Borsalino

On 4 April 1857, Giuseppe Borsalino 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, it 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, Borsalino produced about 2,000,000 hats annually. The manufacturer 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 U.S., where the hats produced in Alessandria were adopted by the Hollywood star system.

A downsizing of the company occurred in 1950 in conjunction with the beginning of the fall into disuse of formal hats: Borsalino was thus transformed from a 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 1990s, the company changed ownership several times, ultimately being 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 managed the brand's activities since 2016, confirmed the will to continue the production, distribution and promoting activities of the forthcoming collections, keeping all employment and maintaining the production site in Alessandria. 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 for €6.4 million (US$7.4 million) to Haeres Equita.

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 close to the area of the company's original foundation. 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.