Marco Tomasetta arrived at German luxury brand Montblanc on March 1, 2021, leaving his position as Givenchy’s creative design director for men’s and women’s leather goods. A graduate of Instituto Europeo di Design in Milan, Tomasetta previously held design roles at Prada, Chloé and Louis Vuitton before joining Montblanc, part of Switzerland-based Richemont.

Tomasetta’s business purpose at Montblanc is to advance a “Montblanc Luxury Business-Lifestyle mindset” that creates “perfect companions that will grow with their owners and become part of their accomplishments,” in his own words.

Tomorrow’s Workplace

The Montblanc assignment comes at a time when young creatives and future business movers and shakers worldwide are re-examining the symbols of success in a world drowning in challenges.

Marco Tomasetta, Montblanc Creative Director [courtesy]

We are not clear in America if and when Apple employees will actually return to their design-spectacular new headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. In mid-May Apple suspended its requirement that employees return to the office for at least three days a week.

One of Apple’s leading artificial intelligence engineers Ian Goodfellow resigned in early May over Apple’s attempts to return a modified “normalcy” to its home office operations.

Tomasetta’s Montblanc challenge and great opportunity comes at a moment when breathing new life into old luxury brand “codes” is more complex than the standard press release conveys.

Tomasetta’s first collection for Montblanc as artistic director is called Meisterstück Leather Collection [IG], a unisex collection of bags defined by the same name as one of Montblanc’s famous writing instruments.

Vogue Hong Kong [IG] presents a fashion story featuring model Gertrude S showcasing the new collection of precious Meisterstück Leather bags, styled by Katherine Ho in images by Oscar Chik [IG].

Montblanc is juxtaposing an interesting brand-balancing act in modernity with the opening of its new uber-modern Montblanc Haus in Hamburg playing against the potentially-going-extinct act of letter-writing.

AOC says ‘act’ not ‘art’ — because Karl Lagerfeld’s longwinded negative RSVP “Dear Miss Roose, Thank you for your invitation” handwritten note is on display at Montblanc Haus. Montblanc’s challenge is to make letter writing timeless for today, and a time when penmanship skills are at an all-time low.

A beautiful pen will always be a form of treasure. The question is its relevance — and more importantly — the values it imbues. This conundrum also lies squarely in the center of Marco Tomasetta’s big-picture assignment at Montblanc.

The Montblanc challenge is one perhaps worthy of future analysis as a Harvard Business School case study. AOC has added Montblanc to our track list — which most-recently also includes Pucci and Tod’s. ~ Anne