The Contrasting Style of Gianni Agnelli

The Fashion of | Fan Number One's Top Italian Accents

Giani Agnelli poses at FIAT’s Mirafiori factory in Turin.

Italy has long been synonymous with style, and the Milanesi proudly position their city as one of the world’s fashion capitals. Catwalks, couture houses, and global luxury brands all orbit Milan’s gravitational pull.

Yet the most stylish Italian of the 20th century was not from Milan at all, but from Turin. Gianni “l’Avvocato” Agnelli — Juventus’s legendary owner, president during three Scudetti wins, and eternal Tifoso Numero Uno — redefined what it meant to be both powerful and effortlessly elegant.

Backed by his brother Umberto and nephew Giovanni, Gianni keeps his friend Dr. Henry Kissinger entertained during a Juventus match in Turin.

Agnelli’s style was never costume, never contrived. It was instinctive, iconic, and enduring. Let’s look at three of his signature touches. He left his collar points deliberately unbuttoned, strapped his wristwatch boldly over his shirt cuff, and paired bespoke alpine boots with tailored suits. Each gesture revealed a man whose identity fused football, family, industry and fashion into a singular expression of unforced style.

Collar Points Left Unbuttoned

Among Agnelli’s most recognizable gestures was the way he left his collar points unbuttoned beneath an immaculate suit.

Collar points deliberately undone: a gesture at once casual and commanding, turning rigid tailoring into a statement of ease.

It looked rebellious, but never careless — a detail that signaled authority tempered with freedom. In a country where dress codes were once rigid, Agnelli’s collar became shorthand for confidence and individuality.

It was a flourish so small yet so distinctive that it still defines him in countless images: poised at matches, seated in boardrooms, or stepping out in Turin.

Watch Over the Cuff

No image of Gianni Agnelli is complete without the watch — worn defiantly over the shirt cuff.

In this film excerpt Agnelli responds to renown Italian journalist, Mario Sconcerti’s questions about the Juventus football club (featuring exclusive voice over by Mario Sconcerti himself and Academy Award® Nominee, Giancarlo Giannini, performing Gianni's lines).

On one level, it was pure practicality: a man who valued speed and clarity didn’t have time to tug at sleeves. On another, it became a symbol of authority, a declaration that his sense of time set the rhythm.

Agnelli’s wristwatch, strapped over the shirt cuff: practical, provocative, and unmistakably his own mark of precision and originality.

What began as functional became iconic, endlessly copied but never equalled. It was a gesture of clarity and originality that travelled from Turin’s boardrooms to the world’s fashion circles and regularly to that storied little pitch in Villar Perosa (seen below).

Alpine Boots with a Suit

Only Gianni Agnelli could pair bespoke alpine boots with a tailored suit and make it look inevitable. The choice spoke of his heritage, a love for the mountains but also of his instinct to fuse practicality with elegance.

Mountain-born boots beneath pinstripes: rugged roots reimagined as refinement, Agnelli’s most unexpected yet enduring style signature.

The boots were handcrafted, rugged, and purposeful; paired with pinstripes or tweed, the ruggedness made a bold statement. They suggested that refinement could also be resilient, that style need not sacrifice substance.

In this film excerpt a large auto industry crowd is reminded of the importance of punctuality.

Gianni Agnelli with president of Italy, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.

Think of having to look the part among world leaders, FIAT factory workers and fellow Juventini. The boots, like the unbuttoned collar points, sent a clear message. He didn’t only want to look good, he also wanted to relate. It was a gesture uniquely Agnelli: aristocrat and alpinist, industrialist and tifoso.