London Airport, England, 1962

"Excuse me, sir," the British policeman said, looking doubtfully at the young foreigner traveling alone, who was not wearing a jacket and tie. "Can you tell me how much money you have with you?"

Luciano, who later became one of the richest men in the world, showed him the contents of his thin wallet. The policeman let him pass.

"Welcome to Great Britain," thought Luciano, "home of racism, sheep, and the finest wool and manufacturing in the world."

Luciano's tour of Britain lasted ten days and took him to important manufacturers of woolen clothes in England and Scotland. He learned a lot about their methods, particularly how to make woolen clothes feel softer. At the end of his trip, he ordered a number of British-made machines for coloring, knitting, ironing, and drying wool.

Nearly twenty years later, Luciano returned and bought a Scottish company.

Belluno, northern Italy, 1964

Piero Marchiorello worked for his father in a little clothing store in the hill town of Belluno, seventy-five kilometers north of Treviso. He had come to Rome for a meeting of small retailers. One day, he was looking in the window of the Tagliacozzo brothers' store. He went inside.

"Who makes this stuff?" he asked.

The assistant told him it was a company called Tres Jolie, in Treviso. Marchiorello wrote down the name and address. Two days later, he was in Luciano's office in Ponzano.

"I want to open a store in Belluno," he told him, "selling only your clothes. I have no money or experience. But if you trust me, I know we will be successful."

There was something about Marchiorello that made an impression on Luciano, and he liked the idea of a store. There had never been a one-brand, one-product store like this before. The Tagliacozzas sold sweaters made by various people, including themselves. Was it possible to open a shop that sold only Benetton products? Luciano liked the logic of the idea, as well as its newness, and if they did not do it, someone else might.

"We don't have the money," he said, "but I think we can find a way to do this."

After talking to Gilberto, they found a way. Marchiorello would borrow some money from a bank, and the Benettons would lend him the rest. The deal was simple and based on trust, with no written contract. Marchiorello would buy clothes only from the Benettons, sell them, and keep the profits. He could not return any clothes that were not sold.