History Chapter 1

HISTORY CHAPTER 1 3 1821 - 1850 The history of the Lane Borgosesia wool actually in Borgosesia by the Sesia River mill originates with ties to the name of where the periodic shearing of the she- the Antongini family. ep and the washing of the wool occur- Carlo Antongini (1797-1886), who was red. probably connected with the insur- On January 30, 1850 the firm of F.l- rection movements of that period, left li Antongini & Comp. was founded, by Milan and settled in Arona which at the the Antongini brothers: Tomaso, Carlo, time bordered with the Reign of Sar- Gaetano, Cesare and Alessandro with dinia. Once reunited with his brother their partner from Milan, Zucchetti. The Alessandro, Carlo Antongini left Arona business of the firm at that time was and sought refuge in Switzerland. Fol- the same as what appears today on lowing the advice of Castellani, a salt the statute of the Zegna Baruffa Lane Carlo Antongini dealer in Valsesia with a warehouse in Borgosesia S.p.A. company, “a worsted Arona, Carlo moved to Borgosesia per- spinning mill”. manently. 1848 was the year when the first plans were undertaken to establish a worsted spinning mill of the English type, following the example of the Preyssel brothers whom Antongini had met in Linate. The area of Valsesia proved to be parti- cularly suitable because it was located along the route of flocks of sheep mi- grating to the Biella district, and it was 4 5 1860 – 1872 With a promissory note worth £ 510.000 factory workers and damaging the ma- (lira), and putting the company capital chinery. Consequently, it was decided at risk the Antongini brothers became to move the plant to a safer area known involved in a singular event that cha- as “Cerchi” in Borgosesia, on the left racterized the history of patriotic Italy. bank of the Sesia River. The promissory note served as a gua- The Antongini went on to purchase “Mu- rantee to the Rubattino company of lino Castellani”, a mill in Ponte Agnona Genoa for the use of two ships (the Pie- with its corresponding water supply, monte and the Lombardo) for the expe- which was indispensible to generate dition of Giuseppe Garibaldi known as power to run the machinery in the new the “Spedizione dei Mille”. factory. At the end of 1864 the Antongini com- The plant was inaugurated in 1870 and pany was dissolved and on January 1, at the same time the site of the Aranco 1865 the Antongini & Sciomachen com- plant was purchased, which up to that pany was founded. time had been leased from Giovanni Aj- It was a brief partnership because the mone. Sciomachen already sold their shares in 1874. The new company participated at the Universal Exposition of Paris with hand-knitting and embroidery yarns, winning the silver medal. The factory at Aranco was flooded by the Sesia River from October 1st to Oc- tober 3rd, seriously jeopardizing the 6 7 1873 – 1890 On March 1st in the offices of Banco di installed, partially fuelled by coal and Torino, the company Società Anonima later on with heating oil, capable of Manifattura Lane Borgosesia was con- supplying the vapour necessary for the stituted. The conversion of the com- dye-house. pany from a family run business to a From this moment onward the impact corporate enterprise occurred for two of the Manifattura Lane Borgosesia on reasons: to find the enormous capital the social life of Borgosesia became necessary to complete the new plant very significant. and to increase the productivity of the company. The head office was moved As early as 1874 housing and detached to Turin to the “Banca della Piccola In- houses were built for the workers (over dustria e del Commercio”, which was 1,000 rooms) and the Casa Operaia of in turn a shareholder of the company. Aranco was opened with a capacity for In those years the old plant had 2.300 320 guests. spindles. Another 2.000 spindles were A musical band consisting of 50 ele- ordered and the plan was to purchase ments was founded in this period. Se- another 2.700 to reach a total of 7.000 veral years later a fire brigade was also spindles overall. From this point on, with started and put at the disposal of the the constitution of the new corporation, city of Borgosesia for public service. the development of the plant and the buildings was to increase at great spe- ed. The main source of energy was water power, both as mechanical power and a hydroelectric source of energy for the machinery and the lighting. Inside the plant powerful boilers were De Jongh Fréres - 1907 8 9 Photo by 1890 – 1924 In this year the wool mill was also as “The North Section” should also be equipped with a medical center which mentioned. These were purchased in also had an x-ray