THE STORY OF AN IDEA PASSED FROM ONE MIND TO ANOTHER
The Premoli Tailoring Workshop was founded in Sassari in 1936, however, the story of these now-iconic hats dates back to around the end of the First World War. In 1918, Francesco Bassano Premoli was already an accomplished tailor, with a clientele composed primarily of military officers and clergymen. Amid this sartorial seesaw that one might well call "War and Peace", he fell in love with the beautiful Olga Valli, daughter of a prominent fabric merchant from Iglesias. The two were soon married and moved to Cagliari, where Francesco continued his craft with such passion and talent that led to him being awarded the Cross of Merit as well as the Gold Medal at the Industrial Project Exhibition that was hosted in Rome in 1922–23.
These years of noteworthy professional success, however, were clouded by the untimely death of his young wife. With three children to care for, Francesco navigated this difficult period by throwing himself moredeeply into his work, all whilst remaining an ever-present figure for his children. During these dark days, comfort was provided by a kind neighbour, Maria Zintu, who helped Francesco look after the children with a mother’s love and provided a glimmer of emerging hope. As time went by, and as life took its natural course, Francesco married Maria and moved with the family to Sassari.
There, the Premolis first opened a fabric shop on the centrally located Via Brigata Sassari, followed by a tailoring atelier on Via Cavour. From their workshop emerged hats, clerical and military uniforms, as well as elegant civilian garments designed with Sassari’s high society in mind.
In 1932, Michele Bassano Premoli was born—the only one of Francesco’s children to inherit his father’s passion and skill for tailoring. Despite this, life had its own challenges in store for Michele: in the post-war years, just as Sassari and the country began to breathe again, he was diagnosed with a serious illness that kept him in hospital for many months. Despite this, his strong and positive spirit never wavered. During his convalescence, he taught himself to sew and began making tricorn hats for high-ranking clergy.
When his father died in 1953, Michele was still too frail to carry on the family business alone, and he was forced to close it. Despite this setback, the dream of continuing the Premoli tailoring legacy never left him.Midway through the1980s, with great courage, Michele boldly acquired the old hat shop on Via Luzzatti, in the heart of the city, as a means of fulfilling this aspiration. He renovated the premises, chose to specialise in hatmaking, and breathed new life to the business, quickly becoming a benchmark for high-end tailoring across the island.
And so, we arrive in the 2000s.
On the verge of retirement, Michele was unsure whether to keep the atelier running or to close it for good. However, the Premoli passion for the craft was clearly in the blood and never far away: his children—Stefania, Nicola, and Gianfranco—decided to carry on the work, and the legacy, thus ushering in the third generation of the Premoli Hatmakers.
