HAT-STORY: Borsalino Foundation and the City of Alessandria teamed up for a latest museum, which is able to value the heritage of the historic hatmaker.

The exhibition is ready to open to visitors on Wednesday, while the official inauguration will happen a day earlier. The museum will showcase the history of the home ranging from 1857 up until the current day.

The museum is split in three fundamental sections: “Antica Casa,” a multimedia installation that traces the fundamental stages within the history of Borsalino, exploring the link with the encircling territory; “Manifattura,” dedicated to the hat production processes, the hat-making techniques of the artisans from Alessandria; and the “Galleria” section, which includes a display of greater than 2,000 hats, organized into eight narrative paths. These include, amongst others, Borsalino and Women, Divine Hats and Travel with Borsalino.

The space covers almost 6,700-square feet and features a café and a present shop.

Visitors will give you the option to see the gathering of Borsalino hats donated by family heir Giovanna Usuelli Borsalino in 1994, with 200 latest additional models collected by the Borsalino Foundation.

​​“This Museum preserves the memory of Borsalino and can encourage the long run of the corporate. It has firm roots in Alessandria within the historic headquarters of Palazzo Borsalino, and was conceived to be an progressive space, in a position to dialogue with the world,” said Philippe Camperio, president of the Borsalino Foundation, in a press release.

Philippe Camperio is executive chairman of the Borsalino brand since 2018, when Haeres Equita, the private equity group he leads, won the auction arrange by the label’s administrators through a deal valued at 6.4 million euros. Haeres Equita ended the troubled journey that began in December 2015 when it first took over the hatmaker, which had been hit by financial problems following the arrest of previous owner Marco Marenco for fraudulent bankruptcy and tax evasion related to an internet of holdings.