Tessitura Busatti

Soft, unique fabrics that are almost impossible to find elsewhere. Exquisite, elegant products ready to embellish the houses of the entire world. Anghiari, a characteristic Tuscan medieval village that is famous for the battle between the Milanese and Florentine armies in long-ago 1440, is also the place where the Tessitura Busatti firm, the first ultra-centenarian enterprise in the province of Arezzo to become a member of UIST Unione Imprese Storiche Toscane, has been operating under the banner of quality and artisan originality since the middle of the 19th century.
The history of the Busatti ‘entrepreneurs’ has distant origins, and is strongly rooted in this industrious and genuine Tuscan province that, within a radius of barely 100 kilometres, witnessed the birth of illustrious personages of the calibre of Piero della Francesca, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Guido Monaco, and St Francis.
ThIt was the enterprising ancestors, Niccolò and Giuseppe Busatti, who came from the Valdarno in the second half of the 18th century, who opened a bakery inside Porta Fiorentina in Anghiari. Thanks to the success of their initiative, Niccolò’s son Mario, subsequently inaugurated his own business of selling various products: he opened a shop at the top of Borgo della Croce in Anghiari. Mario Busatti, born in 1800, then enlarged the shop and interpolated the first textile machines, while his brothers continued their work as bakers, and opened another bakery in the same Borgo della Croce in Anghiari.
With the passing of the years, the Busatti’s textile business took shape, thanks also to the work of several families in the village who, since they owned a loom, worked hemp and linen fibres supplied by Mario Busatti. It was in fact Mario who introduced new production techniques, as well as the sale of rough cloth made of local wool, blankets and clothing. During the same period, Gregorio Busatti, Giuseppe’s brother, travelled much of Europe (in particular, Vienna, Augusta, and Paris), thus coming to learn the art of tailoring and the new textile techniques which his brother Giuseppe and nephew Livio would then develop.
“For the generations that preceded me and for those who already worked with me in the firm, living and working inside Busatti’s was a continuous refining of taste,” said Giovanni Sassolini, who is currently the head of the company. “It was like a good wine that enters the oak barrels when it is strong and undecipherable, and comes out with a vast spectrum of perfumes and flavours. The good and the beautiful reserve for us always newer thrills, and only what continues to please becomes tradition.”
The Busatti workshop, which still maintains its seat in Anghiari, in the cellars of the Morgalanti palace with its sober 16th-century lines, now filters the centuries-old experience and refinement of the people who work there with great competence and enthusiasm. Just think, it is often said that “I work with Busatti, not for Busatti”, as confirmation of that consolidated family-like relationship between the firm and its employees.
The watchword has always been to never repudiate origins, good taste, and quality. Ancient carding machines work the rustic wool of the Apennines that are located between the Tiber and Arno rivers. Shuttle looms, the children of the first industrial revolution, slowly insert the wefts, conferring on the fabrics that softness which now is unobtainable in modern times. Expert hands refinish and embellish these products with gigliucci [[a type of open hem], open hems, embroideries, and laces.
The success of the Busatti fabrics lies not only in that qualitative feedback that arrives from its international clientele, but also in the numbers: 42 sales points in Italy and 21 all over the world (from Australia to Russia, from Finland to Japan, arriving even in the United States).