For over a century, Borsalino hats have been donned by politicians, industrialists, composers, writers, actors and taste makers. The list of luminaries who have worn these iconic hats includes Winston Churchill, Harry S. Truman, Giuseppe Verdi and Ernest Hemingway. A Borsalino hat was the inseparable companion of Charlie Chaplin, Fred Astaire, Maurice Chevalier, and Alain Delon among many others.
Born in Alessandria, a city of hatmakers, Giuseppe Borsalino had little interest in school and began working as an errand boy and then an an apprentice at the Camagna
hat company. His interest in hatmaking and fashion took Giuseppe to Paris, where qualified as a “master hatmaker”.
Taking his knowledge of craftsmanship and style back home to Italy, Giuseppe founded his workshop in 1857. The business boomed, by 1871 it had 130 employees and a daily production of 300 hats. Soon afterwards, 60% of Borsalino’s hats were exported internationally and by the early 1920s, Borsalino was producing 2 million hats a year.
Borsalino hats are still made in Alessandria according to the techniques that have been
