Tacchino was officially born in 1862, thanks to Giovanni Tacchino, a young boy of poor origins who left his beloved rural home and moved to Alessandria, a small town in the North of Italy that is famous for hat manufacturing.
He started working as a hatter, quickly developing great abilities in creating felt hats, and after a couple of years he decided to launch his own business together with his wife.
It all started with two shop windows in the city center and a steam table in front of our workshop. That is where Giovanni began to believe in his entrepreneurial dream and where our story originated.
Today, 150 years after it all began, thanks to the ability of four generations of dedicated hatters, Tacchino has developed this business all around the world, maintaining ancient manufacturing quality standards.
Tacchino takes care of hat lovers, guaranteeing the exclusive "Made in Italy" label for all of its collections.

Our felt hats can be made of wool, rabbit fur, beaver fur or a combination of these.
The felting process is different for wool than for fur, whose properties lend different levels of resistance and softness to the final products.
The sheep's fleece is coarse and the felting process takes place more quickly but with a lower final result. The finished product does not appear to be naturally resistant to water and is rougher than fur felt. Instead, the fur of rabbits, hares and beavers has physical and chemical characteristics that are best suited to a long felting process, thus allowing a higher-quality result in terms of strength, water resistance, softness and silkiness.

Most hats have been manufactured in the same way and in the same place for more than one hundred years.  
Tacchino's production process starts with a conical hat-body made of fur, wool or straw and terminates in a perfect hand-crafted hat ready to be worn on your head.
Stiffening, steaming, ironing, hemming, sewing and lining are the essential stages of the process. During all of these sub-processes, the materials are operated on manually or by using ancient and unique machines and tools which recreate a mystic production formula. 

Straw quality standards

Different woven straws include: shantung straw hats, Panama straw hats, palm leaf straw hats, Bangora straw hats, Guatemalan palm straw hats, treated Mexican palm straw hats.All natural straw materials are from plants that are cultivated and harvested at the proper time. The straws need to be treated properly before the weaving process begins. Some of the relevant processes here are straw stripping, washing, cooking, dyeing, and drying.
Tacchino’s manufacturing process is replicated for the production of straw hats. There are various vegetable fibers with which it is possible to create hats.

Table of Felt Quality 
ere you can learn more about the quality attributes of our most common felt hats.
The “X factor”, which you can usually find in the crown of all our products, indicates the quality of our raw materials.  
All of our fur felt hats, which have a 5X or above, are naturally water-resistant. Tacchino felt hats are guaranteed for 3 hours in pouring rain thanks to a special treatment carried out during the felting process.

Did you know that you can keep your nice new hat in tip-top condition with regular touch-ups done at home with minimal time, energy and cost?

Use only a soft-bristled brush or a damp bath towel for the daily removal of dust.
When the stains are too deep to remove by brushing, try using a small-pored rubber sponge
For the marks that sponging will not remove, sanding is the next step to take, by cautiously using a fine grit sandpaper
If your loved hat needs to be repaired or entirely reconditioned, contact us directly and we will send you a quote.