A rich man's fancy
From The Word/Michael Gross

From Huntington Hartford to Donald Trump, wealthy gents of a certain age have dabbled in the modeling business. Now, another, an Italian born in Egypt, a pharmaceutical exec with homes in London, Lugano, Switzerland, and Miami Beach, is buying up beauty banks. He can, one model agent says, because "he has cash, cash, a lot of cash."

Sixtysomething Carlo Salvi got his start selling medicine in the Middle East in the 1960s, and eventually took control of several large drug concerns. In 1997, after California's Sicor, which makes generic injectable drugs, merged with one of his companies, Salvi became its chief executive.

He'd been dipping his toe in the modeling business for years, losing investments in several small agencies in Europe. But after he sold 11.5 million Sicor shares for more than $200 million in 2001, he used part of the proceeds - "just a little bit, peanuts," he told The Word this week at the Mercer Hotel - to buy half of Women, the New York agency, which then used his funds and connections to open branches in Paris and Milan. Salvi has also been involved with model shops in Prague and Miami.

He's not a silent partner. After Women lost Eva Herzigova, Stella Tennant and Kate Moss (it still has Naomi Campbell, Veruschka, Carmen Kass and Frankie Rayder), Salvi ponied up more cash to finance signing bonuses for replacement faces.

Why would a private-jet-owning centamillionaire want to own model agencies? The answer isn't as obvious as you'd think. Salvi's not chasing girls, friends insist. Though separated from his second wife, he has a steady girlfriend - a woman in her 30s. It's pride that drives him. "Whenever anybody had a bad idea, they thought of Carlo," one agent explained. "He was the pigeon."

Now he has set out to prove he's a bird of a different feather. "It bothered me that I failed," Salvi admitted. "Why not succeed?"

Added an agent whose company he tried, but failed, to buy: "And why not be involved in modeling? It's not disagreeable."