Living with Luxury

By Kate Betts

Style is something you either have coursing through your veins or not. Individuals with true style live and breathe it. One of my first encounters with this kind of innate flair occurred in Milan more than a decade ago. I was invited to a dinner at Fulvia Ferragamo's home, a sumptuous apartment filled with tapestries and paintings. The food cooked by the family's chef was delicious. The wine was from the Ferragamos' Tuscan vineyard, Il Borro. Every detail, down to the hostess's warm greeting, spoke to the family's generosity and enthusiasm for life, qualities they inherited from Salvatore himself. I often think of that evening as a barometer of luxury, a measure of what it means to live with style--whether it's in reference to food, fashion or manners. The Ferragamo name is synonymous with beautiful shoes, but what is most impressive about the family is the style they bring to all that they do. They're living proof that taste comes from within. You can't buy it (although you can certainly buy tasteful things, as Kristina Zimbalist points out in her story about how hedge-fund managers spend their spoils).

This special supplement to TIME is dedicated to the most influential ideas, places, products and people in the luxury business right now. Some may prove to be ephemeral, but great taste--like great tastemakers--endures. I owe personal thanks to the Ferragamo family for educating me on this very topic all those many years ago.