What’s it like being young and beautiful, with a 24-karat pedigree and inherited wealth, in populist, economically perilous 2009? The 38 heirs and heiresses who posed for Bruce Weber are making privilege count—many, like Ivanka Trump and Antoine Arnault, in the family business; some, like Mercedes-Benz scion Alex Flick, in areas of their own choosing. Checking out the C.V.’s of Kick Kennedy, Georgina Bloomberg, and Lapo Elkann, among others, V.F. surveys the next generation of some of the world’s greatest fortunes.
by Bob Colacello
Oh, to be young, rich, beautiful—and doing something. At a moment when the economy is teetering and populism is all the rage, today’s gilded youth have got their work cut out for them, and they know it. Whether it’s expanding the family business or striking out independently, launching a career in the arts or plunging into philanthropy, the 38 heirs and heiresses to fabled names and consequential fortunes in this portfolio seem determined to make a contribution to society at large while carving out identities of their own.
“With the opportunity I have been given by birth, I would be ashamed if I didn’t do something for others as well as myself,” says Agnelli scion Lapo Elkann, who calls himself a creative entrepreneur and is involved in everything from introducing an Italian vodka to supporting a hospital in Tel Aviv that cares for both Israelis and Palestinians. “We all have to prove ourselves, no matter who we are,” says Lapo’s cousin by marriage Rebecca de Ravenel, a fashion consultant. “I was very spoiled, but I knew that I wanted to work. I was working in a vintage shop when I was 17, and every Saturday morning I’d clean the windows.”
Some are very happy to follow in their ancestors’ footsteps. “We are Mondavis,” says Dante Mondavi, grandson of the famed Napa Valley vintner Robert Mondavi. “It’s our blood. We grew up on a vineyard just like my father grew up on a vineyard. I’ve never seen it as a burden.” Ivanka Trump concurs. “I have no interest in going out on my own. My dream is to continue to build on the foundation my father and his father built through the Trump Organization, and hopefully have my kids do the same.” Yet she spent a year working at another real-estate firm in order to prove herself to herself, without “the eyes of the world bearing down on me.” Antoine Arnault says he too knew from an early age that he would join LVMH, the luxury group controlled by his father. “I had a couple of years of rebellion—I was singing in a rock band. I think you have to at least try to do something else.”
Alex Flick, of the Mercedes-Benz dynasty, on the other hand, defied his father by dropping out of college and making The Magnolia Curtain, a documentary about one of the poorest towns in South Carolina. “For me, where I come from plays a big part in what I do,” he says. “I expect myself to achieve extraordinarily highly because I have been given this chance in life. It would be stupid of me to say, ‘I’ve got everything. I can sit back and relax.’ I would end up in a gutter, unhappy and incredibly unfulfilled.” Alex is taking the photographs for a book about art collectors that his cousin Princess Elisabeth von Thurn und Taxis is writing. Like him, she is committed to making a name for herself in the creative world. “I think it’s a huge privilege to be able to use the access that we have in an interesting way,” she says.
Other silver-spoon children eager to succeed in the world of the arts include: Bianca Brandolini d’Adda, who is studying acting with an eye, she says, “to go to Hollywood and win an Oscar”; siblings Joséphine and Alexandre de La Baume—she does theater in Paris, he makes films in China, together they have a band called SingTank; and Dasha Zhukova, who founded the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, in Moscow, and is editor in chief of Pop magazine. Why would the daughter of an oligarch who is dating an even bigger oligarch give up a life of leisure to work so hard? “I still have a life of leisure,” she says. “I don’t see it as sacrificing.”
United Arab Emirates oil-and-gas heir Badr Jafar uses his family’s business as a base for forays into the creative sphere. “A day can be filled with oil and gas in the morning, ports and aviation in the afternoon, and then fashion and conference calls to L.A. about the entertainment business. It’s all about bridging cultural gaps between the Middle East and the West.”
Then there are those who are making charity their priority. Andrea Casiraghi, the elder son of Monaco’s Princess Caroline, devotes himself to a foundation for cerebral palsy. Fashion heiress Margherita Maccapani Missoni designs products to raise money for OrphanAid Africa. Kick Kennedy, R.F.K. Jr.’s daughter, serves on the junior council of Riverkeeper, the environmental organization championed by her father. Her friend Amanda Hearst, William Randolph Hearst’s great-granddaughter, co-chairs the council.
Alejandro Santo Domingo, one of the star businessmen in this group, spends a quarter of his time “on the social-responsibility side,” including overseeing his family’s foundation in Colombia and serving as treasurer of Aid for aids in New York. When he was 23, his billionaire father, Julio Mario Santo Domingo, got him involved in running their Bogotá-based Bavaria brewery business; in five years, he raised its pre-tax earnings from $185 million to $840 million, then merged it with SABMiller to create the world’s second-largest beer company. “For the first year and a half, my father was very much on top of me,” he says, “and then he kind of just let me do everything on my own.”
“I always thought, Will I go into the business or will I not go into the business?” says Jared Kushner, son of New Jersey real-estate magnate Charles Kushner, who spent nearly a year in prison on charges including tax evasion. “But when my father got arrested, I really didn’t have a choice. I was the oldest son, and it was something that had to be done.” Although he was in the process of getting graduate degrees in business and law, he found time to buy The New York Observer on the side, and as publisher has seen monthly traffic on the paper’s Web site increase from 400,000 to 1.4 million.
The most important thing about being wellborn, notes Lady Eloise Anson, who is related to the Queen of England, “is not to have a sense of grandeur. It’s just a name and a situation, and not to be flaunted. You can lose friends that way.” Sometimes, according to actor Armie Hammer, the great-grandson of oil tycoon Armand Hammer and a new regular on Gossip Girl, the name can be a pain. “It was definitely a handful growing up. Kids are so cruel. My nickname was Baking Soda. I was like, ‘You guys don’t get it. I don’t have anything to do with Arm & Hammer baking soda.’”
If there are relative difficulties with being raised rich and famous, the champion equestrian Georgina Bloomberg, daughter of New York City’s billionaire mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has them nicely resolved. “I’m really proud of who my father is,” she declares. “And I’m really proud of who I am.”
