Solbiati
Italian textile manufacturer of high-quality linens though it is only in recent decades that the company has focused on research into and the production of linen, becoming a world leader in the field. It was founded in 1874 in Busto Arsizio by Michele Solbiati to produce cotton, velvet, and fustian fabrics. Later, it moved to Lonate Pozzolo (Varese), sticking to the same production formula even when Leopoldo and Carlo, the founder’sons, took over the company. It was the next generation in the 1930s and 1940s — Enrico and Peppino — who introduced artificial fibers, particularly viscose. The current fourth generation — Andrea and Vittorio — entrusted the future of the company to linen, which is an extraordinary success. At the end of the 20th century, the business averaged sales of 80 billion lire a year. It produces 5 million meters of fabric a year, exporting 65% (as well as linen, it also produces cotton, wool, viscose, and viscose linen). The business carries out important research, especially into the manufacturing of overtwisted and crinkled linen threads; it uses techniques for ageing fabrics and special discoloring processes. In 1984, it patented Sasil di Erbacina, a vegetal fiber. The Lanificio Tessilclub di Prato and the Brasilian Brasperola Group are both important associated firms. Vittorio Solbiati, the current chairman, tells an anecdote: during one of his first trips to America in the 1970s, he was nicknamed John Linnen partly as a pun on his textile speciality but partly because of his physical resemblance to John Lennon. Solbiati linens were used by Bruno Munari to decorate one of his rooms in the 1988 Venice Biennale and by Luca Ronconi for the scenery of Spontini’s Vestale at La Scala.