machine capable of 1910 from the Cotonificio Pozzi Novara supplying free health care and perma- Valsesia, and connected with the main nent assistance. The “Federazione Istru- plant by a steam powered train. zione di Previdenza” was also founded Near the railway station the “East (with a pension fund dedicated to the Section” was created which consisted elderly workers), and a sports ground of several buildings and land including and library were also financed by the a professional school bearing the name company. The “Istituto Convitto”, simi- of “Giuseppe Magni”, later transformed lar to boarding house, was built in this into a technical school which was spe- period to house the female workers cialized in weaving and spinning and coming from distant areas. It was ma- possessing all of the necessary machi- naged by the sisters of the Convent of nery. Maria Ausiliatrice, with a capacity of 400 beds, a Church and even a little theater. A day care center for 60 children was Between 1909 and 1927 two other se- also founded. mi-boarding houses were opened and they could each house respectively 150 and 300 girls, and these buildings were later transformed into housing. The facilities built by the mill to meet the needs of the workers was really on a grand scale. In addition to what has already been mentioned, a series of nine industrial constructions known 10 11 1924 – 1950 While in Borgosesia the development of it from the name of the two founding the wool industry continued at full spe- brothers, and started to produce yarns ed, in the nearby area of Biella the first for hand-knitting creating a special de- thirty years of the 20th Century were partment using machinery patented by characterized by the incessant develop- the factory to produce the first “wor- ment of new textile plants. sted angora”. In this flourishing period, which was rich During World War II, despite the diffi- in opportunities, the Albino and Alfredo culties of the times, the company con- Zegna brothers, opened two small spin- tinued to work actively further consoli- ning mills in 1924. One was located in dating its vocation towards quality high Vallemosso (in the Strona Valley) and end products. the other one was in Lessona (later on In the post-war period and in particular it was moved to Vallemosso). starting from 1950, there is a general In this period the yarn exported was no economic boom as growth and prospe- longer paid according to the price of the rity resumes. wool but on the basis of the craftsman- ship employed in the processing. It was for this reason that the company of the Zegna brothers strove to improve the crafting enabling them to sell their products at higher prices. This is how fancy yarns, bright colored crèpes and novel- ty yarns for that period were started. In the meantime the company assu- med the name of A. Zegna, changing 12 13 1963 – 1974 Giorgio and Giulio Zegna succeeded market in constant evolution, revitali- their father Albino and Uncle Alfredo, zing the sector of worsted yarns which setting as their priority the objective of had been facing competition from the advancing the already high qualitative carded sector. levels reached by the founders, expan- ding the presence of Zegna Baruffa (the new company name) in the world. De- spite the great flood which struck the Strona Valley, the Zegna Baruffa company still managed to expand the pro- duction of fantasy yarns in the plant at Vallemosso and set the basis for a significant internationalization (first Eu- ropean and then worldwide) extending commercial ties around Italy, in France, Germany, the USA and in the Far East. This is an important year for the company. In order to face the increased vo- lume of sales, Zegna Baruffa takes over the industrial part of Manifattura Lane Borgosesia and changes the trade name into ZEGNA BARUFFA LANE BORGOSE- SIA S.p.A. From this moment, through a deep restructuring of the company and its products, the company has dedicated itself to satisfying the requests of a 14 15 1980 – 1990 In the 1980s la Zegna Baruffa Lane Bor- tasy outerwear. The precise policy gosesia S.p.A. launches a product that of commercial internationalization is would become the symbol of high qua- achieved by the opening of foreign offi- lity. ces in New York, Hong Kong, Tokyo and It is called Cashwool®, a very fine linear the area of Dusseldorf, in Germany. yarn (19/19.5 micron), that even today presents characteristic of uniqueness. It is as soft as cashmere and as shiny as silk. The creation of this innovative product is flanked by another innovative (and not only by chance) way of proposing it: stock service.

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