Passion, ambition, creativity, and courage are the ingredients of Borsalino’s success. The brand represents Italian craftsmanship through exclusive products that have become true fashion icons worldwide.
Giuseppe Borsalino was born in Pecetto di Valenza (AL) in 1834, the son of a municipal caretaker. At thirteen, he went to Alessandria to work as an apprentice to a famous hatter. In 1850, he left Italy to go to Paris, a city at the forefront of hat-making. Here, he learnt to make hats from beaver felt and obtained the hatter’s certificate needed to start a business. In 1857, on 4 April, he registered the trademark BORSALINO Giuseppe e Fratello S.p.A., and with his brother Lazzaro, opened a workshop in Alessandria that employed ten workers and produced a dozen felt hats a day. The company’s first official trademark was registered in 1882 with the Ministry of Agriculture of Industry and Commerce of the Kingdom of Italy.
Between tradition and innovation: the years of growth
Giuseppe immediately understood the importance of innovation and invested in state-of-the-art machinery by importing it from England. Within a few years, he managed to open two factories with 1000 workers and produce 5000 hats a day. Felt hats require more than 50 manual steps and 7 weeks of work, while straw hats, woven by hand, can take up to 6 months. Success was immediate, and the word Borsalino became one of the entries in the Oxford Dictionary to indicate a ‘common name for a broad-brimmed felt hat’.
The (male) model referred to in the dictionary was created specifically to allow it to be easily removed in the presence of a woman, as required by etiquette, thanks to a particular conformation of the top.
In 1900, Giuseppe’s son, Teresio Giuseppe Lazzaro, took over the company. Giuseppe’s succession was not peaceful. Teresio battled for years with his cousin Giovanni Battista, the son of Giuseppe’s brother and partner, who opened a new factory using the family name. The quarrel was finally settled in 1905, and it was Teresio who won the day, with the establishment of a new company called ‘Antica casa Borsalino Giuseppe e fratello Fabbrica di Cappelli in Alessandria founded in 1857’.
An enlightened businessman
By 1914, Borsalino was producing 2 million hats a year, and by 1929 – after the inevitable crisis caused by the war – 60% of production was destined for export. An enlightened entrepreneur, Teresio realised philanthropic works for the benefit of the entire community, such as the Alessandria aqueduct, and services for his company’s workers, from a nursery school to a health insurance company. In 1924, he was appointed senator for life.
Marriage to Hollywood
In the post-war period, Hollywood fell in love with this accessory and proposed it on the heads of the protagonists in all the most successful films. In particular, the image of Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in the final scene of ‘Casablanca’ will remain unforgettable. Still, the collaboration between the fashion house and the cinema lasted over time, and among the last to wear a Borsalino on the big screen was Toni Servillo in ‘La Grande Bellezza’ by Paolo Sorrentino.
New products, same quality
In 1950, the women’s line was also born, while in 1970, Borsalino was the first luxury brand to grant rights to the cinema for the film ‘Borsalino’, directed by Jacques Deray and inspired by the lives of Paul Carbone and François Spirito, two prominent members of the underworld in 1930s Marseilles.
In 1980, another unforgettable product was born: the Borsalino Panama, made from fine straw from Ecuador according to traditional manufacturing methods.
Today, Borsalino, after going through a deep crisis, has been taken over by the Italian fund HAERES EQUITA S.R.L. The company, still based in Alessandria, has a hundred employees, with Mauro Baglietto as managing director and a turnover of millions of Euros!
Congratulations to those who put Made in Italy on the ‘heads’ of the world!!!
Learn about other outstanding companies from Piedmont.