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Feb 24 - March 3, 2002 |
The Mad Hatter of Piedmont
Giuseppe Borsalino overcomes odds to become world's most prestigious hat maker
By Antonio Maglio
Originally Published: 2002-02-03
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Giuseppe Borsalino
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Giuseppe was a kid with a quicksilver temper, and his mother often told him: "You are as mad as a hatter, and that's what you should do!" He listened to her, and founded the Borsalino hat factory.
Maybe the tale is legendary. However, it certainly is realistic, because Giuseppe Borsalino used his innate vivaciousness to build a future for himself, proving that although he could be a hatter, he wasn't that mad after all. As to his hats, they've entered fashion history as well as moviemaking history (Borsalino, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon) and Italian dictionaries (a borsalino, in Italian, is a man's hat made of felt).
Legendary tales aside, the idea of making quality hats took shape in Giuseppe's head when he was young. He understood that if he didn't find a specialization he would not go far. At 13, he left his native village, Pecetto di Valenza, on the Monferrato hills (where he was born on September 15, 1834), and went to Alessandria, where he worked as an apprentice in the hat-making workshop of Master Sebastiano Camagna. He spent four years there, learning the ropes and realizing he needed to go abroad, in France, where the best hats of the time were manufactured.
Marseilles, Aix-en-Provence, Bordeaux were the successive steps of his apprenticeship. At last, he made it to Paris, in the prestigious Berteil hat shop on Rue du Temple, where only the most luxurious hats were made and where he completed his professional training.
After spending two years there, he decided to return to Piedmont in 1856, and stayed at his sister's house in Alessandria for one day before continuing to Pecetto. Another tale is told about that stay: upon his departure, he forgot a silk foulard he had been wearing around his neck. When he returned to Alessandria, some 10 days later, he told his sister to keep the foulard: "100 years from now you'll give it to my grandchildren, so that they remember the day of my return from Paris. Today I've decided to do something that will still be here a century from now."
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