Oliviero Toscani: The Good Life

From the in-your-face buttocks and hotpants of his adverts for Fiorucci, to his groundbreaking campaigns for Benetton from 1982 to 2000 (featuring AIDS victims, war reportage and death row inmates), Oliviero Toscani’s work has always been visceral, shocking and uniquely ingenious. In the course of his career he’s taken a devilish glee in courting controversy, most recently with his 2007 campaign for Italian fashion brand Nolita (which featured a nude, anorexic model), but his private pursuits are less likely to rock the boat: designing sunglasses (for Italian eyewear brand Manini), breeding horses, and, since 2006, making his own wine and olive oil from his home in Casale Marittimo, Tuscany. Toscani’s vineyards—located at the same altitude as those that produce Sassicaia, the region’s most prized wine—cover a 12-hectare hill area and each year produce 15,000 bottles of his “OT” red wine, a blend of 50% Shiraz, 30% Cabernet Franc and 20% Petit Verdot that he calls “the creative fruit of nature.” His plantation of 12,000 olive trees, meanwhile, has produced 10,000 bottles of OT extra virgin olive oil. To celebrate the harvest season, during which Toscani and his family reap the fruits of their annual efforts, we present the above pictures, shot by Toby Glanville at Toscani’s house this summer. Alongside the man himself, these images feature his son Rocco (who breeds pigeons in his spare time) and offer an intimate glimpse of his nick-nack-filled home, the typically Tuscan architecture of which has been decorated with a Scandinavian eye, courtesy of Toscani’s Norwegian wife Kirsti. 

Read our interview with Toscani here.