Company Museum Borsalino Museum
Alessandria, Piedmont
The Borsalino Museum, opened in 2023 in the entrance hall of the historic plant in Alessandria, tells more than 165 years of history of the hat-making company founded by Giuseppe Borsalino in 1857. The route, organised into three sections — Antica Casa, Manifattura and Galleria — displays about 2,000 of the collection's more than 4,000 hats, held in elegant Chippendale-style cases made in the 1920s by Arnaldo Gardella for the Sala Campionario showroom. Illustrated panels and videos trace the stages of felt-making and the spread of the Borsalino hat around the world, from the nineteenth century to today. A story weaving together fashion and industry for a brand that made Alessandria the world capital of the hat.