Edward: Hello Massimiliano, welcome to Connex family. It´s a great honor to talk to you. Well, just to start it up, tell us about yourself. What are your personal and professional interests?

Massimiliano:  Well honor is a bit of a big word however, thanx for your kindness. I noticed that most of the models spent their childhood in a farm in big families with brothers and sisters and thousands of animals, until a scout discovers them and sends them to the city. Well I´d like to say the same, but unfortunately I don´t even know what a cow looks like and the only eggs I had I took them directly from a shelf of a supermarket. I was born in Naples, Italy, in the city center surrounded by the smog, the traffic noise, and the chaos of a big city, from a chemical engineer and a politician.

My parents divorced when i was only 2. Their busy lives didn´t give them much spare time to spend with me, so I spent most of my childhood with different baby-sitters, which my mother kept changing during the years. One day she decided I was grown enough to be able to take my frozen food from the freezer and to stick it in the microwave oven by myself, and thus the baby-sitters disappeared forever. During my teens I did equestrian professionally, and even now, despite not doing it professionally anymore I ride horses whenever I have time.

During the summer, I used to spend my vacations on the beautiful island of Capri, and during one of those vacations I met Bruce Weber who was shooting for a Versace campaign. That´s how I started my modeling career and, well, the rest is history. I´ve always been very independent, and thus, it wasn´t hard at all for me to leave my city and to travel everywhere soon after achieving my high school diploma. However, I also kept an eye at my future and I studied, graduating in business administration in Paris and taking a master in financial economics in England. Today, my main occupation is managing my two restaurants, however, I still do some modeling but much more marginally.

Edward:  As a famous model do you  think you have already achieved your main purposes in the modeling market? If not, which modeling agencies, fashion campaigns and designers you would  like to work for?

Massimiliano: When I started doing modeling, I wasn´t really interested in the fashion industry. I had the chance of working with such photographers as Bruce Weber and Jack Pierson, when I was only 17 who encouraged me to pursue this career. However, I always focused on the economical aspect of this job. I´ve always chosen the jobs which paid me higher. It happens that it implied making worldwide campaign for Versace, Roccobarocco and other big designers, or fashion shows for Iceberg, Gianfranco Ferrè, Krizia, Replay etc ... Covers for Pulp fashion, or editorials for Cleo and LUomo Vogue. Thus, I would say that I´ve already worked for the most important designers, including the greatest in my opinion Gianni Versace (before his murder) though, I never worked for Giorgio Armani, who is a man and a designer I esteem very much.

Edward: You have worked for the most famous photographers and fashion campaigns.  What are your hints for an aspiring model?

Massimiliano:  Every model should understand his own type, do not exist more and less beautiful models, there are only different types. Your face can be perfect for a campaign and awful for another. For this reason is very important that every model understands what type he is and emphasizes it, even if he doesn´t like his own type. Generally a good agency will help the model in this process.

Edward: What would you say is the key of the success? In your opinion, what are the upside and downside of a modeling career?

Massimiliano: Of course a model must meet some minimal requirements, like being at least 6 feet, having a proportionate body, and a nice and interesting face, however, the real success depends on how you use your assets. One has towork with the brain first of all. If a model makes a worldwide campaign for a laxative product, no matter how handsome he his, it is very unlikely that a big designer will choose him for a perfume campaign. Again, by having a good agency, they will prevent you from making these kinds of mistakes.

Modeling is great, it gives you a lot of money when you are still very young and gives you the possibilty of traveling around the world, however,when a model is still in the apex of his career, he should already think about what to do next, when he won´t be able to rely only on his physicalaspect anymore. Most models think about an acting career.  I personally decided to study and taking a post grad degree in economics and then open two restaurants. It does matter what you do next, but you have to think about the future because modeling doesn´t last forever.

Edward: Well, you also like to travel around the world. Share with us some of the most fascinating places you have been.

