Olgiate, Comasco, Italy—E. Boselli & C. is taking advantage of a slower lingerie market to push more deeply into home fabrics under the direction of Marco De Benedetti who joined the company this past June as manager of decorative fabrics.

Boselli expects to capitalize on its expertise in producing home fabrics “with the same soft hand as its lingerie fabrics in lightweight and heavyweight variations,” says Aldo Boselli, a principal of Boselli and the fourth generation of family ownership. “Even technical fabrics will feature a soft hand including anti bacterial shower curtains and cubicle curtains for hospitals,” he says.

The 40 year old De Benedetti was export manager at Clerion for the past five years and is excited about the larger canvas he will be able to paint at Boselli, a $16 million vertical producer of plains, jacquards and curtain sheers in wide widths.

Prior to Clerion, he worked for a family business in blinds and shades. He expects to bring that expertise to Boselli and has already sold some product to the alternative window coverings industry in the USA. 

Boselli stocks raw materials at its weaving plant, which includes mostly European yarns.   It offers two to four piece minimums from stock and custom colors in two piece minimums De Benedetti will handle export markets in France, England, Spain, USA and the rest of the world to supplement efforts by Sabrina Maenetti, a 10 year veteran of Boselli export who handles sales in Italy, Germany and Switzerland.

Boselli started the home fabrics division 20 years ago and it’s about 25 percent of the total business today; De Benedetti is expected to grow this business significantly in the next five years according to Aldo Boselli, who heads up the production and administration departments of the company. He is the great grandson of the founder Enrico Boselli. Aldo’s cousin Marco handles sales for the company and shares running the overall business with Aldo.

At 117 years old, Boselli is one of the oldest textile companies in Italy with a business in outerwear, lingerie, industrial textiles and home fabrics.

“Boselli developed its silk cloth business more than 100 years ago,” Aldo points out but viscose and synthetic fabric production was developed during WWII; followed by nylon in the ‘60’s; polyester and FR came in the 70’s along with Trevira®CS for the contract market. Other eco friendly fibers at Boselli include Ingeo® by Cargill Dow and recycled polyester.

The company does its own dyeing and printing. Twisting, texturizing and spinning are also done internally. Weaving plains and jacquards is achieved in a separate factory about 60 miles from the Olgiate based headquarters.

Boselli exhibits at Proposte.