A visit to the 159-year-old company’s factory in Alessandria in northern Italy is like taking a trip back in time.5 million in 2015.“We are on the final 100m,” added Burrus.

A judge approved their proposals for repaying Borsalino’s creditors last month, effectively issuing the green light for a new chapter in the history of a company that produced two million hats a year in the 1920s.New investors ensured that did not happen and, a year on, they are banking on a revival in the company’s fortunes based on the values of craftsmanship that made the brand so successful in the first place.”Shaped by handBurrus and his business partner Philippe Camperio began the process of acquiring Borsalino in May last year with the backing of other Italian and international investors.“We really believe in the world of artisanal luxury,” he told AFP.But even the endorsement of film and music royalty could not protect the historic milliner from the consequences of reckless management.

Michael Jackson loved them, trend-setting music star Pharrel Williams is a contemporary fan and David Bowie opted for one of the Italian company’s black fedoras for what was to prove his final photo shoot. The company is still operating below its potential but things are looking brighter with the new owners anticipating sales of 17 million euros this year, up from 15.From Humphrey Bogart’s fedora in Casablanca to Harrison Ford’s lucky headgear in the Indiana Jones series, Italy’s Borsalino has been credited with producing some of the coolest hats in history.“The product is known and sells all over the world but it is perhaps seen as a little ‘old school’,” Burrus said.The water and steam-based process of turning the rabbit fur into felt and then shaping the hats to their final form is long and labour-intensive.At this time last year, with debts mounting and its former boss Marco Marenco on the run from fraud and tax evasion charges, there were fears Borsalino could go out of business altogether.The 1970 gangster film’s title was a nod to the company’s hats’ popularity with real-life mobsters like Al Capone. “We want to give it a more youthful edge.”‘Not just any old hat’In total there are 52 steps to the production of a hand-made fedora and the whole process takes seven weeks. “

We are working flat out to turn around a brand that has gone through some difficult years. There are about 80 of us in the production process and every hat goes through 80 pairs of hands.”.An expansion of the workforce is in the pipline and there are plans to target the youth, women’s and US markets while holding on to the company’s traditional customers in Europe, Japan and in Orthodox Jewish communities, which account for around 10 per cent of group sales.“The goal is to return it to its former glory and ensure a stable future for what is one of last independent luxury producers. But that is not true.But it is worth it, according to Edouard Burrus, vice-president of Haeres Equita, the investment fund that brought Borsalino back from the brink.Two of the original machines installed by the Borsalino family in 1857 are still in use in the process of transforming Belgian rabbit fur into the smooth felt used for the fedoras immortalised by the likes of Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon in Borsalino. “Every hat needs attention, needs to be handled individually and that is a lovely thing for me. The hats are created one step at a time.“Happily I am still here,” she told AFP.

“It is a short-term contract for now but we hope the new investors will keep their promises and grow the business.”All of which sounds like good news to Daniela Cona, one of the Borsalino employees who feared for her job.” With suppliers reassured about the company’s finances and once again delivering the high-quality raw materials, there is a palpable sense of relief among the Alessandria factory’s 114 employees. “We are talking about real hand-made manufacturing and attention to detail. People sometimes ask why they cost so much and say it is just a hat like any other.“I have been here for 30 years,” said Giovanni Zamirri, whose job involves the final shaping of the hats. An employee works at the Borsalino hat company’s factory in Alessandria.“It is not a mechanical job like on an assembly line,” he said.