Massimiliano: My love for traveling has probably been the main reason why I decided to pursue a modeling career. I had agencies in Milan, Paris, New York, Miami, Tokyo, Sydney, and Auckland. I loved all of the places I lived in, though, I have special nice memories of Tokyo. I love the Japanese, I get along very well with them. I think we have the same sense of humor. It´s not a case all of my favorite authors are Japanese: Junichiro Tanizaki, Yukio Mishima, and Murakami. Apart for modeling, I also spend my spare time traveling. I´ve been also to remote places such as Fiji, Tonga, French Polinesia. Well you might have understand that I love the sea!!!

Edward: And what about the cultural and political aspects you  have faced in these countries?

Massimiliano: All of those places I´ve lived in were very different from each other. It´s essential to be able to adapt to the life of the country you are in. I worked and I did all of my undergraduate studies in Paris, and I really had a good time. However, Paris can be really tough for certain people. In Paris, one can still feel its aristocratic past, the society is still divided in classes. When you go to a party, the people are all more or less alike, they have the same kind of jobs, the same backgrounds and so on, and people who don´t share the same background are not as well regarded.

It´s not the melting pot of the Big Apple. In NYC someone who comes from poor origins but become successful is regarded as a self-made-man (which has a good meaning). In Paris the same person iscalled nouveau riche (which has a very bad meaning). My city, Naples, is very similar to Paris on this aspect and thus, I didnt feel uncomfortable in that context, though, I believe that even for a model Paris can be tough if he doesn´t have the right background. On the other hand, as long as you work as a model, Tokyo is very open to foreigners.

Edward: We have some quick questions that Connex readers would like to know about you.  Please, answer them and tell us why.

Massimiliano:

Eating: Fish or meat?

both, and I like both raw.

Vacation: Beach or the mountains?
Definitely beach. However, now that I´m getting older I´m starting to appreciate also the peace of the mountains.

Fashion campaign: clothed or underwear?
Definitely clothed. It´s not nice to see your belly and thighs on a billboard while your face has been cut off. I might sound old fashioned, but I still believe that people charm comes from their expressions, theireyes, their smile, and not from a bunch of muscles (they help though)

Movies: Action film or romantic ones?
It depends on my mood. It would be much more answering action ones, but honestly I´m more often in the mood of seeing romantic movies, and well, I even cry  sometimes.

Dating: Ask or get asked?
Ask, ask, ask and ask again. I find irritating a woman asking me out, I still believe in roles, plus I´m italian.

Place to make love: at home, in the middle of a crowd, in a party or on a paradisiac island?
On a paradisiac island, and anyway with nobody around.

Sports: Group or individual ones?
Individual. I´m quite antisocial and I get along with very few people.

Music: Rock or classical?
If that´s the only choice, I would say classical, however I like jazz better

Way of travel: by train, plane, ship or bike?
Bike, but if it´s too distant, well, it's better the plane

Best season: spring, summer , autumm or winter?
Summer, however I like all of the 4 seasons. I couldn´t live in a place without seasons

Edward: You are the owner of a restaurant located in the centre of Naples http://www.kukai.it . Tell us about it. Why did you decide to get into this business? Which kind of food we can find there?

Massimiliano: I decided to open a sushi restaurant because I love the Japanese food. I lived in Japan for almost two years, and I was ashamed of the fact we didn't even have a sushi restaurant in my city, Naples, which has more than 1 million inhabitants.  I'm proud of the fact that thousands of neapolitans have tried sushi for the first time in my restaurant.

The idea of the sushi restaurant was simply the result of my passion forthe Japanese culture, however, a few months after the opening, Kukai became a real business to me, and after only 3 years, it has become the largest sushi provider in Central-Southern Italy. We have now 2 kukai restaurants, 19 employees, and we serve almost 100,000 meals per year.

Massimiliano Néri provided the photos for this feature. They are copyright 2006. All rights reserved. Visit the web site for his restaurant at http://www.kukai.it