The emblem of the Made in Italy in the world, Alessi was founded by Giovanni Alessi in 1921 in Omegna. The company is a leader in the domain of complements for the house, cooking accessories, dining table accessories and accessories for personal care. At the beginning of its activity, most of the products were the outcome of metal cold working performed by specialized workers in the Crusinallo factory in Omegna. Still today, many products go through the same process; however, next to those, a number of other items come to life through the working of new materials that Alessi has introduced and started using and forging over time, namely plastic, glass, porcelain. Each of them features a particular manufacturing technique fine-tuned and applied at the premises of the original building and in the several production sites the company can count in different world locations. Alessi is the father of some of the most popular icons of contemporary design among which Philippe Starck’s Juicy Salif squeezers and Anna G.’s corkscrew, designed by Alessandro Mendini. Exclusive products, with a sophisticated design, selection and manufacturing of the materials.

Alessi, the factory of Italian design
Originally born as a small artisan laboratory called “Mechanic garage for the working of brass an alpaca slabs with foundry”, Alessi has always preserved that artisan character, combining it with the most modern industrial technologies, a characteristic that had established it as a truthful “Factory of the Italian design”. Starting from the ‘30s Carlo, Giovanni’s son, a very young industrial designer, initiated a fervid work to design a large number of objects by experimenting with the use of stainless steel and transforming the handcrafted production process into an industrial one. The ‘50s saw the sprouting of collaborations with external designers and a production mainly destined to hotels and bars. For the first time in 1957 some of the Alessi’s creations were selected to be exhibited at the XI Triennale of Milan, as a renowned example of an “art house” design production.

Heading the company since 1970, Alberto Alessi has been increasingly pushing the company towards pursuing an aesthetic value, besides the functional one; that has implied the constant study of the emotions an object can trigger, without overlooking the experimentation of new materials and technologies. This has been possible thanks to the collaboration with some of the most famous designers and architects on the international scene, namely Franco Sargiani, Ettore Sottsass, Richard Sapper, Achille Castiglioni, Alessandro Mendini, Aldo Rossi, Michael Graves, Philippe Starck.