Borsalino is the oldest Italian company specializing in the manufacture of luxury
hats
A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...
. Since 1857, the manufacture has been based in
Alessandria
Alessandria (; pms, Lissandria ) is a city and ''comune'' in Piedmont, Italy, and the capital of the Province of Alessandria. The city is sited on the alluvial plain between the Tanaro and the Bormida rivers, about east of Turin.
Alessandria ...
, Piedmont. The founder, Giuseppe Borsalino, is remembered for creating a particular model of felt hat characterized by the registered trademark Borsalino.
History
On 4 April 1857,
Giuseppe Borsalino
Borsalino is the oldest Italian company specializing in the manufacture of luxury hats. Since 1857, the manufacture has been based in Alessandria, Piedmont. The founder, Giuseppe Borsalino, is remembered for creating a particular model of felt ...
started a workshop in Alessandria that specialized in the production of felt hats. The workshop eventually grew to industrial production, and in 1888 the company moved to a new factory designed by Arnaldo Gardella, located on Corso Cento Cannoni, Alessandria. In these years Borsalino produced 2,500 hats a day, but when the company won the Grand Prix, an important quality certificate, at the
Paris Exposition Universelle in 1900, spread the brand's fame globally. The succession of Giuseppe Borsalino was complicated: the designated heir, Teresio Borsalino, was opposed to his cousin Giovanni Borsalino, son of Lazzaro, who inaugurated a new hat factory using the family name. Between Borsalino Antica Casa and Borsalino Fu Lazzaro were years of hard commercial battles but in the end the Teresio came out and the name Borsalino became one again.
On the eve of the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
Borsalino produced about 2,000,000 hats annually. The manufacture employed over 2,500 employees, representing a significant resource in the economy of the Piedmontese city. Abroad, the brand spread everywhere, conquering the most important markets: the British, but especially the US, where the hats produced in Alessandria were adopted by the Hollywood starsystem.
The downsizing of the company occurred in 1950 in conjunction with the beginning of the fall into disuse of formal hats: Borsalino is thus transformed from mass product into a cult object. In 1987 the hat factory moved from the historic center in Alessandria to the current one of Spinetta Marengo, in the suburbs of the city, and the president Vittorio Vaccarino, the last descendant of the Borsalino family, sold the company to a group of Milanese entrepreneurs.
In the nineties the company changed ownership several times to be finally bought by the entrepreneur Marco Marenco, involved in a €3.5 billion financial crack.
On 18 December 2017 the Court of Alessandria declared the bankruptcy of Borsalino Giuseppe and Fratello Spa.
Haeres Equita, a private equity fund which manages the brand's activities since 2016, confirms the will to continue the production, the distribution and the promoting activities of the forthcoming collections, keeping all employments and maintaining the production site in Alessandria (Piedmont). In 2017, on the occasion of the 160th anniversary of the company, the Italian Ministry of Economic Development recognized Borsalino as one of the 'Excellencies of the production system', dedicating it a stamp worth €0.95. On 12 July 2018, the company was sold in a
court auction
Court auction is an auction which takes place at a public location designated by the court.
If a property owner fails to pay the mortgage, the mortgage holder can foreclose on that property. If the owner is unable to make sufficient payments, the ...
for 6.4 million euros ($7.4 million) to Haeres Equita.
Production
Borsalino manufacturing has remained faithful to a production process that represents the cultural values of the company, handed down from generation to generation.
The hats continue to be produced in Alessandria by combining industrial technology and the spirit craftsmanship. The felt models, created from fur fibers, require more than 50 manual steps and seven weeks of work to create; the straw models, which are hand twisted, can take up to 6 months for a single hat.
Borsalino and Alessandria
The Borsalino business dynasty has made an important contribution to the city of Alessandria, building the aqueduct, the sewerage network, hospital, sanatorium and retirement home. The historic headquarters of the company, currently located in Corso 100 Cannoni, now hosts the
University of Eastern Piedmont
The University of Eastern Piedmont "Amedeo Avogadro" ( it, Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale "Amedeo Avogadro"; shortened to UNIPMN or UPO) is a university located in Alessandria, Novara and Vercelli, in the region of Piedmont, Ital ...
