Stefano Serapian
Stefano Serapian s.r.l. is an historical leather goods brand, founded in Milan in 1945.
The birth of the brand
The history of Stefano Serapian and his brother begins in Armenia, where they were born and whence they were forced to escape, in the ’20s, because of the war: they came to Italy, initially in Venice and then in Milan. In 1928 Stefano began his own activity, working on valuable leathers which he sold during his bike rides throughout Milan. One among his itineraries left him meet Gina Fiori, who became his partner in business and in life.
In 1945 he opened a custom-made atelier in the centre of the city, where Stefano and Gina worked with skilled artisans. Their creations, characterized by gaudy colors, competed for long time with the ones by Gucci and Pirovano, at least in Milan landscape; they started with the production of women bags, then they continued with small leather goods and, in last years, with men and travel bags.
The icons
In 1947 Stefano introduced the Mosaico manufacturing, made by the complex twist of thin strips made of lambskin Nappa leather: the result was an unmistakable pattern which marks the brand still today. In 1965, instead, he introduced the Evoluzione leather, whose manufacturing guaranteed a strong resistance. Moreover, Cashmere leather was characterized by an unusual softness, obtained by removing every wrinkle in the hide, which was stretched on big wood drums. Eventually, in 1972, Stepan was launched: it was a water-resistant leather thought for the travel and decorated by a S repeated on the entire surface.
The generation change
In 1972, after the death of the founder, the company switched to his son Ardavast, who was flanked by his wife Ani and who facilitated its growth. At the time the company could boast two productive establishments: the one in Milan, bigger and more up-to-date, produced for the Italian market, while the one in Varese was dedicated to export, which was mainly directed to Japan, England and America and which represented the 90 % of the annual production. Nowadays Serapian, whose headquarter is in the Milanese Villa Mozart, partners with Giovanni Nodari Serapian, who represents the third generation of the family.
Secondary activities
During the years Serapian partnered with many important fashion houses, which it produced and distributed leather goods lines to; furthermore, Ardavast is President of Stefano Serapian Foundation, which in 1997 established, in the Bologna University, an annual award to promote the knowledge of Armenian history, literature, music and cinema.
Current situation
In November 2017 Serapian was acquired by Swiss group Richemont, which kept Giovanni Nodari Serapian in the role of Head of operation. Then, in 2020, the brand launched the Grape eco-leather collection: its creations, dedicated to men and realized by sustainable processes, used vegetal-origin materials, realized by vinification wastes from North Italy. Eventually, in 2022, thanks to the partnership with Triboo, Serapian created his online shop, in order to reach a number of client as big as possible.
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Contacts: [email protected]
To read the item in Italian click here.