the contents, the reliability and the beauty that you can put in a product.”

When he bought the controlling interest in Nautor’s Swan in 1998, his overriding desire was to create a high-end brand. So how and why did he do it?

I connect with Ferragamo via video, as is the custom during isolation times. He sits at a varnished table in his Florentine home, with books and family photographs backlit on the bookshelf behind him. He has a healthy glow and looks younger than his 67 years.

Leonardo is one of six children born into the Salvatore Ferragamo fashion kingdom. He admits it was a privilege, yet says it never seemed that way. “At all times it felt like we were being pushed to take the hard route in life and always working for your own result,” he says.