Amedeo Avogadro and the Borsalino Hat Museum.
In 2016, independent film director Enrica Viola dedicated a documentary to the relationship between Borsalino and Alessandria: Borsalino City was presented at film festivals in
Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
, Barcelona and
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
.
The Borsalino Hat Museum
In the spring of 2006, the Borsalino Hat Museum opened in the company's historical headquarters in Corso 100 Cannoni, Alessandria. A joint initiative by Alessandria town council and the Borsalino company, the museum covers an exhibition area of 400 m
2 and houses about two thousand hats, displayed in the historic Chippendale style cabinets made in the 1920s by Arnaldo Gardella for the factory sample room. In 2018, the museum is planning to move to a larger venue with a completely renovated exhibition.
In Orthodox Jewish communities
Among Orthodox Jewish men and boys, covering the head is an identifier of religiousity. Many men in
strictly Orthodox Jewish communities wear a black, wide-brimmed Borsalino hat.
See .
In popular culture
Borsalino and art
The relationship between Borsalino and the art world has ancient origins. Since the birth of advertising in Italy, at the turn of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, Borsalino has entrusted the realization of its posters to the most important artists of the time. This privileged relationship with art has been confirmed over time and has led the company to collaborate with Cesare Simonetti, Giorgio Muggiani, Giovanni Dradi, Franz Laskoff,
Marcello Dudovich
Marcello Dudovich (21 March 1878 – 31 March 1962) was an Italian painter, illustrator, and poster designer. Together with Leonetto Cappiello, Adolfo Hohenstein, Giovanni Maria Mataloni and Leopoldo Metlicovitz he is considered one of t ...
, winner in 1910 of a competition organized by Borsalino to publicize the Zenit hat, Giuseppe Minonzio,
Gino Boccasile
Gino Boccasile (14 July 1901 – 10 May 1952) was an Italian illustrator.
Born in Bari, Boccasile was the son of a perfumer. Early in his youth, he lost his left eye by having it struck by a splash of quicklime while he was drinking from a fo ...
, Luigi Bompard, Jeanne Grignani,
Luigi Veronesi
Luigi Veronesi (28 May 1908 – 25 February 1998) was an Italian photographer, painter, scenographer and film director born in Milan.
Early career
Luigi Veronesi trained as textile designer in the 1920s and by practised photography. He was ...
,
Max Huber and
Armando Testa
Armando Testa 1971.
Armando Testa (23 March 1917 – 20 March 1992) was an Italian graphic designer, cartoonist, animator and painter.
Born in Turin, Testa worked as a typesetter until 20 years old."Armando Testa" in ''Communication Arts'', V ...
. Today the antique Borsalino advertising posters are collector items that have been beaten in the most important auction houses in the world.
Borsalino and theatre
In Arthur Miller's play ''The Price'', character Solomon regrets that his hat is not a Borsalino, in spite of looking so.
Borsalino and cinema
Borsalino has a long-running and special bond with the film industry. One picture stands out above all:
Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart (; December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957), nicknamed Bogie, was an American film and stage actor. His performances in Classical Hollywood cinema films made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film In ...
and
Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman (29 August 191529 August 1982) was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films, television movies, and plays.Obituary ''Variety'', 1 September 1982. With a career spanning five decades, she is often ...
in the unforgettable final scene of ''
Casablanca
Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...
''. The relationship with the cinema was destined to last: in addition to Bogart and Bergman in Casablanca,
Marcello Mastroianni
Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni (28 September 1924 – 19 December 1996) was an Italian film actor, regarded as one of his country's most iconic male performers of the 20th century. He played leading roles for many of Italy's top di ...
in ''
8 ½'' and
Jean Paul Belmondo
Jean-Paul Charles Belmondo (; 9 April 19336 September 2021) was a French actor and producer. Initially associated with the New Wave of the 1960s, he was a major French film star for several decades from the 1960s onward. His best known credits ...
in ''
Breathless'' both wore a Borsalino.
