Pino Brusone is certainly not afraid to accept a challenge. When it came to changing his lifestyle following his experience working side by side with famous stylists such as Valentino and Giorgio Armani, and "measuring up" to the American market as MD of the famous designer Donna Karan, he accepted the challenge with unshakable faith in the future. He made no small change: moving from the catwalks to the fields of his Porrona farm in San Giovanni D'Asso, in the province of Siena, where he personally takes care of the production of organic olive oil and wine to be sold in Europe, the US and as far afield as Singapore.

Is there anything in common between the two different aspects in your life?

I would say that they both have in common a quest for beauty, a sense of aesthetics, which I have always searched for. Although it is expressed in different ways, it has always remained a central theme in my life.

What inspired you to change?

I couldn’t see any more goals ahead of me in my career, and at a certain point I rediscovered something that had been suppressed inside me, a need for contact with nature. I came across a farm with seventy hectares of land in the province of Siena, already planted with Sangiovese vines, and I was so taken with it that I decided to buy it. Now I watch the changing seasons from a front row seat, and I have time to notice the small, daily changes in nature: something that was missing in the world of fashion, where I never even noticed the seasons passing.

Your organic olive oil, which you have produced with so much care, is selling well on foreign markets...

Yes, and it makes me very proud to know, for example, that the Metropolitan Hotel in London on the prestigious Old Park Lane uses my oil for their cuisine. Just like the Parrot Key, a hotel in the Caribbean. The European markets where we are most successful are Great Britain, Belgium and France, while on an international level we are selling well in the US, particularly in New York.

And Singapore?

Singapore is an important base for our company, allowing us to reach several Asian markets.

Why do foreign customers choose your oil?

Because it is an organic oil produced with great care. We press our olives within twenty four hours of harvesting them, so all of their qualities remain intact. Furthermore, the harvest is always gathered before the olives fall from the tree, so the oil obtained has a very low acidity.

Your farm also produces wine...

Yes, in fact the wine has given me the most satisfaction recently. After an endless search, I have at last found a name for it: I chose Brusone, my surname. I have added French varieties to the Sangiovese vines, and just like the olives I have been experimenting with harvesting the grapes before they are fully ripe, as early as August.