November 5, 2025 |
Marco Tomasetta has the gift of the pen. The Italian creative director joined Montblanc, the 119-year-old German brand famed for its writing instruments, in 2021. His task upon arrival was to not only widen its range of luxury pens but broaden the other categories that make up the brand’s arsenal, propelling Montblanc into a lifestyle juggernaut in its own right, armed with bags, suitcases, watches, headphones and fragrance.
The Montblanc universe starts with the writing implements, which are revered as some of the best on the market. With a fountain pen setting you back upwards of £500 (its more limited-edition creations go into the thousands), each creation comes with a premium finish. That extends from the nibs themselves, many of which are made of gold inlay, to the way the pen feels to the hand. Fun fact: each one is tested by hand with invisible ink using an infinity symbol motion to see how it glides across the page. Any signs of scratching and it will be sent back to the factory for repair.
That heritage isn’t lost on Tomasetta, who is a strong advocate for the art of writing in our hyper-digitised age. “I don’t think we can say writing is not modern or not young because it is a necessity. Writing is universal and you don’t have to make it current because people will always write, and you write to leave your mark,” he says.
Tomasetta is certainly leaving his mark. When we speak in Milan, it’s days after the brand staged its first catwalk presentation there. He’s keen not to call it a fashion show but a “culture show”. The 16-piece capsule collection was made in conjunction with the release of an ad campaign directed by Wes Anderson. The second instalment in an ongoing collaboration with the filmmaker, the short clip celebrated 100 years of Montblanc’s Meisterstück writing tool and starred Rupert Friend and Michael Cera, who both appear in his latest film The Phoenician Scheme. Tomasetta even enlisted Anderson to create his own Montblanc pen for the occasion, the Schreiberling, based on 1920s ‘baby pens’ he pulled from the brand’s archive. Coming in a lime-green casing, it is limited to 1,969 units, matching the year of the director’s birth.
“I love that [Anderson] works with the past, with vintage items and ideas, and updates them with a touch of irony, which is what I try to do with the archive,” says Tomasetta. The first Montblanc fashion collection, made up of shorts, shirts, trousers and outwear crafted from supple leathers, borrow their hues from Anderson’s flicks – warm yellows, rustic browns and oranges, explorer-ready greens and the sort of burgundies you could imagine dressing the carriages of a vintage train. He sees the collection as a “wearable extension” of the Montblanc desk, with pen holders built into the sleeves and torsos on jackets and shirts, plus pointed pocket flaps shaped like envelopes.
“I was deeply inspired by the maison’s Hamburg archive, which I have been closely studying for the past four years. It pushed me to think of new, original ways to bring the world of writing closer to our customers and their hearts,” says the creative director. It’s an ethos that’s followed on from Tomasetta’s leather goods for the brand, like the Writing Traveller Handbag. Designed with a front pocket that transforms into a mini writing desk, it’s fitted with holding loops for writing tools and leather bands to keep your notebook neat and secure.
“There is a strong connection between writing and the brand. I want to show younger generations that each piece I create can work with writing and technology,” he says, talking me through a new cross-body bag that’s built to carry around a book and pens but also comes with a built-in card holder. “It all belongs to the same place. This is what I am trying to design. This is my idea of writing.”
Marco Tomasetta joined Montblanc in 2021, expanding the brand’s leather goods and accessories ranges
There is something of the world-builder in Tomasetta’s approach. He comes from a fashion background, spending the majority of his career working for big houses that design leather goods. “I started in 1997 at Dolce & Gabbana, I actually left school to work with them. Back then creatives had the time to train newcomers, so I was very lucky that those creative minds could educate us on their work.” Stints at Prada, Chloé and Louis Vuitton followed, with his most recent post before joining Montblanc being creative design director of leather goods at Givenchy.
I’m keen to know how he thinks working for such fashion titans prepared him for the Montblanc job. “I would say in the ability to work across categories. Over 20 years I learned how to create a collection that is connected and cohesive. If you see the showroom, Montblanc has harmony across all categories.”
He accepted the call to join the brand as he desired a change of pace in his own life. “Coming from the fashion world, we had four catwalk shows per year, so it was very hectic. I wanted to slow things down. I took my time to learn about the basics, the heritage of the brand, and started from there. Then I could speed things up a bit and try to express my ideas for Montblanc, but everything came from a strong respect for the brand and for the archive.”
From the brand’s extensive product range, the writing tool he turns to daily is the Leonardo Sketch Pen, a chunky mechanical pencil that feels weighty and sophisticated in the hand. It would make putting off any creative task a shame, such is its magic. It’s Tomasetta’s tool of choice when mapping out his latest Montblanc creations, which last year included the brand’s first desk. Its impressive mid-century modern design was inspired by a photo pulled from the archives of two women writing at a desk on the beach, splashing their feet in the water.
“I designed a desk because I feel it contains all the categories of the brand, so the desk is an expression itself of Montblanc,” he says. The impressive piece of furniture comes with the outline of mountains stretched across its drawers – the brand is named after the highest peak in the Alps – as well as compartments for writing instruments and ink. Doing this interview at one of those very desks, it’s clear that Tomasetta’s is very neat and tidy, save for a notebook and a handful of pens scattered in front of him. He’s not opposed to a bit of clutter, though. “I also love the fact that at the desk you can have your own world. It feels very meditative so this is why I use it as a metaphor for what Montblanc stands for.”
Steeped in tradition yet steadfast on propelling Montblanc into its next chapter, you can’t help but be impressed by the growth Tomasetta has accelerated at this powerful heritage brand. Just look at what you can achieve when you put pen to paper.
Photography courtesy of Montblanc. Fashion editor Garth Allday Spencer. Taken from 10 Men Issue 62 – BIRTHDAY, EVOLVE, TRANSFORMATION – out on newsstands now. Order your copy here.