Above all, the Alessandria factory granted the use of its name to two cult films of the 1970s: ''
Borsalino
Borsalino is the oldest Italian company specializing in the manufacture of luxury hats. Since 1857, the manufacture has been based in Alessandria, Piedmont. The founder, Giuseppe Borsalino, is remembered for creating a particular model of felt ...
'' and ''
Borsalino & Co.''. The idea was
Alain Delon
Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon (; born 8 November 1935) is a French actor and filmmaker. He was one of Europe's most prominent actors and screen sex symbols in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. In 1985, he won the César Award for Best Actor for h ...
's, and Borsalino accepted on the condition that the company logo would appear on the posters. The Italian company was the first luxury brand to give its name to two films.
Even
Robert De Niro
Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. ( , ; born August 17, 1943) is an American actor. Known for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese, he is considered to be one of the best actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of various accolades ...
in ''
Once Upon a Time in America
''Once Upon a Time in America'' ( it, C'era una volta in America) is a 1984 epic crime film co-written and directed by Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone and starring Robert De Niro and James Woods. The film is an Italian–American venture produce ...
'' (1984) wears Borsalino hats.
In 2011, the
Triennale Design Museum in Milan hosted an exhibition entitled "Il cinema con il cappello. Borsalino e altre storie".
The actor
Toni Servillo
Marco Antonio Servillo (), known as Toni Servillo, is an Italian actor and theatrical director.
He has won the European Film Award for Best Actor twice, in 2008 for both '' Gomorrah'' and ''Il Divo'' and in 2013 for ''The Great Beauty'', as well ...
wears a Borsalino in the film ''
The Great Beauty
''The Great Beauty'' ( it, La grande bellezza ) is a 2013 art drama film co-written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino. Filming took place in Rome starting on 9 August 2012. It premiered at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival where it was screened in com ...
'', which won
Best Foreign Language Film
This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards.
Best Actor/Best Actress
*See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...
at the
86th Academy Awards
The 86th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2013 and took place on March 2, 2014, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m. ...
.
In 2018, Borsalino celebrates its deep and lasting relationship with the world of cinema by introducing The Bogart by Borsalino, a special collection dedicated to Humphrey Bogart, the great Hollywood actor. The hats collection is created in collaboration with Humphrey Bogart Estate.
Borsalino and design
In 2009, Borsalino was included by the Triennale Design Museum in Milan among quintessential Italian icons in the 'Serie Fuori Serie' exhibition. The exhibition was replicated in March 2017 at the
National Museum of China
The National Museum of China () flanks the eastern side of Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China. The museum's mission is to educate about the arts and history of China. It is directed by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People's Republic ...
in Beijing.
The Chapeau Lamp (2014) designed by
Philippe Starck
Philippe Starck (; born 18 January 1949) is a French industrial architect and designer known for his wide range of designs, including interior design, architecture, household objects, furniture, boats and other vehicles.
Life
Starck was born on ...
for Flos and the sculpture The Hatband(2016) by
Moritz Waldemeyer are both tributes to Borsalino.
Borsalino and fashion
Borsalino has been collaborating with some of the most important names in the fashion system since the beginning of the millennium. These have led to the creation of capsule collections with
Nick Fouquet,
Tom Ford
Thomas Carlyle Ford (born August 27, 1961) is an American fashion designer and filmmaker. He launched his eponymous luxury brand in 2005, having previously served as the creative director at Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent. Ford wrote and directe ...
,
Gianni Versace
Giovanni Maria "Gianni" Versace (; 2 December 1946 – 15 July 1997) was an Italian fashion designer, socialite and businessman. He was the founder of Versace, an international luxury-fashion house that produces accessories, fragrances, make-u ...
,
Krizia
Krizia is a designer label and manufacturer of ladies' handbags, clothing, footwear and perfumes. The ready-to-wear fashion label was established in 1954 in Milan, Italy, by Mariuccia Mandelli (1925–2015). Her husband Aldo Pinto was chairman of ...
,
Valentino,
Moschino
Moschino () is an Italian luxury fashion house founded in 1983 by Franco Moschino in Milan known for over-the-top, campy designs. The company specializes in ready-to-wear, handbags, and fashion accessories.
