GQ USA - 08.2019

Kean’s

Castle

Designer Kean Etro’s sprawling stone estate in

Puglia is only a short flight from his home in Milan—

but traveling there feels like going back in time.

By CAM WOLF

NE AFTERNOON 18 years
ago, before designer Kean
Etro bought his 50-acre
estate in Italy’s south-
ern region of Puglia, he put the home
through a sort of stress test. The place
had looked gorgeous earlier in the day,
but he wanted to see it in less generous
light. So he returned in the middle of
the night. That afternoon’s golden-hour
sunshine had given way to something
much more foul, but that was perfect

O

for Etro. While his companions waited

inside, he wandered into the middle of

the field behind the stone house and

began searching for wildlife. He was also

seeking something more mythical. “It

was a bit rainy, yes, but I wanted to feel

the place.” An hour later he emerged.

“I came out alive, very happy,” he says.

“It gave me a very jolly feeling.” Ten days

later, he bought his rainy getaway.

The house is less than a two-hour

flight from Milan, where Etro grew up

and where he now serves as creative

director of menswear at his family’s

fashion brand. He’s used vibrant col-

ors, wild paisley, and a serious dose of

global inspiration to produce suits for

CBD-friendly CEOs.

The designer’s house, which Etro

estimates was originally built in the

17th century, was constructed in the

typical Puglian style. The first res-

idents did without mortar, so they

could pull apart their houses when

56 GQ.COM AUGUST 2019

THESE PAGES, PHOTOGRAPHS: ALDO CASTOLDI/COURTESY OF KEAN ETRO

T h e

Fix

Gentlemen’s

Quarters