What do America, X-rays and Cognac have in common? They have all been discovered – or invented – thanks to luck, chance or bizarre events, while trying to achieve a completely different result. The writer Horace Walpole coined the term serendipity to define this phenomenon. Which played a key role in the history of the first colored shearling. Would you like to know more?
Founder of Christia, Manlio Sorio is the inventor of the first women’s shearling outerwear and – together – the first man to introduce color in shearling coats. In this unedited interview, Mr. Sorio reveals for the first time how his innovations took place, between his passion for Monica Vitti’s films and a very lucky domestic accident
Christia was founded in 1968 by Manlio Sorio, who had the idea of starting an artisan workshop of leather and sheepskin garments. The small initial laboratory grew over the years to become a leading company on a national level in the production of high quality garments.
Mr. Sorio’s intuition was to change the customer’s perception of the sheepskin jacket, managing to create light and warm garments that served not only to protect themselves from the cold, but which became elegant and feminine garments to show off both on social occasions how formal.
At the beginning of the 80s, flanked by a young emerging designer of the time, Flavio Napoleone of the Moschino group, he began to research and select materials collaborating with the most famous Spanish tanneries of those years to be able to tan exclusive leathers and with the characteristics of lightness and softness that had long been in the minds of the operators but that no one had yet managed to achieve.
With these high quality leathers it was a game to create unique elegant and feminine sheepskin garments. After the mid-80s, the Christia collections made themselves known outside the Italian borders and in a few years the brand would be present in all the main world markets by participating in important fashion events throughout Europe and overseas; in 1994 Christia was one of the first companies to enter the Chinese market by participating in fairs and organizing fashion shows in Beijing.
At the base of each creation, the company has always wanted to maintain the essential characteristics of lightness, softness and elegance. The handcrafted production is also a peculiarity that Christia continues to defend. Every single garment is handcrafted by expert people: the selection of the hides, the cut, the sewing, the finishing and the final control are activities performed by hand and under the constant control of the production manager, who ensures that every jacket comes out perfect from our warehouse.
Each garment is designed to be built manually by expert personnel; after the first check in the tannery, we proceed to another meticulous selection and only then do the hides move on to cutting. The garments are cut one by one by checking both the external and internal parts, then we move on to the packaging and the various finishes (embroideries, carvings, weaves, etc.), rigorously handmade; finally we move on to the finishing phase in which the buttons are attached. The whole process is constantly monitored by the production manager who carries out the final test before packing.
Request your copy of the Christia 2020 Catalog now containing the new Collection and all the details on the different Atelier Christia models reserved for authorized boutiques.
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