INNOVATION CREATED BY A SOLID TRADITION
THE ORIGINS OF STUDIOART
The Italy of 1945 was a destroyed country that had recently gotten out of the war. There was no work, even if you looked for it; just countryside, earth, and poverty. Giuseppe Dalle Mese (or Beppin, as he was known to his parents), born into a peasant family in the Veneto Region, wasn't satisfied, and wished for a new future. As a young and strong 17-year-old, Beppin left the farm and his family. He went north, crossing the Alps and all of France on foot until he reached Le Havre, in Normandy.
Life was hard: the red-hot furnaces of the steel mills facing the ocean, in the mill twisting iron by day, sleeping and eating in the barracks with his companions. But Giuseppe immediately figured it out and put his heart and soul into it, and sent the money earned home.
He thought constantly about his home and his family. And so in the end he decided to return to Arzignano, but not to the life of the fields. In 1950, he left Le Havre on his bicycle, crossed France, and arrived in Arzignano. He could finally embrace his family and his beloved Margherita again, who had waited for him all that time.
Bepi found work in one of the first tanneries of the century, and learned how to tan hides there. At the time, the Chiampo Valley was filled with artisans, and the entire area was a huge laboratory of hides. Over the years, Bepi mastered the craft, and came to be the guardian of tanning secrets over time. Bepi was truly talented and his superiors promoted him higher and higher until he became director of operations. It could have been enough. But no, he had an even bigger dream to fulfill.
iuseppe wasn't afraid of taking risks. In 1962, Giuseppe opened a small Tannery with two associates, and in 1967 he founded the Conceria Montebello, his own Tannery. And he never stopped.
He tanned and refinished hides for shoes, furniture, clothing and leather goods. He used his intuition and intelligence to overcome adversity, and didn't miss a beat. He invested his profits in more modern machines. His company grew and grew some more. And after only a few years, his hides had crossed the Alps and were established throughout Europe, and across the Ocean in the Americas. In 1977, the Conceria Montebello Tannery became a joint-stock company (Società per Azioni)
THE CONCERIA MONTEBELLO TANNERY TODAY
Business went on and profits increased. But he didn't even realize it, because he was still looking to the future. And thus, Giuseppe Dalle Mese created his second masterpiece, his Family. He sent his children off to study without much discussion, because he knew that his elementary-school education was no longer enough. And he travelled the world.The world is now much smaller than when he was young, but still it teaches us how to live, and how to become men
Franco Dalle Mese, a production expert and a researcher of new, revolutionary trends, now has become an integral part of the team. Relationships and collaborations with designers and trendsetters have become more intense. Together they study values and create concepts, in order to offer the fashion houses a product that is qualitatively impeccable and full of fascination and suggestiveness.
Powerful investments have been made since 2000: environmental certification, quality certification, refurbishment of machinery, restructuring of buildings and logistics, and constant staff training. Nadia Dalle Mese, a successful architect, transformed the buildings into works of notable design. It is the crowning achievement of a story.
Giuseppe died in 2002, but his children, Franco and Nadia, carry forward the values that Bepi lived for. Today, the leathers of the Conceria Montebello Tannery, which arrive from markets in America, Asia, and the Far East, are chosen for the production of precious leather accessories by great fashion houses such as Chanel, Ralph Lauren, Gucci, and many others. But this is not enough for Nadia and Franco. They decide to make available to the world of interior decoration and furniture design the wealth of creativity, innovation, and savoir-faire encapsulated in the Tannery's immense sample book, and thus breathe life into a new company dedicated to these markets: Studioart.
Today, the family's companies employ more than 600 people in Italy and around the world and a third generation of Dalle Meses is now involved in the business.
