Borsalino

If you want a genuinely heritage felt hat, Borsalino is the oldest Italian company specialising in luxury hats, in business since 1857. Each felt model goes through more than 50 manual steps and roughly seven weeks of work, while hand-twisted straw hats can take up to six months. Worth comes down to whether that craft, history, and the name itself matter to you over a cheaper machine-made alternative.

A genuine Borsalino is made in Alessandria, in the Piedmont region of Italy, close to where the company was founded in 1857, and carries the registered Borsalino trademark that Giuseppe Borsalino is remembered for creating. The felt is built from fur fibres over more than 50 manual steps, so the quality of the felt and finishing is the real tell. Buy from established hatters or the official channel to be sure.

Both are storied names, so it comes down to feel. Borsalino's felt, made from fur fibres over 50-plus manual steps in Alessandria, is prized for its softness and pliability. Many wearers find Stetson hats stiffer and heavier by comparison, while Borsalino leans lighter and less structured — the choice is genuinely down to how you like a hat to sit.

The house is defined by the felt fedora. Founder Giuseppe Borsalino is remembered for creating a particular model of felt hat protected by the registered Borsalino trademark, and that felt hat became the name synonymous with the style. Straw models, hand-twisted and capable of taking up to six months to make, are the warm-weather counterpart.

Borsalino was founded on 4 April 1857, when Giuseppe Borsalino started a workshop in Alessandria, in the Piedmont region of Italy, specialising in felt hats. The company has remained based in Alessandria ever since, and in 1888 moved into a purpose-built factory on Corso Cento Cannoni. It is the oldest Italian company specialising in the manufacture of luxury hats.

A pivotal moment came in 1900, when the company won the Grand Prix — an important quality certificate — at the Paris Exposition Universelle, spreading the brand's fame globally. By the eve of the First World War, Borsalino was producing around two million hats a year and employing over 2,500 people. American and Hollywood demand cemented its reputation abroad.

Borsalino has a long bond with cinema. Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman wore Borsalino in the final scene of Casablanca, and Marcello Mastroianni in 8½ and Jean-Paul Belmondo in Breathless also wore the hats. The 1970s cult films Borsalino and Borsalino & Co. took the name with the company's blessing, and in 2018 the house launched The Bogart by Borsalino in tribute.

The craft is deliberately slow. A felt model, created from fur fibres, requires more than 50 manual steps and about seven weeks of work, while hand-twisted straw hats can take up to six months for a single hat. Borsalino has kept faith with this production process, handed down from generation to generation in Alessandria, rather than fully industrialising it.

Among Orthodox Jewish men and boys, covering the head is an identifier of religiosity, and many men in strictly Orthodox communities wear a black, wide-brimmed hat. Borsalino is one of the most popular makers for this purpose, valued for the quality and finish of its felt.

Yes. The Borsalino Hat Museum opened in spring 2006 in the company's historical headquarters on Corso Cento Cannoni in Alessandria, a joint initiative with the town council. It covers roughly 400 square metres and houses about two thousand hats, displayed in the historic Chippendale-style cabinets made in the 1920s for the factory's sample room.

Yes — since the turn of the millennium Borsalino has produced capsule collections with major fashion names including Tom Ford, Versace, Valentino, Moschino, Yohji Yamamoto, Marni, Gianfranco Ferré, Nick Fouquet, and DSquared. These collaborations keep the heritage hatmaking in dialogue with contemporary fashion.