Film Commission Torino Piemonte

IN PRODUZIONE/IN PRODUCTION
release 2015

The Borsalino hat is an icon created by the stylish film noir. During Hollywood's golden years, everyone wore a Borsalino. What few people know is that these hats were made in Alessandria, a provincial town in Northern ltaly, in a factory headed by the same family for over 120 years. It all started with Giuseppe Borsalino who, after having obtained the title of «maître Chapelier» in Paris in 1857, opened the first hat workshop in Alessandria. The hat production roses in a few years. The skilled Borsalino vendors were trained to find new markets, following the example of their master, Giuseppe Borsalino, a tireless world traveler. ln the early 20th century, the high-quality reputation of the Borsalino hat had already reached the entire world.
Teresio Borsalino, who inherited his father's company business in 1900, followed a dynamic commercial strategy, targeting new markets in the world of arts and cinema. This direction coincides in the twenties with the birth of a wealthy film industry in Hollywood and the rise of gangster figures, such as Lucky Luciano, Al Capone and John Dillinger who all wore a Borsalino. Through the noir genre films, the «Borsalino» captivated collective imagination, becoming synonymous of «hat». The common point between gangsters, and private investigators is the fedora, the police wide brimmed hat, whose shadow-making effect creates obscure characters thus increasing the sense of mystery.
Very quickly, the Borsalino spread to all the cinema genres, appearing in adventure films, romantic films, musicals. The hat defines roles, professions, styles and social classes. lt can be handled in a way that no other piece of clothing can. The hat is able to trigger passions, tears or laughter. Above all, it is a trendsetter and an essential prop in the film industry. In 1939, Teresio Usuelli succeeds his uncle as head of the brand and manages to maintain the company in spite of difficult times during WWII. However, this success slows significantly in the sixties when a cultural revolution occurs: with the move from a formal, conformist society to one of individuality and creative expression, the economic boom and the mass adoption of the car, the hat loses its daily function and sales drop within a few years. A whole generation of hatters ends, along with the family business, which is sold in 1979. Meanwhile, and thanks to the cinema, the «Borsalino» has now become a myth.