Luxury Lifestyle Awards recently selected Lancia Designs as winner in the category Best Luxury Modern Art in North America. The award was given in recognition of Lancia Designs’ bespoke art services to corporate and high net worth clients in the USA. We spoke with the founder of Lancia Designs, Lancia Soans to hear more about her unique business offering and her success through it.  

Luxury Lifestyle Awards (LLA): Lancia, we are delighted to be able to speak with you. To get us started, please introduce yourself; give us a little bit of your background and experience to date. 

Lancia: I’m Lancia Soans, Founder of Lancia Designs, Luxury Lifestyle Advisor, Artist and Curator of Luxury Gifting. I was raised in a family culture of elegance and design. My mother, and aunt created sophisticated leather hand bags, tailored embroidery, and beautiful suede jackets. We celebrated being surrounded by beauty. Giving elegant gifts, selecting exquisite hand written Thank You cards and crafting letters on beautiful stationery was a part of our family culture. My parents would write and send me postcards from each country they traveled to in Europe. I read them even now, and remember them with much gratitude.  

Inspired by my love for Modern Architecture and Design led me to attend the International Academy of Design in Toronto, Canada that later led me to create my luxury art and design company over 10 years ago. This penchant for bringing elegance and luxury into our modern digital lifestyle world is what drives me to celebrate our clients who resonate with our values. 

LLA: You were recently crowned Luxury Lifestyle Awards’ Best Luxury Modern Art in North America. How significant is this award for you, and why?  

Lancia: Receiving the Luxury Lifestyle Award for the Best Luxury Modern Art in North America is prestigious and indeed a great honor, and we receive it with much gratitude and, and pride. To be recognized and celebrated among the best in the Luxury Industry is an acknowledgement of Lancia Designs’ deep passion for innovation in luxury modern art and design.  

LLA: What do you believe sets Lancia Designs apart from other art and gifting companies in North America? 

Lancia: Innovation and Passion – these are my personal brand attributes that I bring into Lancia Designs. Each piece of art or a gift box designed is tailored like a bespoke suit. The curated gifts are extremely personalized and timeless. Each gift box shares a story of the exquisite craftsmanship that goes into producing a high quality distinguished product such as the guilloche writing instrument of Bentley and Faber-Castell. This story is narrated on luxurious stationery like an invitation to the Milan or New York fashion show. We do not use bows on our gift boxes. Being a company influenced by modern architecture, our signature gift boxes are branded with hand ribboned lines. To the discerning eye this is our signature style that sets us apart. The accolades we receive from our distinguished clients say “we have never seen something like this.” Lancia Designs is very distinct in its style and how we communicate with our very polished clients. 

LLA: To what do you attribute your success? 

Lancia: God’s grace, His wisdom and creativity that flows from this spiritual place beyond what I can imagine, to my parents and family who modeled a life of perseverance, gratitude and appreciation of beauty and gifting. My clients who give me the opportunity to create and celebrate the Art of A Polished Lifestyle with them, who trust my innovation and passion to always seek and deliver the Best, and above all else, being in ‘awe of the seemingly impossible made possible.’ 

LLA: What is the best part of your work – which tasks get you the most excited? 

Lancia: The creativity, and emotional connection I have with my clients. I have been gifted with this innate ability to connect with warmth with my clients, and we always end up being friends which I believe is truly a gift. The accolade I  receive is “you always make me feel like the only person in the room.”  

LLA: What are some of the challenges that come with being in the luxury art and gifting space, and how have you overcome these? 

Lancia: Luxury art and gifting speaks to our visual senses. However, the words we choose in communicating to our clients about luxury art and gifting, become a vessel of charm and grace that raises the mystic and elevates emotions. 

One of the challenges especially in the modern day luxury art and gifting space, is that the value of the luxury lifestyle has been displaced. I have talked about this in one of my YouTube videos where we, as professionals and leaders in the entrepreneurial luxury industry, cannot compromise on the seminal, intrinsic and timeless values of luxury. We need to communicate the etiquette of luxury with elegance, style, grace and patience. These values are eternal and savored in time.

The lexicon of Luxury is identified in the magnificence of the intangible and presented with grace in the product. This role cannot be reversed by a high price. Hence, our words have to speak the language of Luxury in communicating this to our clients. Fortunately, there is a demographic that understands and still honors these timeless values. These are our clients with whom we seek to build and nurture an intimate relationship. I believe entrepreneurial luxury companies such as Lancia Designs are catalysts in elevating the luxury art and gifting space. Our clients share our ethos and see us as a beacon and we are honored to be their guiding light.  

LLA: Do you have any tips on how best to deal with affluent clients and manage these relationships successfully? 

Lancia: I have always believed that emotional connection is extremely important in any relationship. The ‘wealthy mind’ understands this and lives with this impeccable aura of grace and gratitude for all that life has to offer.
I remember when I launched my company, I was still working in a corporate environment at the time. I had in my hand a business card of the President of a company. When I called to introduce my company and services, it was a serendipitous encounter. The lady who answered the phone was the President of the company! We talked and she said “I have been looking for someone like you and I have a project I’m working on in the New Year, and I’d like you to come on board with us, and we can talk more about it  at our Christmas party at my home. I would love for you and your husband to come and celebrate with us.” At Lancia Designs, we have cultivated our relationship with our clients over many years. Since that first serendipitous moment, Lancia Designs has worked with this high net worth client on many occasions, our favorite being a Couture design invitation package that was sent to her guests for her 10 year wedding anniversary, and business celebration for two weeks at a Los Cabos resort. 

LLA: Where do you see Lancia Designs in the next 5-10 years. What is your vision for your business? 

Lancia: I see Lancia Designs’ Luxury Modern Art in high end luxury residences such as Aston Martin Residences in Miami, and Porsche Design Tower, modern boutique hotels here in the U.S., as well as globally. We see our bespoke gifting for high net worth business and corporate executives extend to places in Europe, Dubai. Our vision is to leave a legacy of art and beauty that inspires us to rise higher, celebrating the art of living well. 

LLA: What developments do you expect to see in the gifting industry over the next few years? 

Lancia: Corporate gifting will continue to rise as a form of appreciation, especially post pandemic. It has elevated the human side of business. We see this in a positive light. At Lancia Designs, relationships have always been at the heart of our business. We bring who we are at our core into our brand. Our values influence our brand. It has been our foundation on which we stand, that contributes to our success. We will continue to surprise ourselves and delight our loyal and devoted clients, and new clients with that ‘je ne sais quoi’ quality.  

 LLA: Can you talk to us about the Covid-19 experience and its impact on Lancia Designs? 

Lancia: One of the challenges, especially during and post-pandemic, is not being able to meet and connect with prospective clients in person. In the past, I would carry my portfolio of art or gift boxes to events or meetings to share with clients.  Being in the presence of a work of art in person evokes an emotional response of awe and wonder. Similarly, with our gift boxes, that are fashioned, unveiled, and presented with subtle attention to detail. This allure is not as evident in a digital world. Another advantage of meeting in person, is the emotional bond that is created as we come together in sharing similar lifestyles and values that creates harmony. 

We had to look at ways to move beyond these limitations by being more active in luxury online seminars and Zoom events, interacting with our clients, coaches, partners and collaborators on selective social media platforms like LinkedIn. This has helped us gain more visibility.