The Stefano Ricci family arrived in the Miami Design District from Florence earlier this week to celebrate the opening of its new store and share a cigar with its top 100 clients—but this was not just any cigar. In celebration of its store opening, the Ricci family partnered with fourth-generation cigar maker Arturo Fuente on the Fuente Opusx – Stefano Ricci smoke.
“Cigars bring people together,” says Carlito Fuente, the master blender and patriarch of the Arturo Fuente cigar business, who came for the opening. “Stefano Ricci is the most elegant men’s fashion [brand], and I put my heart into making a cigar that matches the same level of perfection they deliver in their clothing.” To create the cigar, Fuente personally selected the oldest, best-quality tobacco leaves for this unique blend. Available exclusively through Stefano Rici stores, the 7” by 52 ring gage cigar is, as Fuente puts it, “a special size, something different to what we have ever released.”
The cigars were presented in a crocodile humidor (which, unsurprisingly resembles one of the brand’s sharp briefcases), one of the many one-of-a-kind Stefano Ricci creations in the sprawling new store, which was constructed by Florentine craftsmen with black Californian briar-root wood and pietra serena (the stone found in Florence’s historical piazzas). “It took two years to finish this store,” says Niccolò Ricci, CEO of the company founded by his father. Niccolò, along with his brother and the company’s creative director, Filippo, are frequent visitors to Miami, where they have discovered many of their friends and clients also come often. “Our clients from around the world come to the Miami area where they have second homes or keep yachts, and they pushed us to open here,” says Niccolò.
Opus X by Stefano Ricci Travel Humidor Photo: Courtesy of Stefano Ricci
The store offers the brand’s men’s tailored clothing and sportswear—including this fall’s line of racing-inspired gear, accessories, junior lines, and curated home collection. This is just the latest addition to the company’s growing network of more than 65 boutiques internationally.
