The Legendary Borsalino Hat Is Set To Rock The World Again
After Six years of bankruptcy, the Italian manufacturer Borsalino, whose hats were popular among celebrities like Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Michael Jackson and many more, returned to the limelight.
The Franco-Italian financier Philippe Camperio managed to relaunch sales and reawaken the elegance of Borsalino hats, whose origin dates back to 1857 when Giuseppe Borsalino founded it.
Borsalino hats are manufactured in Alessandria, Italy, through a production process that combines an industrial perspective and artisan spirit, which for felt hats uses more than 50 manual steps and seven weeks of processing.
Surprisingly, these ancestral techniques are developed according to an immutable scenario, without changes since the brand’s founding. The appointment of a former Chanel employee, Jacopo Politi, as the head stylist in 2022 breathed new life into the hatter, who will turn 166 on April 4. According to the stylist, the relaunch of Borsalino will benefit from the enthusiasm that aroused the hat in the early 2000s.
“During the movement of May 1968, it was decreed that the hat was corny and locked him in a closet. But now it’s very fashionable again,” he insists. In addition to young people, the brand seeks to attract more women, whose revenue sharing went from 20 per cent to 50 per cent. “Our objective is to increase their participation to 60 per cent of 65 per cent”, explains Philippe Camperio to AFP.
Borsalino was in debt of 36.9 million dollars (about 30 million pounds) at some time due to the bad practices of the company’s former boss, Marco Marenco, who was sentenced in 2016 to five years in prison for fraudulent bankruptcy.
But things have changed. Each year, 180,000 Borsalinos are produced and sold for an average of $325. (263 pounds). Some models cost more than $1,000 (808 pounds), such as the extra-fine Montecristi of Panama, the most expensive of all, which takes six months to make and sells for $1,790. (1,447 pounds).
More than 2,000 iconic hats from the group’s history were displayed in the new Borsalino museum, which will open on April 4 in Alessandria.
