A DAY IN THE LIFE
What is the status of the European luxury residential market? Does the Euro zone vastly differ from
the North American luxury real estate market?
happen to be rather cosmopolitan and wealthy. It’s
a great, often misunderstood, place to come home
to after the rat race of New York, London or Paris.
It does; most European luxury real estate markets
are neither as streamlined nor as dominated by
huge corporations as their US counterparts: There
are no Multiple – Listing – Systems, there are no
brokerages with 1000+ agents, there are no “Open
Houses”, there is no “house flipping”. Luxury real
estate is still something that is expected to be
handled very discreetly, with a bespoke, individual
approach. Luxury properties do not move as quickly
as they do in the US. Most buyers and sellers in
Europe have a very conservative, long-term approach
when it comes to owning high-end real estate.
Fashionisters all over the world try to emulate
your look. It is well known that you are extremely obsessive about even the tiniest detail. Were
you born with this obsession for perfection?
Who is Alexander Kraft’s style inspiration?
What is your opinion of how these markets
are going to perform in the near future?
For the most part, many European luxury
markets, and especially France, have been a
sought-after “blue chip” market for decades, if
not centuries – places like Paris or the French
Riviera never go out of style! So even though
many markets are currently going through a
phase of cyclic adjustment, they will eventually
recover and grow again; there are great opportunities out there for savvy investors who are
looking for interesting long-term investments.
You were born in Berlin and studied in the US. What
guided your decision to put down roots in Monaco?
Having studied in Germany, England and the US,
and having managed Sotheby’s International
Realty’s operations in more than 30 countries, I
feel at home in many places around the world – in
fact, I have personal homes in 4 different countries.
However, even considering all this, Monaco still is
a very special place. By plane, you are just 1 hour
away from most other European capitals, you have
perfect weather year-round, it is extremely safe and
offers a great choice of the world’s best restaurants,
hotels and shops. More importantly, it is actually a
very laid-back place outside the summer months.
It feels like a big, friendly village where you can
walk everywhere, and where all the residents just
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Fall 2014 1961 Magazine
On a strictly personal level, my grandfather was
an old-fashioned gentleman who only wore bespoke suits (even when in his country house in
Austria), always wore gloves when driving his car
(invariably a Mercedes), and was seldom seen
without a hat on top and a cigar in his mouth.
I think quite a bit of that must have rubbed off
unconsciously on little Alex … . On a cultural level,
I was fascinated early on by classic Hollywood
icons such as Cary Grant in “To Catch a Thief”,
Steve McQueen in “The Thomas Crown Affair” or
Sean Connery in “Goldfinger”. As a kid, I would
watch these iconic movies on late night TV in my
PJs and just soak up those guys’ elegance, but also
their eloquence, their charm, their savoir-vivre.
Let’s talk Cifonelli. It’s impossible to think of the high
end tailor without conjuring up an image of your
personal style. How did your association come about?
I had tried many bespoke tailors from around the
world, but have never been really 100% satisfied
with either the result or the whole experience.
Then a friend recommended to give Cifonelli a try.
At that time, they were mostly known in certain
small, distinguished, very elevated circles of Paris,
but did not appear too much on the international
radar. I went there and found a team of young
master tailors who shared not only my vision of
bespoke tailoring (which is to combine a very sharp
English silhouette with soft Italian tailoring techniques), but also my perfectionism. One of the first
commissions they realized for me was a 3-piecesuit with a double-breasted waistcoat, something
that nobody wore at that time and certainly did
not exist off-the-peck. As I have always been a
bit in the public eye, this suit received quite a
lot of attention, and eventually customers came