Fur Vision 22: Altile and the magic of cutwork

In this year’s Fur Vision collection, we have teamed up also with Italian fur manufacturer Altile. Digitally cut mink has been a growing trend, especially in our collections and we can see that demand for it is getting stronger and stronger every year. This resulted in a brilliant idea, and we decided to do something really special this year. In this article we introduce Altile and give you a chance to learn to know the brand through a small interview with one of the owners Barbara Pasquinelli. To a question – When did she fall in love with fur as a material? Barbara said: “I grew up looking at furs and touching these materials. They are familiar to me, and they just flow through my veins.”

 

Altile was born in 1976 in Italy, from the idea of two fur artisan brothers who decided to open an independent activity of furrier laboratories. At that time the brothers were just in their twenties. Quite fast, already in the 80s, this small lab became a fur atelier which was well known and appreciated by an increasing customer base. Also, at that time the company grow with the first employees, who have stayed in the company for more than forty years!

During the 90’s Altile started its cooperation with some of the most important fashion and luxury brands including Fendi, Brunello Cucinelli, Loro Piana, Masserano Cachemire, Owenscorp, Ralph Lauren and Christian Dior, just to name few, and since then had the chance to develop the most refined techniques which lead to the creation of a huge model archive with hundreds of different styles.

Since 2010, Altile has invested in high technology programming machines capable of doing every kind of cutwork on different materials and fur naps. This has made Altile the only company being able to meet any demand and resulted in cooperation with more than 100 customers, including main luxury and high-fashion brands.

 

  1. Why do you choose Saga Furs and how the Fur Vision collaboration started in the first place?

Saga Furs is the world’s largest and most important fur auction house, from which Altile has been buying the raw material from for years already. Fur Vision cooperation on the other hand was born a bit by chance, but it is the result of deep esteem from both companies, and thanks to the intermediation of the broker Alex Tarantola who introduced me to Saga Furs Creative Hub.

 

  1. What kind of manufacturing are you specialized in and what did you do for Saga Furs Fur Vision 22 collection?

We specialize in very high Italian manufacturing, capable of combining fur with any other type of noble or not noble material. For Saga Furs we have developed the technique called cad perforations.

 

 

  1. What has been the most memorable collaboration you have achieved so far? Or maybe, which one are you most proud of?

The long-term collaboration with one of the most important Italian brand, known all over the world, Brunello Cuccinelli, has helped our company to grow a lot over the years and has opened up important job opportunities, not only in the production of outerwear, but also in merchandising and home. This has also helped us to start the cooperation with other important fashion and home wear brands.

 

  1. What is your opinion on sustainability in fur?

For Altile, and overall, I think it’s important to have correct information in the market about animal welfare and sustainability where product traceability plays an important role. And yes, that is also one important reason why Altile choose to work with Saga Furs.

 

  1. What are your wishes and goals?

The Altile’s goal is to open up as much as possible to the Middle Asian, Asian and Russian market. With this in mind, we immediately welcomed with enthusiasm the Saga’s proposal to collaborate in Fur Vision 22 collection and to create a capsule of objects made with the Saga Furs mink and to show our skills and our know-how in this way.

 

For more inspiration and craftsmanship goals, please visit Altile’s website and watch the behind the scenes video on their homepage here!