In an interview with Italian media La Repubblica some days ago, Luciano Benetton, who has returned to the head of the United Colors of Benetton label that he cofounded in 1965, has announced a return to profitability for his group from next year onwards.

"We'll get there! We have already reduced the deficit by 40%: it was €180 million in 2017 and has now decreased to under 100," he said.

"The team is almost complete," he continued. "Oliveiro Toscani tapped designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac as artistic director. We stopped closing stores and we are starting to open them again. I'm predicting 100 openings in one year."

At 84 years old, Luciano Benetton is lending his image to the new campaign by the transalpine label, photographed by Toscani: "I'm back," he commented. "I'm posing with Ayak Mading, a wonderful 18-year-old Sudanese model who is more than 2 metres tall and has a natural expression of joy. She is so modern that she has no gender. This photo looks like it was inspired from one of our previous shoots.

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"At first, I didn't want to but Toscani convinced me," he admitted. "He sees things somewhat in advance of others. I hope to underline that, even if it's fun, posing at 84 years old isn't an aesthetic frivolity. I'm old and Ayak is young; I'm white and she is black; I'm rich and she is poor.

"Our desire to question through images has also returned. Ayak is the future that we had imagined for ourself, the reality has surpassed our dreams. For me it's like having a sister at my side," he concluded.