Simon Giuliani, Global Marketing Director at Candiani Denim, was featured in Storie d’impresa, the new format of oltrelamedia.tv hosted by Andrea Crocioni, to discuss Italian companies’ creativity, innovation, and sustainability. From the history of the mill to its future goal, let’s see the main topics of the episode.
Tessitura di Robecchetto Candiani was born in the area of origin of jeans
Our company was founded in 1938 as Tessitura di Robecchetto Candiani “to differentiate the business of the Candianis from Robecchetto from what the other Candianis in the area made. Seventy years later, there were no other Candianis in the textile industry, and we decided to change our name to Candiani Denim, so nobody wondered anymore if Mr. Candiani’s name was Robecchetto”, said Simon Giuliani.
Since our foundation, we have distinguished ourselves from the other denim manufacturers because “Candiani represents tradition since the denim fabric as we know it was produced for the first time in Genoa. Nowadays, we are the only mill that still makes it in the territory where it was born, and we blend this tradition with sustainable innovation, which today is an added value and in which we are the industry leader. From father to son, the Candiani family handed down not only product and business management expertise but especially the innovation spirit, fostered by the area where we are headquartered, that in 1974 became the first regional park in Italy”.
This textile tradition is also passed down in the entire community around the mill, making “people its heartbeat. I always use an example: we have four departments and one male and female soccer team in each, and there are tournaments. There’s a beautiful 1981 photo of the female spinning team, which played against the dyeing department. We photographed the same people in 2021; they are still in the company. There’s an attachment that means social responsibility with the employees; a sense of belonging and a symptom of work appreciation; hence, introducing relatives who could live the same experience is still common”.
Candiani’s custom jeans summarize Made in Italy, sustainability, and innovation
Made in Italy, innovation, and sustainability are Candiani’s founding values. “Talking about Made in Italy, people make the company; without them, we couldn’t produce where we are. There’s a powerful textile heritage in the area. The skills to make and understand the product are passed down. Innovation was accelerated by the fashion industry, in addition to the Candiani family. We manufacture at the gates of Milan, where the fashion industry was already lively in 1938, and fashion houses already existed, while the denim made in the United States was only a workwear fabric. Since we presented to maisons, there was always the demand for something new season after season. This is also part of Made in Italy: creativity blended with high-quality textile engineering. Those who still produce in Italy have to be innovative and develop what you cannot find anywhere else, and sustainability pairs with innovation”, explained Simon, who added that, in the future, “we want to be the ingredient giving an added value to a brand’s garments. We desire to be an element that influences the choice of a jean by the final consumer”.
The perfect example of how these three values can be combined to make a finished product is the Candiani Custom micro-factory in piazza Mentana, 3, Milan, where only custom, made-to-measure, and on-demand jeans are produced. “We built an alternative model to the classic jeans store, in which we re-engineered the industrial production of a pair of jeans to a store’s size. We offer verticalization, from cotton seed to finished garment, and have the world’s shortest supply chain in the industry and, hence, the lowest carbon footprint. The result is a garment you only own worldwide and grow fond of. We believe that giving back their value to garments is fundamental to make people buy less, desire more what they are purchasing, and make it last more”.
The full episode is available here.