History Founding and 1990s
Franco Mosc ...
,
Yohji Yamamoto
is a Japanese fashion designer based in Tokyo and Paris. Considered a master tailor alongside those such as Madeleine Vionnet, he is known for his avant-garde tailoring featuring Japanese design aesthetics.
Yamamoto has won notable awards for ...
,
Marni
The name Marni originates from several languages, including Hebrew, meaning "rejoice", and Latin as a variant of " Marina", meaning "of the sea". It also has derivations from Gaelic and Swahili. "Marni" and "Marnie" are the two most common spell ...
,
Gianfranco Ferré
Gianfranco Ferré (; 15 August 1944 – 17 June 2007) was an Italian fashion designer also known as "the architect of fashion" for his background and his original attitude toward creating fashion design.
Early life and education
Ferré was born ...
,
Rochas
Rochas is a fashion, beauty, and perfume house founded in 1925 by French designer Marcel Rochas, the first designer of 2/3-length coats and skirts with pockets and one of the two designers, along with Elsa Schiaparelli, who launched the fashion fo ...
,
Italia Independent
Italia Independent Group S.p.A. is a holding corporation for an Italian company that produces and distributes eyewear and sunglasses.
History
The brand Italia Independent was founded in 2007 by Lapo Elkann, Andrea Tessitore and Giovanni Acc ...
and
DSquared.
See also
*
Fedora
A fedora () is a hat with a soft brim and indented crown.Kilgour, Ruth Edwards (1958). ''A Pageant of Hats Ancient and Modern''. R. M. McBride Company. It is typically creased lengthwise down the crown and "pinched" near the front on both sides ...
*
Boss of the Plains
The Boss of the Plains was a lightweight all-weather hat designed in 1865 by John B. Stetson for the demands of the American West. It was intended to be durable, waterproof and elegant. This design and the term "Stetson" eventually became all-bu ...
*
Homburg (hat)
A homburg is a semi-formal hat of fur felt, characterized by a single dent running down the centre of the crown (called a "gutter crown"), a wide silk grosgrain hatband ribbon, a flat brim shaped in a "pencil curl", and a ribbon-bound trim abo ...
*
Pork pie hat
A pork pie hat is one of several different styles of hat that have been popular since the mid-19th century. It features a flat crown that resembles a traditional pork pie.
Buster Keaton and the 1920s
The pork pie began to appear in Britain a ...
*
Stetson
Stetson is a brand of hat manufactured by the John B. Stetson Company. "Stetson" is also used as a generic trademark to refer to any campaign hat, in particular, in Scouting.
John B. Stetson gained inspiration for his most famous hats when he ...
*
Trench coat
A trench coat or trenchcoat is a variety of coat made of waterproof heavy-duty fabric, originally developed for British Army officers before the First World War, and becoming popular while used in the trenches.
Originally made from gabardine, ...
*
Trilby
A trilby is a narrow-brimmed type of hat. The trilby was once viewed as the rich man's favored hat; it is sometimes called the "brown trilby" in Britain Roetzel, Bernhard (1999). ''Gentleman's Guide to Grooming and Style''. Barnes & Noble. and ...
*
Tyrolean hat
The Tyrolean hat (german: Tirolerhut, it, cappello alpino), also Bavarian hat or Alpine hat, is a type of headwear that originally came from the Tyrol in the Alps, in what is now part of Austria, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. It is an essenti ...
*
List of headgear
This is an incomplete list of headgear (anything worn on the head), both modern and historical.
Hats
File:Akubra-style hat.jpg, Akubra
File:98-5-E Helmet, Flight, U.S. Army Air Corps, Type A-II (5123665596).jpg, Leather flight helmet
File:Balm ...
*
Cap
A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...
References
External links
Borsalino website
{{Authority control
Hat companies
Clothing brands of Italy
Clothing companies established in 1857
Italian companies established in 1857
High fashion brands
Luxury brands
Haute couture
Alessandria
fr:Borsalino (chapeau)