Since its beginnings, Hast has built a fine and enduring relationship with Albini, a historic Italian mill specialising in fabric manufacture. It is with fabrics from Albini that a portion of the shirts in our successive collections are made.
Founded in 1876, Albini and its various workshops are based around the aptly named Albino, a small Lombard town nestled in a valley where the Alps reveal their final peaks. From the balconies, one can admire a majestic mountain belt standing silent guard. In Albino, the houses have pastel walls and there are as many cafés as ancient stone convents with gilded accents, inside which graceful Madonnas are revered.
In addition to other sites located in southern Italy and abroad, Albini manages its spinning, finishing, and final product inspection here, working with cotton as well as linen and lyocell, a new fibre made from eucalyptus. In total, Albini produces around fourteen million metres of fabric each year. We went behind the scenes of this manufacture to show it to you in detail in 2017: Watch the video.
Yet for several days now, in those places where machines usually draw the thread and spin the bobbins at full tilt in a joyful racket, almost nothing remains but silence.
The Coronavirus struck and forced everything to a halt, closing everything down. Lockdown took over. Albino, after all, is situated close to the Italian epicentre of the virus. The town even made headlines after Russian soldiers clad in protective suits resembling diving gear were called in to thoroughly disinfect a care home where 35 residents had died from the virus. A few days ago, we spoke by phone with Toni, Albini's representative in France, to understand the various impacts of the crisis on the company's business and ambitions.
How did Albini handle the lockdown requirements imposed by the outbreak of the Coronavirus?
Here, the lockdown took place in two stages. First, just as in France now, public venues, restaurants, and shops of all kinds were closed. At that point, industries deemed "non-essential", which includes us, could still operate, provided they complied with safety standards in force, from social distancing to masks for every employee. At Albini, the fabric quality control teams, for instance, continued their work. That said, whereas three shifts normally rotate, only one remained—the morning shift. Meanwhile, all marketing staff were working remotely.
We must design fabrics that are not only beautiful, but also protective. From that perspective, this is a revolutionary moment. The crisis must prompt a complete rethink of our industry.
Since 26 March, we have entered the second phase of the fight against Covid-19: Italy has imposed a nationwide lockdown and all our sites are closed. The only thing Albini can do today is deliver the finished products already on its order book. We can cut the fabrics to pack and dispatch them. We can also ensure the proper receipt of materials we had previously ordered. But that is all. The finishing machines are currently at a standstill, and there is no testing or inspection taking place.
What, in reality, are the economic consequences of this sudden shutdown?
Today, nothing is leaving the shops. To be honest, the hardest part is yet to come. We are only at the beginning of a downturn and no one knows when this will end. So, we try to hold on to whatever we can. A few days ago, news reached us from China: there, on its first day of reopening after the lockdown, a Hermès boutique generated over 2.5 million euros in sales. In a single day! It certainly offers a glimmer of hope.
In Europe, perhaps there will be some so-called "revenge buying" right after lockdown ends. People will want to spend to make up for everything they could not do before, to celebrate the return to freedom, much like at the start of the sales. But that will not last; it will be a wave that quickly subsides.
Quite simply because we will then face significant economic challenges. Some will have seen their wages cut due to the crisis, others will have lost their jobs. People will have other priorities than consuming clothes thoughtlessly. We will undoubtedly need to embrace the philosophy of less but better, for the long term.
Did the Albini mill consider reinventing itself, like all those garment manufacturers that shifted to mass-producing masks for healthcare workers?
At the start of the crisis, the company received several requests, including many from French clients, asking whether it was possible to produce fabric to make masks for healthcare workers. At the time, we only had poplin available, in various weave densities, which was not always ideal for making truly effective medical-grade masks, though certainly useful for the general public.
These are initiatives we will continue and refine over time, and especially in this period, we hope this will inspire other workshops, clients, and consumers!
We made a few deliveries of fabrics that we felt were of high quality to companies that usually act as subcontractors in the luxury sector.
Lately, there has been much discussion about the link between the current pandemic and the environment. What is Albini's approach to sustainability?
In recent years, there has been much talk about using organic fibres. These have the clear advantage of having a less aggressive impact on the planet. We chose to use American cotton because its production is supported by an unfalsifiable traceability system in the form of a DNA footprint. Once the product is finished, woven, dyed, and sewn, it is possible to trace the exact origin of the cotton, which is not the case for most textiles today.
We have also looked into recycling cotton without adding synthetic materials. For the past 2 seasons, we have been offering shirt fabrics in 100% cotton, with 60% recycled cotton. We are working to make these recycled fabrics finer, with higher yarn counts and thus a more luxurious feel, without making them any more delicate. These are initiatives we will continue and refine over time, and especially in this period, we hope this will inspire other workshops, clients, and consumers!
